Missy Elliott: The Cookbook

Herald rating: * * * *

Three years ago Timbaland produced beats powerful enough to dislocate your bum cheeks. He has been Missy Elliott's producer and collaborator since her superb 1997 debut Supa Dupa Fly.

But Timbaland's booming production values became so dominant on the music scene when Elliott released her last album, This Is Not A Test!, in 2003 that his style was sounding exhausted. Typically, that album had some killer tracks, like Pass That Dutch and I'm Really Hot, but even those were reasonably ineffectual. What used to be one of the most innovative partnerships in hip-hop had started to get annoying through its predictability.

When you hear the first single off Elliott's new album The Cookbook, the Timbaland-produced Partytime, it is tempting to think it's going to be just another Missy Elliott bang, bang, yah, yah fest. But Timbaland only produces two tracks - admittedly two great tracks - out of 16 and it is refreshing. The Cookbook is far more diverse, savvy and inviting than ... Test!.

With the aid of yet another impressive guest list (including Slick Rick, Grand Puba, Mary J Blige and M.I.A.) it develops Elliott's sound while matching previous excellent albums like Miss E ... So Addictive (2001) and Under Construction (2002).

Apart from the silly intro (why do all hip-hop albums have to have those?) and the silly schoolyard-cum-slapstick interludes, this is Missy Elliott gone crazy, silky and sexy all in one.

Slower tracks like My Struggles (with Blige and Puba), Meltdown (which, apart from one bit of lyrical filth, is a beautiful romantic R&B ballad) and Remember When, are among the most soulful notes Missy has hit. No wonder Destiny's Child split up - in their later years they were no match for this.

What Elliott does best though is raise the blood pressure. Can't Stop is Elliott's club anthem on this album, but surprisingly, with its jungle beat clatter and Elliott doing her best Neneh Cherry impression, it would suit a British club better. Elsewhere, On & On bubbles along like a depth charge, We Run This has enough egotistical posturing to make Nelly blush, and the world music-meets-Afrika Bambaataa electro of Bad Man (starring the wiry vocals of Sri Lankan born rapper M.I.A.) is a solid ending.

Unlike ... Test!, The Cookbook is a Missy Elliott album that will take you a while to figure out, because it's seemingly all over the place, but she's doing something different here. It's still classic Missy but she's back to being damned clever, not to mention "really, really" hot.

Label: Atlantic