Versus: Jully Black vs. Divine Brown

I appreciated your comments regarding Jully vs Divine. You touch on some very good points. My choice, however, would most definitely be Divine Brown. I thought, especially when it comes to vocals and their arrangements, Jully played it too safe. I know she could have 'let it out' more like when seeing her live. Divine is also MUCH more envolved in the mucic and lyrics than Jully. Divine's playing the bass, horns and keys on some of these tracks and handled ALL the vocals herself. 'Without You' is her actual demo she shopped around..it was put on the album as is. Now, that's talent. Seeing her live was more enjoyable than Jully and maybe that's because Divine is accustomed to live theatre. Her performance and confidence were flawless and when she hit that five octive range on 'My Cryin' Eyes' it was heavenly (Jully does not have that range, although a great voice non the less). I find in the end that Jully's album (I consider incredibly good) plays it safer and is a bit cluttered with production were as Divine's is stripped right down to the bare essence of R&B/Soul with intelligent and clever arrangements.

In the end, I agree with your statement 'the ultimate winner is anyone that love Canadian urban music.' May they both do well and continue to have a platform for their music!

Hey Ryan,

After reading this article, I hope y'all have the opportunity to check out Jully's latest album "Revival"(2008), if you haven't already. I think that it will change the minds of many who might question Jully's staying power and her potential for awesome arrangements in her music. "John Robert" obviously didn't read the credits for Jully's "This Is Me album, because if he had, he'd noticed that Jully either wrote or co-wrote all of the songs. But, oh well hopefully he'll notice that she did the same thing for her "Revival" album and maybe enjoy that one more. She was definitely way more involved in the production process of "Revival" as well...just check out her youtube clips and eTalk interviews. Clearly at the time he just preferred Divine over Jully, but to question her involvement without checking the credits is disappointing. And by the way, as live performers they really are incredibly different, so I could never compare the two, but if you're looking for excitement and great command of the stage, Jully's the one to check out. Divine's just a lil subdued for my particular tastes, but she does hold her own.
I think you made a good point in your reply to John's comment that I agreed with that Divine's 1st album felt like "pseudo old soul rather than the genuine article". But ultimately they are unique in their own rights. And like you mentioned, both albums were more introductions of sorts, and only time will allow them to continue to grow as artists.
Divine has finally surfaced with in 2008 with a new single since her 1st album. I gotta say that I find that she over sings it, and it isn't particularly pleasant to listen to either. Hopefully the rest of her new album will be more redeeming. But overall, I'm finding that all of those people who insisted that Divine was "Better" and "Stronger" then Jully...have not been representing and buying her new single and requesting it in order to make it a hit. It's been a few months and the single really isn't impacting well. "Fairweather Fans" are not sexy, just my opinion, but hopefully they'll come through and give her some solid album sales.
Anyway I enjoyed your writing. I really appreciate the spotlight you gave two fantastic woman of Canadian soul/R&B.