consists entirely of new compositions, much of which are deliberately skewed toward the audience whom was well on his way to earning in the spring of 1999. In other words, it's an album that seems to be a progression, at least on the surface, but it's also a consolidation of the crossover audience that he wooed over the course of the late '90s. pulls off that trick, balancing 's background with modern and Italian music. That stance alone -- finding a middle ground between and modern music -- will alienate the purists (who, truth be told, haven't been all that thrilled with in the first place), but this doesn't discredit the music. True, there are moments on that don't work as well as others, but overall it flows nicely and maintains a fine balance between pieces that suggest without actually being , and songs such as (a duet with ) or the duet which was originally featured on the soundtrack for . The most interesting moments are songs like a collaboration with that manages to not only find a middle ground between those two extremes, but to push forward, as well. Songs like these keep fascinating, but it's the -flavored numbers that stand to bring in a larger, -oriented audience, who will then likely explore the rest of 's catalog. For skeptics, however, the very presence of -leaning numbers will confirm their doubts. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine