Monica's fourth album begins as loudly as her songs demand to be played, with producer Missy Elliott warning an interloper not to interrupt her listening pleasure. After the Storm enlists hip-hop's most boisterous elite—DMX raps on "Don't Gotta Go Home," Kanye West cowrites "Knock Knock"—for a set so dynamic it practically bubbles out of the speakers. The manic blurring of rap and soul shows off both sides of Monica: the rhyme-spitting club queen of "Get It Off" and the impassioned crooner who soars over "U Should've Known Better."