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2004 March: Vibe

JOI: STAR KITTY'S REVENGE

Rating: 4 out of 5 — Exceptional

Joi is not the kind of woman who needs an invitation. Arriving fashionably late to today's soul scene, she not only crashes the party, but brings her own psychedelic favors. Joi is equal parts superhero and singer, and her sexy sagacious persona burns like acid on record.

On Star Kitty's Revenge, the badass Atlanta resident uses her dusky soprano to tell it like it is, musing on sexual freedom and emotional fufillment against a backdrop of spare punk funk. Praise Goddess, she proves that for all the preaching and philosophizing that nu-soul sistas do, they bone too-"Lick" is a P-Funkified ode to clitoral stimulation. Equally delicious are the guitar-pluck bump of "It's Your Life" and the seductive midtempo stunner "What If I Kissed You Right Now," which unfurls from drumbeat to dirty-bass groove to minor-chord Rhodes line like the petals of a blood orchid. But it ain't all earthly delights. Grieving is explored on "Jefferson St.Joe" Joi's tender elegy to her late father. And the song "You're a Whore" proves that Joi is not a woman to mess with. This big girl doesn't cry-she brings the noise.

Original Text: Sun Singleton