K Michelle: Rebellious Soul – review

"All my life I've been struggling and stressing – that's why I come up in this bitch with aggression," sings K Michelle on the opening track of Rebellious Soul. It's as concise a summary of her MO as any: Michelle sings her pain with the passion of Mary J Blige, but with sharper elbows. Her tribulations have included single motherhood and domestic abuse, but it was her role on the MTV reality show Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta that paved the way for this debut album, which is as dramatic and raw as one might expect. Michelle's songwriting is a disquieting blend of the conversational and confessional – she was an R Kelly protégée, after all. I Don't Like Me features defiantly enunciated self-loathing; on the nervy VSOP, she shakes up trepidation and celebration until you can't tell the difference. Rebellious Soul doesn't have quite the impact of Michelle's 2010 mixtape, What's the 901? – curiously, there's little fighting talk here to match the superb Hit 'Em in the Mouth – but it has enough to confirm the emergence of a vital voice.