Click the icon to purchase.

Title: Jennifer Hudson - Jennifer Hudson
Released: September 30th, 2008
Label: J Records

With all the outside expectations, Jennifer Kate Hudson's self-titled debut effort, Jennifer Hudson (Arista), should be one of the musical highlights of 2008. Already starring in various movies, Hudson's shown she is a multi-faceted talent, but this album falls far from being the stellar premiere most hoped for.

The set is peppered with flavors familiar to the soul star. Gospel and R&B influences are present, but so is the foreign: Pop. The forcefully fabricated duet with T-Pain, "What's Wrong (Go Away)" is an obvious foray, downgrading Pain's hook-crook status to second runner-up crooner and lacks the essential element of chemistry. The lesson learned? Pain's auto-tuned blessings can't save all. And legitimate credits such as Ne-Yo, Robin Thicke and Fantasia leave more resonance of collision than collaboration.

The gold nuggets in Hudson's first showing are triumphant, womanly anthems. "Invisible" and "You Pulled Me Through," which sanction Hudson's ascending, magnetic vocals are two wonderful examples. Hudson's bravura is also evident on the Timbaland-soundscaped and Ludacris assisted "Pocketbook," a cut forewarning guys who approach her incorrectly to back off before being faced with the fury of her pocketbook.

Stylistics paralyze Hudson's debut, but it is her impassioned talent that keeps the album on life support.

Tracklisting:
01. Spotlight
02. If This Isn't Love
03. Pocketbook
04. Giving Myself
05. What's Wrong (Go Away)
06. My Heart
07. You Pulled Me Through
08. I'm His Only Woman
09. Can't Stop the Rain
10. We Gon' Fight
11. Invisible
12. And I'm Telling You I'm Not Goin
13. Jesus Promised Me a Home Over There