ASHANTI: THE DECLARATION [ALBUM REVIEW]....

The Declaration is probably Ashanti's most personalised album to date. Not because she's worked with producers that she's never worked with before (Rodney 'Darkchild' Jerkins, Babyface, L.T. Hutton, Jermaine Dupri, Bryan Michael-Cox, etc), but because it's a lot deeper, or at least the conceptual dialogue for the album title is deep and this is pretty much confirmed in the Intro: "I've experienced life; I've experienced death, I felt pain I've never felt before" - this is what she's declaring. She's older, and has experienced a lot since the last album. During the four years she's been away from the music scene, she's encountered so much - death, love and heartbreak.

The Way That I Love You, which is the lead single from the album is the first opening cut and entices with it's infectious chorus and beautiful piano melodies. Lyrically, we've heard it all before from Ashanti (Foolish, Rain On Me) - the typical wronged-girlfriend anthem. The beat is catchy but her screaming over the song puts a dampener on the track which had the potential to be beautifully flawless. Nevertheless, this is probably one of Ashanti's finer musical moments. With the following number Your Gonna Miss, it kind of draws you in with its catchy electronic chorus whilst the Darkchild-produced club banger So Over You catches your ear with its gritty production. The song Girlfriend is reminiscent of oldskool R&B at its finest.

Struggle is an overwhelming mid-tempo ballad which demonstrates how a woman is prepared to fight for her relationship despite it being on the rocks. You could hear the passion in her vocals which is what helps bring the song to life. Things You Make Me Do is a collaboration with Robin Thicke; an advocate of pure sexiness. I was totally enjoying Robin's falsetto on the midtempo cut, and even Ashanti's airy vocals added more of a dark but sensual mood to the track - proof that Ashanti can switch up her style of singing. In fact, their vocals flowed effortlessly over the light and sexy R&B number.

Another song that gets an honourable mentions include the pleasant midtempo In These Streets. The Babyface produced ballad Mother sees Ashanti dedicating the track to her mama Tina Douglas. The lyrics are cute and the song is inspirational but it does tend to drag on. Nevertheless, the song is a nice track. That's not to say the album didn't have it's shortcomings. Jermaine Dupri certainly didn't deliver on Good Good. It definitely has that traditional 'JD' stamp written all over it. I mean, it's not a horrible song but I expected so much from it when I heard the snippet last week. Not only is the song derivative but it could easily have been a rejected cut off Mariah Carey's last two albums.

Body On Me is a summery uptempo anthem, having Akon on the song just ruins the listening pleasure. I don't even think I've allowed myself to listen to the song all the way through. On the pop ballad Shine, Ashanti is accompanied with the backing vocals of a young choir. Whilst I think the song is cool, I wasn't at all compelled to listen to it again, although I absolutely love the message behind it, whereas The Declaration track sounded a little too messy for my liking.

For me, The Way That I Love You, So Over You, Girlfriend, Things You Make Me Do, Struggle and In These Streets are clearly the standouts on this album. In a lot of the songs I hear a lot of vocal improvement which is a good thing considering that Ashanti has received a lot of flack for her lack of vocal skills. I think the album was pretty solid, not brilliant but not atrocious. Subject matter I found rather monotonous on few of the songs but you're only as good as your last hit so, whilst I liked what I heard, the first half of the album is clearly the stronger side. I think she raised her game up from the last album. To be honest, I am not much of an Ashanti fan so I really wasn't expecting much from this album but I can definitely see myself chilling to this in the car this summer as it has that overall vibe.

Rating: 3/5