Mary J. Blige knows her listeners turn to her for drama, and that’s a problem. Her awareness of her misery-queen status bogs down her seventh album, The Breakthrough, which finds Blige just as invested in autobiography, except now she’s happy. As an album of love songs dedicated to her husband,…

As though he can’t contain his own music geekdom, techno legend Carl Craig interjects numerous hoots, hollers, and on-the-spot endorsements throughout his entry in the excellent Fabric mix series. Craig cackles, pointing out the parts he loves, and even quotes First Choice’s “Let No Man Put Asunder.” (“It ain’t over!”…

Nuh-uh, Gwen Stefani, that is not your shit. At least, according to Madonna, it isn’t. The never-hard-up-for-material girl recently told USA Today that Gwen has ripped her off. “We work with a lot of the same people. She married a Brit, she’s got blond hair, and she likes fashion,” says…

How many times have you thought, Oh, that India.Arie — she’s nothing but a bunch of hair? None? Don’t tell her that; she’s convinced everybody’s talking all this stuff about her locks. Her latest takes us on a journey through her past ‘dos via sistah-girl clichés and a gently protesting…

Ashanti is not a girl, not quite a diva, and getting better all the time. With virtually no melodic support — just Irv Gotti’s tinny drums and an electrified bass line — she turns in her strongest vocal yet. Meth barely pays her lip service, while Paul Wall champions only…

The problem with “Nasty Girl” isn’t that there are too many cooks in the kitchen — it’s that they’re all standing around a microwave. The song is entirely warmed-over. Biggie’s verse comes from Life After Death’s superior “Nasty Boy” (thought we wouldn’t notice, Diddy?), while producer Jazze Pha recycles the…

What’s sadder: the fact that the living two-thirds of TLC sound sass-free on their career’s predeath wheeze “I Bet,” or that they’ve fashioned a song out of the incidental music from their UPN reality miss, R U the Girl? All that can be said about the series “winner,” O’so Krispie,…

It’s bling love for Gwen Stefani on “Luxurious,” the fifth and second-best single from Love.Angel.Music.Baby. Gwen draws parallels between decadent love and material possessions, and so does the music — the Egyptian cotton reference weaves right into the sample of the Isley Brothers’ “Between the Sheets.” Yeah, it’s that tune…

Follow your dreams and one day you’ll be rich like Twista and Pharrell, according to the pair on “Lavish,” a Neptunes production that’s as lovely as it is unoriginal (Bobby Valentino and his damn bongos have a lot to answer for). Twista and Pharrell whiz through status symbols and brand…

The debut album from viola player and disco-dork-cum-regular-dork Kelley Polar, Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens, is a letter of acceptance to all who cut loose on the dance floor but probably shouldn’t. See, Polar is the quintessential outsider (he was kicked out of Juilliard), and Gardens’ charm is paradoxical…

If Madonna were half the intellectual she colors (sorry, colours) herself as, she’d be embarrassed by her own lyrics. The cliché-ridden, pretentious Confessions on a Dance Floor attempts to transplant Madonna’s inner life onto a spinning platform under a disco ball. But a loud club, after all, is a terrible…

Bussa Bust has the audacity to say, “‘Ey yo, Swizz, I don’t think they’re ready for this shit,” at the beginning of his very own quiet-tech track, “Touch It.” Oh yeah, we just can’t handle Swizz sampling the vocals of Daft Punk’s “Technologic” over that minimal-harsh dynamic that’s so present…

The first lady of Terror Squad knows that leaning back is no substitute for dancing. But she’s also undemanding: Her chorus command to “Put your right hand up, put your left hand up” is easier than the hokey pokey. Swizz’s production imagines Scott Storch in a suit; it’s what happens…

Sex is natural, sex is good, but rarely in pop music is it this fun: Jamie’s sweet nothings put the funny in boning (“I know you’re used to dinner and movie/Why not be my dinner while making a movie?”). Meanwhile, producer Kanye plays bongos naked in the corner and Luda…

Felix Da Housecat never met a trend he didn’t want to shack up with. Thanks to its churning guitar and hi-hat clatter on the downbeat, “Tweak!” rocks and stomps. But mostly it sucks — call it the house of a jealous producer. We’re supposed to marvel at this endlessly tweaked…

If what defines a pop star is her ability to be consistently bigger than her songs, Lisa Shaw is the anti-diva. As forgettable as she is competent, the anonymously voiced Shaw is happy to fade into the background. And what painfully pretty scenery it is. Producers Jay Denes and Eric…

A jingling keyboard, courtesy of Eddie Kendricks’s “Intimate Friends,” is a fine thing on which to base a song; TV-as-lovespeak wordplay (“Stay tuned!” “Technical difficulties!”) is not. A creepily gleeful Alicia Keys does both on the pretentious “Unbreakable,” unconvincingly casting herself as a nonceleb who mulls over modeling her relationship…

He might not have Taye Diggs’s abs, but producer Rich Harrison gives Toni Braxton exactly what she needs to get her groove back on “Take This Ring,” which counts as her best track since 2000’s “He Wasn’t Man Enough.” Against subdued go-go that would befuddle Amerie, Brax takes off her…

Smart: Mary’s command at the beginning of her take on Luther Vandross’s “Never Too Much” — “Gimme that guitar, like the original joint” — is obeyed. Not smart: The cover eschews the disco 4/4 beat for a wafer-thin break that sounds geriatric compared to the adult-friendly (albeit brilliant) original. Mary,…

What do you do when everyone’s counting on you to rouse intelligent dance music (IDM) out of its years-long slumber? If you’re the beloved Scottish duo Boards of Canada, you sit cross-legged, strumming your guitar or tapping on a dusty drum machine. Although they’ve never been as Exacto-happy as their…

The people’s diva, Mariah Carey, will endure anything for a hit, including the deluge of grease from DJ Clue’s Southern-fried “Shake It Off” remix. Jeezy gets Popeye’s chicken grime all over Mimi’s couture, while boss man Jigga uses his sixteen bars to figure out alternate hooks, all catchier than the…

The story of house music’s origins is sort of The Aristocrats for the seasoned DJ set — you know how it begins (Jack, his groove, and “Let there be house!”), you know how it ends (fresh!), so what distinguishes each version is what paves the journey. The two-CD Kings of…