CHRISETTE MICHELE TALKS TOUR PLANS & HATERS!

Something strange and fascinating happens on Chrisette Michele's new CD, just when it's almost over.

Fourteen songs in, during "If Nobody Sang Along," Michele sings lines that implicitly question everything that went before. "Who is all this for?/Is it my song or yours?/Would I even sing my song/if nobody sang along."

It's an amazing line of questioning for an artist to raise in public: What are my motivations? Am I singing for the record company, radio programmers and fans, or am I expressing my soul?

The bulk of the music suggests an usual combination of the two. On the one hand, the CD -- Michele's third -- features fairly conventional R&B-pop songs, with an added theatrical bravura that lands them somewhere between Fantasia and Alicia Keys. But the songs also feature such sturdy melodies, and are sung with such agility and gusto, nobody would think twice about their motivation, or credibility, if Michele didn't force the issue.

Besides the strong melodies (hardly a reliable occurrence in current R&B), the songs burst with clever arrangements. In "I'm a Star," a perky bass and itchy percussion lend extra punch. In "Goodbye Game," a squiggle of synth pulls you in. While upbeat tracks dominate, Michele gets a few ballads worthy of her blowout performance, especially the finale, "I Know Nothing," which she delivers like an 11 o'clock number in a Broadway smash.

Michele's meaty voice has thick-tongued quirks you can chew on. Her voice has real pain in it, with a cry at the back of the throat that lends complexity to even the happiest love songs.

Not that such sentiments dominate. In the tradition of all post-Beyoncé R&B pop, nearly every song finds Michele kicking to the curb a guy who doesn't treat her right. The attitude means to be empowering, but underlying it is the defensive stance that all men are pigs.

Clichés like that may be just what Michele is battling. She's been cast as a solid R&B diva, like Keyshia Cole, but she'd probably rather be someone stranger, like Janelle Monae. Which leaves her with an odd dilemma: What she's releasing here is nothing to condescend to. But, from the stirring evidence of "If Nobody Sang Along," what she wishes she could release may go so much deeper. Let's hope one day we get to find out.



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