She collaborated with Eve and Kanye.

She debuted with "The Way It Is" - a record as raw in its heartbroken emotion as it was in its groove.

She was cooler than Ashanti, harder than Kelis, and darn near ready to take on Beyonce.

That's why this sophomore effort is disappointing. Cole still possesses a gem of a voice that portrays busted-up-ness better than most. And the rough-edged likes of "Didn't I Tell You" and "Let It Go" still hippity hop. But too often Cole surrounds her vocals with plush strings and plaintive pianos. It would have seemed impossible to dwarf her. But the rush to lushness that is "Heaven Sent" and several other tracks makes Keyshia seem small.

The Mekons "Natural" ★★★½

"Natural" as in au naturel, stripped-down, and folkie. That's a bit unexpected coming from the Mekons, the punk rock consortium of Jon Langford, Tom Greenhalgh, Sally Timms and other subversive pranksters that came together at Leeds University thirty years ago. But if the Mekons aren't making such a big noise this time around, their excursion into British folk minstrelsy around an end-of-days campfire is as winningly ramshackle as always, if a tad darker than usual. "Dark Dark Dark," to be exact, as Greenhalgh puts it on the first song. Still, this music is as resilient in its own way as high-volume rebellions like the 1989 album "Rock 'n' Roll," and songs such as Langford's reggae bounce "Cockermouth" and Greenhalgh's clangorous "Zeroes and Ones" spread the bad news with mischievous glee.