Eve

Eve-olution

Interscope Records

A good collaboration…

Eve

Eve-olution

Interscope Records

A good collaboration is a work of art – especially if it gets the bodies on the dance floor. Right now Eve is the undisputed queen of the collaboration, and she has a talent for picking artists who are just the right amount of hip when the single hits the radio. Last summer, it was No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani for “(Let Me) Blow Ya Mind,” which won a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration and now Eve’s working with diva-in-training Alicia Keys who picked up five Grammys herself for her debut album Songs in A Minor.

The good news is Eve’s new single with Keys, “Gangsta Lovin’,” is just as fun and fresh on her album Eve-olution as it is on MTV. The simple, infectious chorus and slick beat make it perfect dance floor material. And Eve certainly has the “all that and a bag of chips” attitude down to a T.

However, the rest of the CD can be summed up as smoothly produced, but unremarkable.

Eve is a skilled rapper, and she knows how to meld her voice with backbeats and guitar riffs to get listeners out of their seats – although not necessarily on the first listen. Instead, Eve-olution is the type of album that has to grow on you. It’s done well enough that it all starts to sound good – if a bit similar – the third or fourth listen. “Satisfaction” and “Ryde Away,” like “Gangsta Lovin’,” are strengthened by a catchy chorus – which, really, is all we want from a song in heavy rotation on the airwaves.

And of course, any hip-hop album these days has multiple collaborations, not just one for the single. Eve-olution is no exception. “Hey Y’all,” featuring gangsta granddaddies Snoop Dogg and Nate Dogg, and “Double R What” featuring Jadakiss are two more examples of what Eve is best at – joining forces with the rulers of the music industry to keep bad beats off the airwaves. But she needs to make sure her vocal stylings work well enough to get her the hip-hop throne all to herself – if she wants it.