Kiley Dean is the white girl with the good-ass voice who sang R&B that most people have never heard of. And Simple Girl is her debut album which never officially got released. Yep. She’s one of those artists y’all. An artist who was signed, had big dreams and a connection to one of the hottest producers around, just to get shelved, dropped and left in artist Valhalla.Timbaland started a record label (producers who start record labels always fuck it up and screw good artists over, but HENNYWAY) in partnership with Interscope records, and he signed Kiley Dean to it along with fellow artists Bubba Sparxxx (whose album Kiley Dean appeared) and Miss Jade. Kiley had pretty humble beginnings as most artists did ‘back in the day’. She grew up in church, could sing, went to Los Angeles with big dreams, wound up singing backup for Britney. (I know. Britney had live backup singers!?). And found herself with what she thought was her big-break deal with a producer that most would kill to have helm their debut album. But in the words of a fellow artist with talent who got a bad deal and flopped, Syleena Johnson; it all falls down. But whilst Simple Girl never got the release and exposure it deserved, promo copies of the album did go out, which then found its way online - leading those who caught wind of Kiley to wonder then and stay eternally wondering ‘How the fuck did a bunch of people at a label let this talent and an album THIS good get shelved!?’.
Timbaland is a producer who at this point was probably still better known for his work in Hip-Hop due to his work with Missy Elliott and Jay-Z, but was loved and revered for the work he did with ladies in R&B, primarily Aaliyah - who by the time Kiley was signed had unfortunately passed. Around this time it had surfaced that Timbaland was also working with Brandy, so there was a lot of buzz around him and potential releases with both of these ladies; especially as it had been a while since Timbaland had released anything that wasn’t Hip-Hop and wasn’t an R&B joint for a Missy Elliott album. Nobody was expecting the work Timbaland would do with a female artist to replace Aaliyah in any way shape or form, but his work with her occupied a far bigger space than any of us realised - something which definitely loomed over Kiley’s and Brandy’s albums. But what Timbaland’s work with Kiley and Brandy showed is that he really did tailor his sound in a way that I don’t think many anticipated that he could. Nothing on Kiley Dean’s album sounded like anything he’d given Aaliyah, nothing he would go on to give Brandy, and nothing R&B he'd given Missy Elliott, which is what made Simple Girl all the more special back then and still special to this day. There was a real dedication and craft towards creating a sound that was still unmistakably signature Timbo, but in a pocket that felt like it belonged to Kiley. And there was a real chemistry and a union that Kiley and Timbaland had which created magic.
Even with a career as rich as Timbaland’s and with how amazing his output was from the late 90s up until the release of this album, his production here is still stellar and surprising. He pulls out new sounds and tricks that we’ve not heard from him before. But the remarkable thing with this album is that it was the birth of so many things and ideas that Timbaland wouldn’t revisit until years later. Going the Southern route with his sound on cuts like “America” and “War Song”, something that would become a theme on Justin Timberlake’s albums, along with the use of orchestrated strings. The use of acoustic guitars on “Kiss Me Like That”, that Timbaland would then carve a whole sound out of off the back of Nelly Furtado’s “All Good Things (Come to an End)” which led to Madonna’s “Miles Away” on Hard Candy, the tour on which coincidentally Kiley was a backup singer on. The sparse Mexican cowboy movie style soundscape for “Keep It Movin’”, being a sound that Timbaland’s protege Danja would pick back up for Katharine McPhee’s “Neglected”.
Simple Girl is a treasure trove for R&B fans, in addition to fans of Timbaland’s production discography, especially if this isn’t an album you had never heard before. But from a commercial perspective, Simple Girl ticks a whole bunch of boxes. Timbaland’s production gives the whole album an ‘Urban edge’ if you will, but there are pop leaning songs for the white folk on the radio that may deem “Make Me a Song” ‘too ghetto’ - which is precisely why it should NEVER had been released as a lead single, but we gon’ get to that. White people radio woulda eaten up a song like “America”, which sounds like a song from the group of the same name. It still has that Timbaland knock behind it, but it’s not R&B and it’s not Hip-Hop. It’s rock tinged pop in a package that only Timbaland could deliver. Some of the lyrics haven’t aged all that well, and it’s sod’s law these are the lines sung by Timbaland. ‘All the things we're facing in the world today, I gotta say...ain't no place like America’ feels like a joke. But still, white people would live for this song and it is a good song that fits in with the rest of the album and Timbaland’s sound. Then there’s “Kiss Me Like That” which is R&B at its core with Timbaland’s signature drums and an almost stuttering melody; but it has this pop gloss and finesse that you wouldn’t ever expect from a Timbaland production, at least not back in 2003. It has acoustic guitars, orchestrated strings and this beautifully bright chorus. It would have made a great winter single leading into Christmas because everything about the song is so damn cosy despite the lyrics of being a lonely bitch. Pop and R&B radio would have been all over this. In fact, I remember my local R&B station playing THE SHIT out of it during its weeknight R&B slowdown shows.
