JoJo is a very talented singer and from the several previews to
her stand out single, she has done another great job with this
record. JoJo (aka Joanna Levesque) releases her second major
label CD titled The High Road. Armed with a top lineup of writers
and producers, namely Swizz Beatz, Scott Storch, Diane Warren,
Sean Garrett, Bo Dozier, Billy Steinberg, Josh Alexander, Ryan
Leslie, and SoulShock and Karlin. The song ''Exceptional'',
written by Diane Warren, struck a personal chord with JoJo:
''I've had low moments where I just didn't feel good enough... we
all do,'' she says. ''This song definitely makes you feel better
about yourself.'' Warren also penned ''Note to God''. And again,
it was the tears that did it. When Warren first played it for
JoJo and her mom on the piano, mom broke down on the spot. JoJo
was so moved she recorded the song that night in under an hour.
What listeners hear on the album is the raw and unedited end
result. She picks up the pace with straight-out party jams like
''This Time'', produced by Scott Storch, and ''The Way You Do
Me'' by Swiss Beats. With JoJo's complex vocalizations over
highly-infectious beats, these songs are impossible to listen to
sitting down. On the hard-hitting track, ''Anything'' (Bo
Dozier), JoJo puts a funky new spin on a familiar 80's megahit
Toto's Africa. Perhaps the record she's most proud of is ''How to
Touch a Girl,'' which she co-wrote with Steinberg. JoJo admits
the lyrics were influenced by real-life romantic events.''I was
confused about a boy,she says, so I wrote this to tell him how to
touch a girl's heart.'' The record's simple and sumptuous sonics
are reminiscent of soul and jazz classics from back in the day.
Not surprising, considering JoJo's greatest influences are
artists like Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Etta James and
Stevie Wonder.
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Back in 2004, when JoJo was 13 and seemed entirely too
much like a character out of the parent-ing movie Thirteen,
nobody, not even her mom, could have guessed she had a disc as
good as The High Road in her. What a difference a couple of years
and a squadron of slicker-than-thou producers make. Beyond the
addictive but not over-the-top radio hit "Too Little Too Late,"
The High Road is littered with pit stops both elegant (the
dreamy-sweet ballad "Exceptional," the angsty, soulful "How to
Touch a Girl," and the introspective "Note to God") and
shoulder-shimmyingly fun (the sexy-funky R&B tease "This Time,"
produced by Scott Storch; the hip-hop heater "The Way You Do Me,"
done up with characteristic magic touches by Swiss Beatz; and the
go-girl rock number "Comin' for You," whipped to a perfect-peaked
froth by Soulshock). What makes these songs and
others--particularly "Let It Rain," with its tick-tick-tick-tick
beat--standouts is not raw artistry but careful, willful
calibration. JoJo's vocals are full-throated, creamy, and
increasingly Beyonce-like, but even when they veer in a
Monica-reminiscent direction (check "Good Ol'"), they're given
their due with wide-open beats and rhythms that feel less
ratcheted-up than right in time. Expect The High Road to log a
lot of travelers, none of them weary. There's not a pothole in
. --Tammy La Gorce