Melky Sedeck: Da Joint

While 1998 was a very good year for The Fugees' Lauryn Hill, it was disappointing for the protégés of eccentric frontman Wyclef Jean. Canibus and John Forte both put out excellent debut albums, both of which were commercial disappointments, while the perpetually underachieving Pras failed to catch fire with critics and audiences alike. The two young Jean siblings who make up Melky Sedeck haven't exactly been playing up their connection to Wyclef, but given the contents of their unremarkable debut album, they could use all the help they can get. Strangely, Wyclef doesn't show up anywhere on Da Joint; instead, the album was written, produced, and performed by multi-instrumentalist Sedeck and his sister, singer and lyricist Melky. And while the siblings' decision to write and produce their own album is admirable, it also reveals their big shortcoming: Melky is a horrible, horrible lyricist. At one point, she actually sings, "Love is like a flower," and sadly, that lyric is pretty much indicative of the album's lack of ingenuity. Elsewhere, Melky seems content to merely over-emote lyrics that seem stolen from Oasis' book of elementary rhymes. But the album's nadir is probably Melky Sedeck's inexplicably straight cover of Milli Vanilli's "Girl, I'm Gonna Miss You," (retitled tragedy) a move that has the dubious distinction of being far more shameless and bizarre than anything their brother Wyclef has done to date during his own frequently shameless, frequently bizarre career.