Three years is a long time between albums. But when it's the sequel to your debut album, that's truly an epoch. I had almost given up hope that Jennifer Paige would release a second album, a sequel to her self-titled debut in 1998. That album had one hit "Crush" and perhaps one or two other songs that got some airplay. For one year Paige was a hot commodity, appearing at the World Music Awards, performing at various talk shows, and even appearing on Later for a full half hour.

And then she dropped out of sight. Her official web site, actually the one put up by her publisher since she doesn't have one herself, remained unchanged for months. It had no news section so the silence was deafening. And there weren't any other web sites dedicated to Paige, as she did not become wildly popular from that first album. Still, with no news at all, I worried that she wasn't popular enough to warrant a second album from her parent label, which would have been unfortunate since I did like her music.

A couple of months ago I was checking through my list of music artists, visiting their web sites to make sure they were still there and for news on any upcoming releases. Lo and behold, Paige's site has been totally revamped and she has a new album out. That's one problem with selling things. Unless you advertise heavily people just don't know that you have a product out there.

Positively Something is a 12-song album, running about 44 minutes. Pretty much pop music with a bit of soul. Hmm, I don't know what to write now. I'm not musically inclined enough to comment about this or that aspect. What I can say is that this album is much more produced than the first one. How can you tell an album is heavily produced? In my opinion, you can tell because the music has a lot of layers. Like they were trying to fill every second with vibrancy. It's a nice effect, not folksy at all, though it does tend to make the live performances seem dull in comparison.

So what's my favorite song of the album. Hard to say. I tend to like songs that have a good beat or are acoustically neat. Thing is I sort of listen to the words, but not too closely. Amazing how many lyrics I know if I started singing them, but that doesn't mean I've actually thought about them. Sort of like a dog, as long as the song sounds happy and cheery the singer could be saying anything and I'd still feel happy and cheery. A catchy main verse helps too.

Actually, I'm more inclined to the beginning of the album. The songs there are a bit faster and harder than the later songs, which are more reflective and quiet. My favorite song, if you could call it favorite, is "Make Me". It has a catchy verse: "Make me, give you everything I've got. A reason, to let you in my private thoughts. Take me, to a higher place where I've never been. The way that no one else can, make me." It's a basic prove-yourself- to-me song.

Ok, this isn't working out. Music is way too subliminal with me. I don't know why I like it, I just do. Not only that, it's hard to describe sound with the written word. Take this verse from the first song, "These Days": "Thank you for not being here. I feel better when you're not sleeping in my head. Tossing and turning messing up the sheets. The love we made was incomplete."

It's not so much the words, it's how they're delivered. She's like singing normally and then for this verse it's almost like she's whispering. But it's not, it's some sort of sound effect to make it sound like she's singing in a weird place, like a small bare room. I don't know how to describe it and that's the problem.

The best I can do is talk about the artist and compare the album to other albums, which I haven't done yet. Positively Something is in my opinion much more polished than the first album. More adult, more defiant, definitely richer in sound. More mature. Definitely an album I like a lot. And I can't really add any more than that.