Look what arrived in the post today. Yes, it’s an exciting promotional copy of Deni Hines‘ new album “Water For Chocolate”.

Sadly, this “exciting” promotional copy is a good four fucking weeks late, as the album was released on SATURDAY. Never mind all this though, and let’s “get on with it”.

Aside from the fact that on the cover, Deni looks like she should either be doing adverts for World Vision (as one of the starving children and not the celebrity) or, you know, maybe eating a Salada every once in a while, this album is quite a brilliant little package.

WATER FOR CHOCOLATE, the first single lifted off the album, sadly bombed. It is however a very nice and slick piece of urban-pop that should have been top 10 for at least one week. Two weeks would have been ideal but I’m sure you would all agree that’s probably pushing it.

5 DAYS OF RAIN is yet another urban stomper, with rapping (not from Deni, sadly) and all. Her voice is as strong as ever, and the production on this number is so… stylish.

CUT IT UP is easily the albums finest hour. If this is not a single, god only knows what she’s thinking. Hines refers to herself as a “hip hop fiend”, and channels Nelly (the ugly one with the bandaid on his face) on several occasions. But you know, unlike Nelly, is really quite good.

RHYTHM OF LIFE meshes soul, Deni’s obvious first musical love, with her almost-as-loved urban. Again, so incredibly stylish, and the chorus is extremely luscious.

SON OF A PREACHER MAN is, sadly, to be the next single. Deni starred earlier this year in the amazing musical DUSTY, which was based on, funnily enough, Dusty Springfield’s life story. Deni played Dusty’s rug-munching lover, and was obviously able to obtain recording rights quite easily for it, so she thought “Hey, why the fuck not?” quite inspired after her musical stint ended, hence this cover of Dusty’s biggest hit (not her best however. I’d be much more impressed if Deni had covered “I Close My Eyes And Count To Ten”). It’s nice enough, sticks very closely to the original, but still feels a little karaoke. All I can say is I’m very much looking forward to the remixes.

NEW DAY stinks. Ballad. Horrible.

GHETTO HEAVEN, is, without a doubt, the sexiest Deni has ever sounded on record. This is so sensual, yet extremely dramatic. It’s all about music, preaching, and needing “Ghetto Heaven”. This can be taken many ways, but I’m going to take a guess she’s saying she needs some “food”. “Sister needs her sugar, to get her through the day, she aint got no money, but she always got a way to pay”. Quite.

FREEDOM and LOVE JOURNEY all go down a lovely soul route, but SWEET LOVIN’ sounds a bit boring. Possibly a grower so I will not rule it out just yet.

GETTING ON MY NERVES sounds like something that would have maybe been on the new Kelis album had she worked on it with The Neptunes instead of people who were not The Neptunes. Which obviously means this is really very good. And that Kelis’ new album is not so much.

THAT’S YOU has guitars and sounds a bit dated. Deni does say “shit” though, which makes up for the dated sound, it instantly then becomes brilliant.

Overall, this is a solid album. More than solid, this is refreshing. Deni’s a bit like the urban Dannii Minogue – somewhat haunted by the shadow of an older relative in the biz (God Marcia has been splendid so far on this years Idol, hasn’t she? I particularly like it when she vocalizes how wet she is when any of the males sing to her.), and, much like Dannii, is the ’slightly’ better one.

It’s disappointing to think that whilst street-walking vultures like The Pussycat Strays have the attention of young urban-ears, something with as much class and sophistication as the new Deni Hines album will be overlooked and ignored. This is the way RNB should sound like. Sadly, no one really seems to care any more about such style. It’s all about beeping the word “Cunt” from said genre these days and somehow creating a whole song out of an annoying noise used for censorship.

10/10
This is the closest Australia has come to producing a contender for album of the year for 2006. Absolutely breathtaking.