This came out in 2001 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Second albums are always tough. You have to stick with what worked the first time — but change it enough to avoid being called a one-trick pony.
Macy Gray makes the best of this bad situation with her colourful sophomore effort The Id. Gray’s now-familiar helium-and-sandpaper rasp — part Betty Boop, part Rod Stewart, part Carol Channing — is still a spectacular, stunning instrument that mesmerizes the listener. For the most part, she puts it to good use on these 13 tracks, whose loosely inventive instrumentation and arrangements stretch her musical wings above and beyond the streetwise, real-deal funk of her debut On How Life Is. Sexual Revolution gets down to an authentic disco groove, Oblivion comes from the soundtrack to a Venusian production of Cabaret and Forgiveness fuses trip-hop grit with fluid soul. In many ways, it’s every bit as good as her debut — only not as surprising. Guess that’s just how life is with a second album.
