With all the emotional and stylistic range that an album called {^Moodring} should present, {$Mya} comes up with her best and most varied set of songs yet. The album's biggest highlights are almost completely different from one another, demonstrated right from the beginning; the opener, the strutting, boastful, {$Missy Elliott}-produced {&"My Love Is Like...Wo"} is immediately followed by the yearning, elegant {&"Falling."} The constant changes of direction can be a little jarring on the first couple plays, but they eventually become one of the album's charms. Even the two expectedly strong {$Jam & Lewis} productions, the blissed-out {&"Anatomy 1On1"} ("Let's make a child") and the stressed-out {&"Late"} ("Should've been more careful when I let him rock my boat") are at two ends. Most surprising of all is {&"Whatever Bitch,"} a stage-ready booty track in which {$Mya} shows off her foul-mouthed catty side. Two big (mis)steps back threaten to kill her momentum, however, and they both come at the very end of this very long album: the bloodless cover of {$Tom Petty}'s {&"Free Fallin'"} is worse than you could possibly imagine, and the awkward inclusion of {&"Real Compared to What,"} the soft drink ad that originated as a civil rights/Vietnam protest song, was a very bad idea. ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide