Tanya Mullings

If Tanya Mullings is as love lost as some of these songs suggest ("All Alone,” "Broken Hearted”), you wouldn’t know it by the sultry way she croons and entices the listener. Music is My Life is smooth reggae at its finest, due in part to Mullings’ velvet vocals and persuasive songs, but also because the producers (Dubmatrix and Bobby Digital, to name a few) didn’t equate "smooth,” thankfully, with boring (sorry, Wayne Wonder). Dubmatrix keeps things interesting on "Baby Come Close,” fattening up the groove for Mullings to work her magic over, and Dalton Browne adds enough pizzazz to "All Alone” to transform it from a Sade-inspired quasi-R&B song by giving it a dub injection. The cover of "Let the Music Play” has a tuff ragga riddim that provides a cool counterpoint to Mullings’ voice, and the song only gets better once aggressive deejay Mega Banton puts his imprint on it. But it is album centrepiece "Nuh Easy” and the rebellious "Lonely Girl” where Mullings stakes her territory as an artist (and lover) to be reckoned with.