What is this? What has happened to Missy Elliott? Usually she can be relied on to produce some of the most 'in your face' sounding R'n'B/Hip Hop - it's what set her apart from the likes of Mary J Blige.
Teary Eyed is a break up ballad that shows Elliott as heartbroken, damaged and introspective - it is almost certainly this that sticks in the craw. How can someone who wrote the fantastically deranged Work It come out with something as self pitying and ordinary as this? It's so out of character.
Admittedly the production work is fantastic and Teary Eyed is easily as good as similar fare by artists who pump this kind of stuff on a regular basis. Perhaps we have come to expect a little bit more from Missy: filthy lyrics, beats that are angular and more daring than most artists would be willing to flirt with. Teary Eyed represents an exceptional artist putting out what is, by her own standards at least, a very ordinary song.