As its title suggests, Ashanti's new album is not exactly a radical departure from the formula that made her one of last year's biggest R'n'B sensations. Hard to blame her, really, given that her eponymously-titled debut album topped the US charts, sold over five million and bagged her a Grammy award. This time around, however, the 22-year-old's fusion of melodic beats and summery soul vocals doesn't feel quite as fresh. Ashanti herself is still in fine voice, rich, hypnotic and deeply sexy. But far too often she surrounds herself with annoying guest rappers, who invariably drag proceedings down to the lowest common hip-hop denominator. Lyrically, meanwhile, most of Chapter II is pretty dismal, relying on lurve cliches that sound like they took ten minutes to write (nine of which were spent searching for a pencil). Ashanti's talent is not in question - but this half-formed mess is not the best way to express it.
