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May/June 2008
Shine
Artist: Estelle
Record label: Atlantic
Release date: 31st March (UK)/29th April (US)
Price: £10.99
Tracks: 12
Stars: 
Review by: Joy Francis
Estelle Swaray has truly arrived with her new album Shine. Featuring a superstar cast from Will.i.am, Mark Ronson, Kanye West (who she spars with on American Boy) to former Fugee Wyclef Jean and the album’s executive producer John Legend, Estelle doesn’t struggle to be the main attraction.
Infused with her musical influences – reggae, lovers rock, hip-hop, 70s funk and 80s pop – she moves effortlessly from rapping to crooning while urging her love interests to raise their standards, see her inner light and to treat her as their number 1 woman.
You can be in no doubt that she is British with her West London dialect occasionally peppered with Jamaican patois throughout the album, which is hard to miss on her current smash hit American Boy.
Though not originally known as a soul singer, her voice has come on in leaps and bounds as shown on Back in Love and More than Friends, both reminiscent of Soul 2 Soul in their heyday. No high octane warbling a la Beyonce and Mariah Carey here, just mellow, sweet vocals that you want to sing along to.
So Much Out the Way , a standout track, switches seamlessly from ragga to hip-hop to a soulful vibe. It conjures up ‘ol’ skool’ images of ‘bogling’. Playfully sampling the lyrics from Bob Marley’s ‘So Much Things to Say’ it is as if Estelle is channelling Lauryn Hill, which isn’t a surprise as Wyclef Jean co-wrote the track.
Another hit in waiting is Wait a Minute (Missy Elliot meets British soul) where Estelle sounds summery, cool and sophisticated, a million miles away from her ‘homegirl’ image when she won her Best Newcomer MOBO back in 2004.
The CD’s title track Shine, a hip-hop/grime ditty, seems to be a homage to her chance to do just that in the USA under the tutelage of her long time cheerleader John Legend. It’s beyond coincidence that it is the final track on the album, a marker that she isn’t going anywhere. She sings that ‘she has to fight to stay strong’ – a sign that the Estelle story is just beginning.
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