This came out in 2005 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Nope, not that Divine Brown.
This Divine Brown is not the sex worker who took an ill-fated ride with Hugh Grant a few years back. This Divine Brown is a Toronto hip-hop-soul diva named Michelle Brown, who used to call herself Divine Earth Essence and was known as Boo Boo before that. So, clearly, choosing (or at least sticking with) a stage name is not her forté. Luckily for her, it doesn’t matter. Not after one spin of her gorgeous and striking debut disc, anyway. Once Brown opens her mouth and unleashes her silky, slinky pipes on smoky soul-sistah seductions like Old Skool Love, Without You and My Cryin’ Eyes — most of which she not only penned but impressively produced herself with all the wah-wah guitars and smouldering grooves you want and none of the overwrought histrionics you don’t — you won’t care if she calls herself Ron Jeremy. Not as long as she calls in every now and then with some more songs as divine as these, anyway.
