

Having made his name by helping to break Mary J. Blige in the early Nineties, P. Diddy knows more than a little about what it takes to make a R&B songstress. “I Love You” is a breathy club track with enough hypnotic allure to resemble something by the Neptunes, while “Portrait of Love” is glassy and delirious. “All I Wanna Do” is pleasant, although it isn’t the only track here that feels more like a hot club cut from 2002 than 2008. True to his nature, Diddy recycles the beat from Notorious B.I.G.’s “Sky’s the Limit” for “Dropping Out of Love,” which doesn’t help the feeling that In and Out of Love is short on new ideas. But Dennis is right at home on the piano bounce of “Caught Up” and “Remind You” and while she might not be able to compete with the chic majesty of Rihanna and Ciara, or the soulful pipes of Keyshia Cole, Dennis could easily be this generation’s return to the breathy R&B of Ashanti.