Nearly four years passed between
Nivea
's first and second albums. Despite the wait, there isn't a whole lot that separates the two. The self-titled debut was more consistent than most of the reviews led you to believe, full of light and breezy songs, even with all the various producers involved. Though three charting singles -- one major, two minor -- were spun off from it, it didn't make that much of an impact and wound up lost in the shuffle. In order to make her name more known than ever,
had to hit back here with something big and/or gimmicky. That move was attempted and more or less executed with the soft crunk of
"Okay,"
produced by
Lil Jon
, whose exposure was beyond saturation when the single was released. The remainder of
Complicated
contains a couple should-be successful singles (including the unbearably corny/charming
"Parking Lot"
), but it's far too patchy to be considered better than the debut. More sexually upfront and as sweet-voiced as ever,
still needs more than a couple hot producers and guest MCs to truly stick out. ~ Andy Kellman