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**1/2 Terry Ellis
SOUTHERN GAL
(East/West)
Fans of En Vogue
will be surprised to find little of that hit foursome's uniquely furious,
LaBelle-like screaming in group member Terry Ellis's solo debut. Instead Ellis
affects one of those NutraSweet sopranos, full of painted-on cuteness, that
make today's new-jill music feel so impersonally flat, like a billboard.
Southern Girl's 12 tracks are disappointing except for "She's a Lady" (a
subtle marvel of diva-pose undertoning), and for the shrewd songwriting of
producers Thomas McElroy and Denzil Foster, who created En Vogue in the first
place. If Ellis's high notes, in "It Ain't Over" and "You Make Me High," often
seem vague and waxy, her producers' sleazy-tempo bass lines step in to sharpen
their taste. If, groping for attitude rather than a moral, she misses the hue
of a lyric ("I Don't Mind" and "Where Ever You Are"), a choir singing "ooh"
atop an Isley-ish melody steps forward to paint the right color. And Ellis
herself is enough of a pro, after three years of En Vogue stardom, to recognize
the roseate sentimentality of "Where Ever You Are" and even to embellish it
with small melismas cooed intimately into an up-close mike, sweeping her
caution brazenly away as if she were Diana Ross herself. -- Michael Freedberg
Copyright © 1995 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group. All rights reserved.