Freak of Nature

Singer Anastacia is definitely prone to no-frills caveats: "I'm a freak of nature," she declares on her sophomore album's opening title track, "You better beware of danger." And so begins the journey into this Taylor Dayne doppelgänger's musical world, a place populated with overblown rock-funk-R&B tracks signed, sealed, and delivered with the sole intent of freakifying the Chicago-based songstress stateside (she's sold over 7 million albums worldwide). Replete with melismatic wails (on power ballads like "I Dreamed You" and "You'll Never Be Alone"), hard-edged, don't-mess-with-me manifestos ("Paid My Dues," "Why'd You Lie to Me"), and a requisite superstar cameo (Faith Evans sits in on "I Thought I Told You That"), Anastacia works the funky-white-girl thing with all she's got. And though most of her material is fairly schlocky, this onetime contestant from MTV's The Cut has a thick creamy purr of voice that carries the run-of-the-mill material and prevents the entire affair from invoking a caveat emptor. --Sylvia W. Chan