For Destiny's Child, three self-proclaimed "independent women" who have now dropped three outstanding albums, their latest album's title, Survivor, is a fitting one. After going platinum nine times with The Writing's On The Wall, Destiny's Child have taken on a broader variety of musical styles with Survivor as well as adding different flavors to the tracks. Survivor flows from up-tempo pop, to R&B slow jams, to a spoken-word rap (!) on one of their tracks. There's even a great cover of Samantha Sang's seventies disco hit, "Emotion," that's given acoustic highlights and showcases both the group's pipes and the sleek production on the CD.

Survivor opens with their 11 week chart-topper "Independent Women Part I" (originally penned for the Charlie's Angels soundtrack), and while that might give you the misconception that the other songs to follow will run along the same lines, later on there's a reprise of the song ("Independent Women, Part II") that wildly deconstructs the original, providing an experimental edge rarely found in R&B. "Survivor", the first single released from the album, has an autobiographical background to it: it refers to a real situation the group faced, when they were told in the past that they would never make it. But this album proves that the music of Destiny's Child has evolved over the years from purely disposable ear candy into music that demands respect through its irresistibility.

Of course, given the gospel bent that the group's harmonies have highlighted in the past, no Destiny's Child album would be complete without the trio belting out a gospel medley, in acapella no less. It only adds to the wide array of styles that characterize this CD. If Destiny's Child have excelled this far in only three albums, it's likely that these "Survivors" will only continue their ascendance with future albums.