Keyshia Cole’s sophomore cd Just Like You, hit the streets yesterday. Of course, we downloaded a copy off Amazon’s new Mp3 service. Amazon’s Mp3s work on any media player. Well, Keyshia’s smoky voice and lyrics killed it.

Let It Go, the sassy single released weeks before the rest of the cd, features Lil’ Kim and Missy Elliott. This song, and the video, sets the mood for the rest of tracks. Keyshia sings about a girl hittin’ the town after just breaking up. Keyshia moves on to Fallin’ Out. She goes on to explain the lack of communication between her and her man. The struggle of the relationship. Give Me More is a fitting title for the next track. Why can’t her man be like he used to be? Why can’t he fulfill her needs? Slow ballads fill the middle tracks. Maybe a few too many, but none that we would skip over when listening.

1. Let It Go 3:58
2. Didn’t I Tell You 3:51
3. Fallin’ Out 4:26
4. Give Me More 3:53
5. I Remember 4:20
6. Shoulda Let You Go 3:40
7. Heaven Sent 3:52
8. Same Thing 1:35
9. Got To Get My Heart Back 4:17
10. Was It Worth It? 3:36
11. Just Like You 4:05
12. Losing You 3:49
13. Last Night 4:15
14. Work It Out 4:03
15. Let It Go 3:40

Got To Get My Heart Back picks the beat back up. Keyshia contemplates the relationship. What went wrong? How can she mend her heart? The title track, Just Like You, steps away from singing about the relationship. Focus moves to Keyshia. She’s “just like you”, lettin’ us know a little about the real Keyshia… the person who lives day by day like everyone does.

The tracks end with more contemplation over her relationship. There’s also a remix of Let It Go, with TI and Young Dro. As a whole we enjoyed it. There may be a few too many ballads, but Keyshia Cole’s sultry voice adds a unique flavor to every track. This is a successful followup to The Way It Is.

Check out the sample tracks of Just Like You here.

Here’s Keyshia performing “Let It Go”. An exclusive video for Yahoo‘s Music channel. With Cole’s sophomore CD, “Just Like You,” only a few weeks from release, she’s been on the road. Recently at the House of Blues…

“Cole opened with “(I Just Want It) to Be Over,” and it was obvious right away that she was in a typically feisty mood: While her six-piece band transformed her album’s plush R&B productions into hard-angled soul-rock rave-ups, Cole emphasized the grain in her voice, pushing it to raw emotional extremes that sometimes required a sacrifice in pitch. One back-up singer sported a faux-hawk, and the haircut seemed appropriate given the music’s unvarnished punkiness.

Cole didn’t slow down for a breather until “You’ve Changed,” which she sang while sitting on a stool. Well, half-sitting: Cole kept standing to punctuate lyrics with bits of body language.”