Macy Gray hopes the timing's right for third album

By Nekesa Mumbi Moody
Associated Press

Then her second album landed a week after 9-11, with a resounding thud.

As Gray prepared to release her third album, "The Trouble With Being Myself" (out this week), she found herself in the uncomfortable position of having to re-establish herself as a pop success.

"Music is all about timing," reflects the 32-year-old singer-songwriter. "You could put out the hottest record in the whole world — if it's not the right time for it, it won't work."

Timing was certainly part of the problem surrounding Gray's "The Id."

In the wake of the terror attacks, Gray's sexy, exuberant attitude didn't mesh with the somber, healing tone of the times. "The Id" sold about 585,000 copies — decent for some artists, but a flop compared with the 3.3 million copies sold for her debut, "On How Life Is."

Gray admits that the response to "The Id" left her "freaked out."

"You're given all these things and all of a sudden they're taken away," she says during an interview in her manager's offices, wearing a sweat suit and a cap to cover her braided hair.

"It's just humbling, when things change, and you have to deal with it. I definitely had crazy days, and times where I was just buggin' out, and I definitely had to grow up."

But Gray — one of the industry's more colorful characters with her squeaky-scratchy voice ("You either love it or you hate it," she says), blowout Afro and bubbly personality — hasn't grown up THAT much.

"I've always been a little off," says Gray, the divorced mother of three young children. "I've always been a little touched or weird."

Her new album still has that ribald sense of humor and lyrical wit. And her musical style — a combination of psychedelic soul, funk and rock — continues to defy simple categorization.

"She has a strong, keen sense of pop writing, her narratives are way above and beyond anyone in contemporary black music that I know of," says Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson of The Roots, a friend of Gray's.

But "The Trouble With Being Myself" is more toned down — a bit more finessed, says Dave Way, the disc's co-producer, who has worked on all three of Gray's albums.

Both Way and Gray described "Trouble" as "elegant."

"It's not so indulgent," says Way. On her previous record, "Macy was just feeling great with all the success from her first album, and when it came time to make a record, she wanted to try everything ... and was given license to do whatever she wanted," he said.

If Gray was feeling like a superstar, she certainly seemed as if she was on her way with "On How Life Is." With her unique style and sound, she was a burst of energy on the cookie-cutter pop scene. Word of mouth and critical acclaim helped build album sales, along with her aching love song "I Try," which earned her a Grammy for best female pop performance.

"Macy totally established herself and carved her niche outside of the microwave, sad process that black music is currently trapped inside of," says Thompson.

And the success was dizzying for Gray (real name: Natalie McIntyre), an Ohio native who dabbled in screenwriting and worked behind the scenes as a singer and musician in Los Angeles before getting her break.

After her smashing debut, she quickly became a hot Hollywood ticket — she even landed a bit part in "Training Day," which won Denzel Washington his second Oscar.

"The first album, I don't think she was expecting — I don't think any of us to take off the way it did," says Way. "All of a sudden, Elton (John) and Bono are telling you how great you are."

"When everybody's, like, screaming your name, and you're the hottest (thing) — that's like the best," Gray admits. "You don't really have to face reality, not at all."

"You can say, pick up the phone and say, 'I don't want to deal with reality today, so can you please handle that for me?' And somebody will do it," she says, laughing.

But suddenly landing on the "out" list wasn't much fun.

"I don't like to lose," she says. "Nobody wants to lose what you've got.

"Even if all you've got is a paper bag, you're not trying to lose that."