I appreciate an album that makes a bold statement. And you can't get much more firm in your statements than I Don't Regret A Thing. The album comes by way of Chicago rapper and singer, as well as one-half of Big $ilky, Angelenah. It represents a laudable direction for her solo career, jumping right into that late '90s neo-soul stuff from the outset with opener "Just Getting Started," which follows a patient but deliberate acoustic guitar line as it underwrites Angelenah's affirmational prose, as well as those of her backup singers. The album continues to feel mature and grounded as it moves into the swimming sparkle of the devotional "Vegas," and then confronts the reflective rebuke of "HML," the latter of which tempers the passion of its lyrics with some supremely chilled-out, tweedy guitars and lapping salt-water flavored, electronic washes. Even though, I appreciate how thoroughly I Don't Regret A Thing embraces the classically minded and sensible side of R'nB, I'm also glad to see Angelenah cut loose a little on the soft-touch, soundsystem pulse of "Put it Down" as well as flash a bit of her dark side on the scintillatingly taunt, "Danger." Angelenah is an artist with a lot of growth potential and she's not ashamed to show it off. If she hesitated at all in delivering her message then she might end up leaving something vital unsaid. And as the title of the album makes clear, regrets like those are out of the question.
