Five years after her sophomore album, Aaliyah returns with a more mature, sensuous sound on her third set. While many of her pop/R&B contemporaries are content to crank out happy-go-lucky albums year after year, the 22-year-old singer/actress prefers to take a different tack. Aaliyah is a sonically diverse set in which each number has an emotion all its own. The wickedly hypnotic “We Need a Resolution,” the album’s lead single, reunites Aaliyah with Timbaland; the two previously worked together on such hits as “Try Again” and “Are You That Somebody?” Other standouts include the guitar-driven “What If,” “I Care 4 U,” and the powerful “Never No More.”—RH
