{blackbabes} Review: 'I Remember Me' by Jennifer Hudson

It's a rare artist who can be called a survivor on her second album.

* ** ½ SOPHOMORE STRENGTH

But when Jennifer Hudson sings on opening track No One Gonna Love You that she's "been through some things," there's no questioning the understatement.

However privately Hudson has dealt with the tragedy that befell her family a few years ago, it's impossible to listen to these songs of love and loss, faith and fortitude without considering their effect on her. It's a credit to the singer's personal grace and her artistic instincts that she avoids easy sentimentality, whether dressing down a lover on R. Kelly-written single Where You At or facing down death and despair on the soaring, gospel-laced Believe.

Even when the material — crafted by a collection of pop and R&B stalwarts — flirts with the banal, Hudson's unmannered strength and class shine through, as surely as the technical prowess she wields with confidence and discretion. "Every single breath's another step on my road," she declares on I Got This, and I Remember Me celebrates her heartwarming progress, and makes us look forward to the rest of her journey. — Elysa Gardner

> Download: Aforementioned songs, Still Here