There is one easy box on Simple Girl that could have been ticked which oddly wasn’t, and that’s a big ballad moment. And it’s strange, because Kiley Dean did have it. The Underdogs (JoJo’s “Never Say Goodbye”, Fantasia’s “This Is Me”, Beyoncé’s “Listen”) written and produced “Who Will I Run To” was actually released as a single, but didn’t feature on Simple Girl, which is a travesty, because it’s such a great song with crossover hit potential. It’s a ballad of a quality that every woman in pop who can SING sing would absolutely fight a bitch for. Had it popped off, you’d best believe it’d become an audition favourite on just about every singing talent show. It’s that good. This song not being serviced and getting the big push that it deserved was the writing on the wall. I don’t get how you could let a song THIS good and primed for a mega hit just flop. “Who Will I Run To” is also the song where Kiley lets everybody know ‘I can do dem big ballads bitch’.
Whilst Timbaland’s production and Kiley’s vocal ability shine on each of these songs, none of it would mean shit without some good songwriting. Simple Girl features the penmanship of Walter Millsap III & Candice Nelson, who are the secret weapons on this album and would go on to be Timbaland’s right-hand writers on future productions of this, including Brandy’s Afrodisiac. Candice would end up writing for literally everybody as part of the songwriting collective The Clutch a year later, and if you know of her handiwork as part of The Clutch, then you’ll immediately recognise it on songs such as “Busy”. There is a knack and a quirk that Candace has at writing songs about such regular ass things and making them feel so much larger than life. There’s such a thin line in Candice’s songs between what feels relatable and what feels like something out of the most extra of TV shows.But whilst Candice and Walter are masters at straying from the beaten path and writing quirky songs about random and sometimes mundane aspects of life, they have a great skill when it comes to writing love songs that really hit different. The love songs on Simple Girl for the most part are all from the perspective of somebody who has lost love or wants to find it on their own terms. These are the standout love songs on the album for me, because I’m a miserable bitch who lives for a love song that puts me in my feelings. “Kiss Me Like That” is about literally being alone and wanting to have somebody in your life to hold you. Being so fucking lonely to the point where you even envy your friends who are in garbage relationships. “As Days Gone By” is a grieving of love. Agonising over how much more you find yourself growing to love somebody who is no longer in your life, but finally managing to find the strength to say goodbye and live knowing a piece of your heart will never truly heal. It’s a gorgeous song, and one of the standout moments on the album despite how understated it is amongst some of the bigger sounding songs on the album, which is partly why it stands out.
As good as Simple Girl is, it isn’t perfect. And my biggest critiques are things that listeners have full control of, and things I’ve taken into my own hands to make the album better.
Simple Girl features one too many songs. There isn’t a bad song on this thing, so criticizing it for featuring too many songs may seem strange. But there are a couple of songs that feel like they don’t quite fit. Whilst Timbaland is the primary producer on this album, there are songs helmed by other producers here. Namely Robert ‘Big Bert’ Smith aka Brandy’s husband who turned out to not really be her husband. His productions are stellar, and Kiley sounds great on them. But Kiley feels like she’s holding back, or as though she’s just sticking closely to the guide track that was handed to her. I don’t have full liner notes for this album, but I’m certain that Brandy had to have either some of these songs or had a hand in writing at least one of them. They feel and sound very Brandy-esque, especially “Better Than the Day” (which reminds me of "WOW" from Brandy's 2002 album Full Moon) and "Should I". And there was a period during 2002 - 2005 when Brandy wrote for most Robert’s productions - a couple songs of which did make it onto albums; such as “Ryde or Die” on Jennifer Lopez’s Rebirth, “Love / Hate” on Kelly Rowland’s debut album and “Selfish” from Toni Braxton’s flop More Than a Woman. If this is the case, then chances are Brandy recorded these songs, and that’s the guide Kiley’s singing to, because she sings differently on these songs to how she does the Timbaland productions. Kiley still sounds good, but there is an evident restraint that she shows.
