Metro review: Macy Gray - The Sellout

Remember when Macy was one of the most distinctive, beautiful voices in pop? Oh how the mighty have fallen. I once bumped into her at a hood-d&b dance (gun detectors on the doors) in Manchester in the early noughties.

Macy Gray: The Sellout (TWO STARS)
Island

Macy’s fourth LP, The Sellout is a break up record: ten of the 12 tracks focus on heartache, winning back the ex, begging for another chance, the meaningless of single life and, bizarrely, using stalking as an analogy for love.

It’s wearing, crushing (there’s no rebirth) and the bad - including banal lyrics such as ‘Baby I would kiss you/Even if you have flu’ (Real Love) and ‘Just like a palm tree/people surround me’ (Lately) and occasional use of Autotune to iron out the kinks in her delightful raspy voice - outweighs the good.

Rare highlights include the blissful g-funk of current single Lately, the sprightly 1960s soul of Kissed It and playful Thatman, which reworks the theme tune of 1960s TV series Batman. Get your tissues at the ready for Macy cutting a forlorn figure, who musically appears to have lost her way.