Hall from Billboard felt that Aaliyah was taking a different approach in comparison to her pop/R&B peers, who "crank out happy-go-lucky albums year after year". He deemed the album as a "sonically diverse set in which each number has an emotion all its own". Reviewing for The Guardian in July 2001, Michael Odell called Aaliyah a flawless blend of pop and R&B, "as much a brochure for the current state of R&B production facilities" as it is a showcase for its namesake's singing. He found the music's textures "scintillating" and believed its distinguishing characteristic to be "a playful and confident reworking of the [R&B] canon". In the Chicago Tribune, Brad Cawn wrote that Aaliyah demonstrates Sade's grace and Missy Elliott's daring with fashionable neo soul that is "equal parts attitude and harmony, and all urban music perfection", while Russell Baillie from The New Zealand Herald deemed the music innovative dance-pop on what he called "a cohesive, detailed and disarmingly enticing album". Simon Price, writing for The Independent, cited the record as "further evidence that black pop is the avant garde". In a review for The A.V. Club, Nathan Rabin argued that the album establishes Aaliyah as a significant artist unobscured by her collaborators, while Hardy from Rolling Stone called it "a near-flawless declaration of strength and independence" in which Aaliyah explores her "fantasies and strengths". Writing for Spin, Clover viewed the record as her most profound work and said she had made "art" out of Timbaland and Static's "formal finesse" by "investing sound schemes with urgency and emotional intricacy". Some reviewers were more qualified in their praise. Mulvey deemed Aaliyah "graceful" and "satisfying rather than extraordinary" in his review for NME. Although he said it is redeemed by Static's consistent songwriting, Timbaland should have contributed more songs, in his opinion. Like Mulvey, Q remarked that its music is decent rather than innovative, with some filler. In Entertainment Weekly, Craig Seymour wrote that there are a few songs that stray from her musical strengths, but elsewhere she "skillfully portrays love as part woozy thrill, part pulse-racing terror". Robert Christgau in The Village Voice named "We Need a Resolution" and "U Got Nerve" as highlights and called Aaliyah "a slave to her beats, but a proud slave". Connie Johnson from the Los Angeles Times was more critical, finding the production unadventurous and the lyrics lacking the depth and "personal revelation that gives