More great sounds from the girls

Beyoncé Knowles and Britney Spears are getting their new albums ready for release soon. Expect Adele and Lady Gaga to start production on their next outings. Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Christina Aguilera and Alicia Keys are already out and selling. Aside from them, though, there are other female artists who have new albums out. They are probably not in the same ranking as far as media interest is concerned but they do have their share of No. 1 hits and sold-out concerts.

Listening to their CDs was a most interesting experience. Nicki Minaj and Ke$ha, Monica and Brandy came along a generation apart. They perform the music of their times and it is here in their albums that we can hear how soul and dance evolved to become rap and electro, how the language turned explicit and how sexy then is now fierce. Realizing this was quite mind-blowing.

Pink Friday Roman Reloaded The Re-Up by Nicki. She is the one who has been giving the established names a big run for their money as far as selling records and concerts are concerned. Expect her stock to rise even higher with her debut next week as one of the new judges of the TV show American Idol. Feedback regarding her watchability factor is excellent. Much, much better than Paula Abdul’s and very close to Jennifer Lopez’s. So, outlandish wardrobe and big mouth and all, Nicki is looking at an excellent year career-wise.

Her latest is a truly loaded three-disc set that includes the entire Pink Friday Roman album with the big hit Starships and new extras. There is a 90-minute DVD with exclusive footage and seven new songs with lots of chart potential. One hit, the cute mover Va Va Voom, is already making waves. There are also Up In Flames; Freedom; Hell Yeah featuring Parker; High School feat. Lil Wayne; I’m Legit feat. Ciara; I Endorse These Strippers feat. Tyga and Brinx; and The Boys feat. Cassie.

Warrior by Ke$ha. She was the Animal and Cannibal whose song Tik Tok outsold and outplayed all others two years ago. To her credit, she was no one-hit wonder. Her half-rap, half-sang electronic dance style yielded other hits out of her debut Animal album, Your Love Is My Drug and We Are Who We Are. There were objections to her strong language. But that is her kind of honesty and if you are just going to dance to her songs and not analyze the lyrics then I do not think the foul words really matter.

Ke$ha is now a Warrior in her second CD and changing. No, not the language, which is still explicit, but her singing and music. She sings in deadpan punk voice and shows lots of rock signs in her songs. I was surprised to find that she has a song with the legendary Iggy Pop. It has been quite a while since we have had a punk diva and I would like to see Ke$ha go there. There are already, too, many dance, rap, edm females around. Best of the line-up are Die Young, Wonderland, Crazy Kids, All That Matters (The Beautiful Life) and Dirty Love feat. Iggy Pop.

New Life by Monica. I am sure many of you recall the songs Miss Thang, Before You Walk Out Of My Life, Angel Of Mine and the biggest of them all, the Grammy-winning duet with Brandy, The Boy Is Mine from 15 years ago. Monica then had one of the best R&B voices ever heard. She still has it now with even better tones. Maturity has given her vocals a firmer, fuller quality. I can just imagine how great she will sound in a gospel album. She has matured beautifully with marriage to Phoenix Suns star Shannon Brown, two kids, a clothing line and TV shows. She was a mentor for The Voice and had her own reality series, Still Standing.

That is oh so true. Despite the strong competition from Nicki and company, Monica is definitely still standing. New Life is very good with dance tracks and sweet soul ballads. Standouts are Cry, Time To Move On Until It’s Gone, the hit single, Without You and It All Belongs To Me, her long awaited re-team-up with Brandy.

Two Eleven by Brandy. If Monica is around, can Brandy be far behind? She is not. In fact, I think she has a very good album with Two Eleven. The actress, singer and songwriter, whom many remember as Cinderella to Whitney Houston’s Fairy Godmother and for hits like Sittin’ Up In My Room, Have You Ever, Brokenhearted and Baby, is back in a big way. I think it is really great for her and Monica to bring back the true sweet sound of soul ballads. And Brandy is not just sweet, her style is also very sexy.

Best picks are Put It Down, where she has an excellent partner in Chris Brown, Slower, Wish Your Love Away, Hardly Breathing, Wildest Dreams, Paint This House, the truly lovely Scared Of Beautiful and Do You Know What You Have. Two Eleven made me realize that soul singing the Brandy way can be most affecting.