K Michelle - All Monsters Are Human

The Guardian 40

(Entertainment One)
The Tennessean takes her no-filter frankness to new levels in this disconcerting chronicle of sex and heartbreak

Like most people who have managed to extract long-term success from reality TV stardom, K Michelle is well-versed in the art of the overshare. The Tennessean singer has forged a career from self-exposure, both as the star of VH1’s Love & Hip Hop franchise and on her run of hit tell-it-like-it-is R&B records. Yet her fifth album sees her take her no-filter frankness to newly discomfiting levels. On opener Just Like Jay, she outlines her recent struggles (illness, romantic betrayal, her departure from Atlantic Records) and their emotional impact (“for the first time, I wished myself dead”), while The Worst details a relationship so dysfunctional it leaves you seriously concerned for the narrator’s psychological wellbeing.