Music

B+

Fantasia

(J Records)

TRUTH IS: Beating the odds is what Fantasia Barrino is all about; the struggling single mother from High Point, N.C., won the 2004 American Idol competition and sold more than a million copies of her debut Free Yourself, even with its controversial anthem "Baby Mama." The autobiographical Lifetime network movie Life Is Not a Fairy Tale, based on her 2005 best-selling book, was the most viewed cable television program its debut weekend and helped Ms. Barrino bury her troubled past.

IT'S ALL GOOD: There's no pandering to the pop charts here; thanks to the talents of Swizz Beatz, Dre & Vidal and Missy Elliott, Ms. Barrino brings soul in abundance to her self-titled disc, starting with its Supremes-sampling opener, "Hood Boy," which expresses love for her "ruffneck" man with a cameo from OutKast's Big Boi. "Baby Makin' Hips" is the new generation's "Brick House," praising a sister's "cola bottle" shape and "mean walk" for wreaking havoc in the club. Missy Elliott's '80s-flavored ballad "Two Weeks Notice" finds Fantasia putting in applications for a new love since the ex left her.

BOTTOM LINE: Aside from the distractingly quirky numbers such as "Bore Me (Yawn)" and "Sunshine," Ms. Barrino's finding her stride as a woman and an artist.

Lorrie Irby Jackson