There are also a couple of songs that this album could’ve just plain done without. Whilst “Make Me a Song” is fun, cute and features all the idiosyncratic sonic choices you’d expect from Timbaland; it features a set of lyrics which are probably indicative of things artists and A&R’s have said to Timbaland, making it such an odd song to give a new artist for their album without it being wrapped in a better narrative. You’re trying to establish this new artist that you’ve signed, but you go and give them a song where they’re just asking for songs that sound like other peoples, and is singing sections from some of those songs. All “Make Me a Song” does is make you wanna play Aaliyah’s “Rock the Boat” and the Timbo productions that Missy wrote to. “Make Me a Song” would have made far more sense on a Timbaland album, which would have been a cool way to introduce Kiley to the world before her own album. This is the only song on the album that I always skip, just because Kiley doesn’t shine on it. And as quirky as the production is, Timbaland gives Kiley so much fire on this album that “Make me a Song” barely registers. But it’s by no means a bad song. The beat is fire and it’s catchy. It’s just that Kiley and Tim deliver better on every other song. Then there are the Big Bert songs “Confused” and “Should I”. These aren’t bad songs AT ALL. But if push same to shove, they could definitely go in order to make the album a little leaner and tighter.
The sequencing of Simple Girl also does it a disservice. I don’t get why the songs are sequenced as they are, but it’s strange. “Stay Away From My Boyfriend” sounds like an album closer, but then again so does “Better Than the Day”. The actual album outro isn’t even the outro. Songs come late in the tracklist that should've been at the top. It’s a shame, because there is definitely some story being told through this album and it’s easy to put them in an order that makes sense. I also think that the album intro and outro could have been dropped. I know album intros and outros were a popular thing in R&B in the late 90s and early 2000s, especially ones which referenced the Lord, but they were dispensable on Simple Girl. And if we’re looking at the album from a purely commercial standpoint, having an album outro as churched up as “I Know” may not have been the move, although it is a really nice song which stays true to who Kiley is, having grown up in church.
Simple Girl ending up shelved is such a shame. Not only because Kiley is an amazingly talented singer and this album was so good, but it pretty much runs the gamut of what we’ve seen as trends over the past 5 years. It does R&B, it does Hip-Hop, it touches on Americana, there’s some Country, there’s 60s doo wop. But it all manages to feel cohesive, and none of it feels forced because this was all at a time before any of the latter were even trends in pop. It’s a result of Timbaland just pulling from who Kiley is as a Southern girl, in addition to Timbaland indulging in his love of Country at the time that he was also exercising in his sound with Bubba Sparxxx on Deliverance. Another album that was light years ahead.
Simple Girl has everything you’d want from not just a debut, but an artist. It taps into so many facets of who Kiley is, that there’s no way you could listen to this album and come away from it not feeling that you know her better than you did going into it. But it also leaves you wanting more, which is one of many things that’s so unfortunate about how Kiley’s career ended up, and that she wasn’t able to get any songs or albums out.
Simple Girl is a great album which should have been released, featuring Timbaland production which deserve to be heard and go down as some of the best in his production discography, from an artist who deserved so much more. It’s so unfortunate listening to this album now, because Kiley herself, the calibre of the music and the style of songs on this album are all a recipe that so many other white girls have since managed to see great success with. I’mma just say it. This album right here? Better than all of what Ariana has put out. Better than JoJo’s last two albums. Demi could never. But to not completely drag the white girls doing the R&B thing - Simple Girl is just a great R&B album, period that shits on many an album from the girls who managed to rack up a discography.
Highlights:
■ No
■ Just Like That 🔥
■ Kiss Me Like That 🔥
■ Keep It Movin’ 🔥
■ Simple Girl 🔥
■ As Days Gone By 🏆
■ Better Than the Day 🔥
■ Busy 🔥
■ Lovin’ Me
■ Should I
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