There was plenty of competition for Single of the Month, but the winner is an American release that came out six months ago. I heard Starpoint's "What You Been Missin'" when it came out, thought it was OK, and filed it. It turns out to be one of those records that heeds to be heard a few times over the radio, and thanks to a new Urban Contemporary station in L.A. that's been banging it in heavy rotation long past its chart peak, I've been able to let it sink in.

Over a spare beatbox backing and a simple, pretty three-chord riff, Starpoint�s singers, Renee Diggs and Ernesto Phillips, wail the stuffing out of a repentant man/unforgiving woman scenario, winding up in a guarded sort of reconciliation. If Prince were truly androgynous, and his female incarnation sang a duet with his male side, it would sound a lot like this.