Fresh
Artist: Gina G.

Gina G. may want to be Madonna, but her admiration for the queen of dance-pop is so unabashed and affectionate, it's hard not to be suckered into her debut, Fresh. From its self-consciously controversial cover art, featuring Gina smeared in chocolate, to its relentless barrage of bouncy, up-tempo dance-pop, Fresh is an homage to early Madonna,... Read More

My Love Is Your Love
Artist: Whitney Houston
Community Score: 8.68

For all intents and purposes, Whitney Houston retired from being a full-fledged recording artist after her third album, 1990s I'm Your Baby Tonight, choosing to be a Streisand-like celebrity who cultivated a career through movies, soundtrack contributions, and social appearances. She may have been content to continue in that direction for many... Read More

#1's
Artist: Mariah Carey
Community Score: 9.50

Protest as she may -- and she does, claiming in the liner notes that #1's is "not a greatest hits album! It's too soon, I haven't been recording long enough for that!" -- it's hard to view #1's, Mariah Carey's first compilation, as anything other than a greatest-hits album. Carey was fortunate enough to have nearly every single she released top... Read More

R.
Artist: R. Kelly
Community Score: 7.84

At the beginning of the '90s, R. Kelly was seen as a lewd, lascivious soulman. By the end of the decade, he had stripped those adjectives away and was seen as a contemporary equivalent of Marvin Gaye, thanks to the enormous success of "I Believe I Can Fly." Appropriately, R., the double-disc album that followed "I Believe I Can Fly"'s parent... Read More

The Boy Is Mine
Artist: Monica
Community Score: 9.10

On her second album, The Boy Is Mine, Monica is given a little more room to strut her own stuff. Previously, she was an inexperienced vocalist whose raw talent was sculpted by a bevy of producers. Here, she sticks with Dallas Austin; not only does he give her songs immaculately crafted musical backdrops -- both ballads and uptempo dance numbers... Read More

Greatest Hits - WARLOCK
Artist: The Cover Girls
Community Score: 10.00
Never Say Never
Artist: Brandy
Community Score: 7.95

Shortly after the release of her eponymous debut in 1995, Brandy became a star. Not only did the album sell well, but she starred on UPN's Moesha and Disney's made-for-TV Cinderella, all before she released her second album, Never Say Never, in 1998. Needless to say, there was much more riding on the second record than the debut and,... Read More

I Wanna Be the Only One
Artist: Eternal
One Night With You: The Best of Love, Vol. 2
Artist: Luther Vandross

One Night with You picked up where Luther Vandross' first hits collection left off, including the R&B/pop Top Ten hits "Power of Love/Love Power," "Don't Want to Be a Fool," "The Best Things in Life Are Free," and "Endless Love," as well as the R&B Top Ten hits "Little Miracles" and "Your Secret Love." Also included was the Grammy-winning "Love... Read More

Greatest Hits
Artist: Party
The Collection
Artist: Martha Wash

While a collection of Martha Wash's assorted hits is a great idea, The Collection is likely to leave most listeners wanting more. While most of Wash's hits -- which she typically performed anonymously for studio projects including C&C Music Factory and Black Box -- are included, many are in newly recorded renditions which pale next to the... Read More

Robyn Is Here
Artist: Robyn
Community Score: 6.48

Robyn's debut album, Robyn Is Here, isn't particularly deep, but it is well-executed Eurotrash dance-pop. The Swedish teenager has an appealingly thin voice, and her producers and songwriters have a knack for crafting hooky dance-pop that sounds as if it was made in 1990, not 1997. Half of the album rides by on mediocre songs and first-rate... Read More

Greatest Hits - RCA
Artist: SWV