Track Listing

1. Wait A Minute (just a touch)
2. No Substitute Love
3. American Boy Feat. Kanye West
4. More Than Friends
5. Magnificent Feat. Kardinal Offishall
6. Come Over
7. So Much Out The Way
8. In The Rain
9. Back In Love
10. You Are Feat. John Legend
11. Pretty Please (love me) Feat. Cee-Lo
12. Shine

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3899 in Music
• Released on: 2008-03-31
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Award-winning British artist Estelle never got her just desserts for her 2004 debut album The 18th Day. Though the record was a critical success, it failed to make the mainstream splash many had hoped for. Her sophomore project, Shine, seems hell bent on avoiding the same fate. Backed up by a coterie of high profile US starlets--Wyclef Jean, will.i.am, Mark Ronson and Kanye West--Shine has surefire commercial success written all over it; though that's not to say Estelle has sold out. Despite the high-impact American-style production, Shine remains reassuringly British. Estelle's West London twang is as sharp as ever, and even Kanye drops rhymes about "WAGS" and "London Boys" (see single "American Boy"). It's every bit as diverse as its predecessor too, featuring dancehall party jams ("Magnificent", produced by Mark Ronson and featuring Kardinal Offishall), the will.i.am produced "Wait a Minute (Just a Touch)" (which uses a twisted up sample from Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell on You") to lovers' rock ("Come Over") and, of course, some love ballads too, such as "Substitute Lover", overseen by Wyclef. A solid all-round follow up, Shine should give Estelle the commercial success she deserves. --Danny McKenna

The Guardian
"(Shine)...may just provide Britain with its first successful female Hip Hop artist since The Cookie Crew"

Mojo
"From funk to soul to reggae...sparkling "

Customer Reviews

Her live perfomances are amazing... this album will be too!
I saw Estelle perform at the BBC Electric Proms a few months ago and she played a lot of her new material. Whilst staying true to her distinctive style we experienced with "The 18th Day", the songs on this album song totally fresh and unlike anything else on the market at the moment. The input of her new mentor John Legend might make it sound more "American" but the songs are excellent and Estelle's voice is incredible so I have no doubt they will shine through the production. In all honesty, Estelle is unlikely to do as well as she deserves to in the UK (like so many of our home-grown talents like Terri Walker and MIA) but if you give her a chance you'll grow to love her and you won't be able to stop yourself from dancing and singing along with her.
"Wait a Minute" was the first single to be released from this album and she will shortly be releasing "American Boy" which features man of the moment Kanye West.

Second Impression - Lacklustre
I gave this one some time. I really did. "Don't let first
impressions get the better of you" - That's what I told myself.

I want to like Estelle but there's something disingenuous
about this album which keeps me at arm's length.

Perhaps it's the celebrity pals. A pretty blatant US market launchpad.

Perhaps it's the uneasy slipping and sliding between West London
and American brogues...NB 'More Than Friends'.

Perhaps it's that the voice is pretty ordinary truth be told.
Lacking in dynamic variation and uncertain in tone.

Of the twelve songs in this collection only a couple rise above the middle of the road.

'Come Over' and 'Pretty Please' both possess a degree of sassy charm.

'So Much Out The Way' and title track 'Shine' however are real stinkers.

Unfocussed and disappointing.

Will `keep coming back coz the girls tight' - about time she got her props
From the first time I heard the track `wait a minute', I went and wrote a review and I said in my review that if the rest of the album is anything like this first single, then we are in for a treat. And to say I was right would be an understatement.

Move to the states
First things first, I think it was a good move for her to go to the states coz it would have been much harder as a female UK rnb/hip-hop artist to commercially break through and go as far as getting a number 1 single. You could argue that it was coz of Kanye West that she got the number 1 spot but that would just be plain silly coz Kanye don't even produce the number one single `American boy'. So props to her for doing what it takes to get her much deserved recognition coz she has been slept on for too damn long.

The album
This album is right on so many different levels. I listened to it at work, in my car and at the gym just to get a feel of it and I have to say that it is seamless as it just plays through so nicely. The choice of songs e.g. subject matter, beats, production etc is just on point. I have to say the album has got that John Legend-esc feel to it but that's expected as JL worked a lot on this album. Its almost perfect because it has songs that are suitable for almost every mood, from the number single `American Boy' with Kanye that just gets you to bump your head to the mellowed out "more than friends". From the very first song "wait a minute", the album just sounds really good and if you like up tempo "shine" as well as mellowed out music "come over", then this is the album for you. This album is like a blend of John Legend's Once Again "no substitute love, Back in Love", Lauren Hill's Miseducation "so much out the way" and Estelles own first album and you just know that's a good combination. With every song, the melodies are just so sweet and easy going and then before you know it, Estelle comes through with the London twang that does not sound over the top, it s beautiful. I can imagine she/they carefully picked the tracks for this album and that's why there are only 12 tracks, no fillers at all, each song with its intended purpose. Its nice coz you get that John Legend mellow-ness and then you get that Estelle brush London witty thing going on with her clever and sometimes funny rhymes. This album shows real maturity on her part and I think she has raised the bar not only for herself but for all the other artists out there both male and female and also on both sides of the Atlantic.

If you also look at the production as well as the features on this album, you can tell she meant business coz even the samples she uses are classics, from Bob Marley to Paul Simon and then she solicits the help of heavy hitters like Wyclef, Cee-lo, Kardinal Official, Kanye West. Well what more can I say.

Best part
The best part of this album is that it does not fit into one genre of music at all, it sort of transcends them. In only 12 songs, she manages to do a bit of everything in an exciting way that works. She has tracks with a hint of reggae, tracks with a hint of rnb, tracks with a splash of hip-hop etc. You not only get good lyrics, but you get good beats and interesting subject matter although it revolves around love, it is done in an interesting way, not your typical damsel in distress or man hating (opposite of a misogynist) type. It is an interesting album and it is about time she got her props coz she is a smart young lady who has worked hard. So you can applaud her for doing more for UK artist abroad and also for just being so creative and relentless. You might say it sound a bit American but that cant be helped seeing that it was made in America but when Estelle spits her rhymes, you remember that she is reppin Britain for sure.

Big up Estelle.