February 12, 2002

Milian, Christina : Christina Milian

A new 'Pop Idol'? Could be...

7 / 10 Is Christina Milian the next princess of pop? She certainly has all the credentials: youth (she's 19),
talent (she wrote 'Play' for J-Lo), and now a debut album that sticks rigidly to the sherbert-snorting
pop formula of Britney and Christina, and hammers it for all it's worth.

Not that it's such a bad idea. You may have already got the idea with the genius single 'AM to PM',
but there's something about Christina Milian that suggests that beneath the froth, there's a certain
depth of soul. In the past, she provided the hugely infectious chorus on Ja Rule's breakthrough hit,
'Between Me & You', and their beauty and beast partnership is repeated here, on LP opener 'Get Away',
with similarly excellent results.

Everywhere you look there's consistently chart-molesting pop. 'Got To Have You'
and 'When You Look At Me' point to a future of Janet Jackson-style
longevity, while 'Twitch' (sample lyric: "Is there something in your
eye/'Cos you twitch when you look at mine") is remarkable for being what may be the first
ever song about someone with a facial tic. What's just as promising, is that alongside
a production credit list that reads like a who's who of the chart alchemists, it's still
Milian's name that tops the list of executive producers.

If the 'Pop Idol' makes a record half as good as this he'll be declared a
national hero. On current form, for Milian, genius can't be more than a few albums away.

Imran Ahmed