Fall '06 - R&B Album Roundup
John Legend – Once Again
0 Fiyaballs...
Yup, none :(
Fiya (as in flaming, in this instance) 3 on the CD: Heaven, Another Again, P.D.A.
Astonished, dumfounded, flabbergasted, bowled over…taken aback. All adjectives that merely begin to describe how I’ve felt sitting back the last couple years witnessing the multi-platinum success of John Stephens, or what you probably call him, John Legend. To put it short, he’s blown up, but most people read on or below an eighth grade level, so whatever. Anyway, Stephens has decided to not leave well enough alone and follow up his Get Lifted debut with another hour of “music” for us with Once Again. Great. After allowing some decent production to totally overshadow his underwhelming voice for the first couple of tracks, he comes with what he surely thinks is a clever song in Stereo, where he uses a woman as a metaphor for music. I get it. No, I really get it, he’s gay. That’s basically the theme of this album as evidenced by P.D.A. (We Just Don’t Care). Picture Elton John deciding not to officially come out and instead make an R&B album. “Let’s make love, let’s go somewhere they might discover us…we just don’t care, we just don’t care, we just don’t care,” he “croons.” Then on Slow Dance, Stephens officially becomes the most socially unconscious “man” on earth as he tells the um, girl he likes, “Turn that TV off for a minute, politics and talking shit, ain’t really none of my business…let’s not talk about the war, or what they’re fighting for…” Good Lord, Marvin Gaye’s ashes just turned like a drill in the Pacific Ocean. In other entertainment news, Clay Aiken has nothing on this guy.
Robin Thicke – The Evolution of Robin Thicke
(2
1/2) Fiyaballs
Fiya 3 on the CD: Would That Make You Love Me, Shooter, All Night Long (both f/ Lil Wayne)
When we last saw Robin Thicke he was a messenger boy hipster or something with long locks and no first name. A couple years and a Lil Wayne record later, he’s back as the playboy hipster on The Evolution of Robin Thicke. Remy Shand and Jon B. are sure to be proud. Thicke has seemed to find his niche as the cool white boy, that’s cool with being the white boy around black people. Instead of trying to prove he can fit in, he instead earns his stripes by going after a universal property, all men; black, white, yellow and chartreuse alike can respect, namely women. He gets kudos from me right away by admitting he, as a representative of all men, is Complicated on the song by the same name. Lost Without You and I Need Love are mid to lower tempo songs where Alan’s son settles into his comfort zone. He should have stayed there too as his Joe Cool persona doesn’t quite work on Everything I Can’t Have, where he’s drowned out by the Cuban house band and Cocaine, which works out like a Blaxploitation movie written by a Mormon. On the surprise song of the album, Lil Wayne drops a couple verses on All Night Long. Add the fifteenth straight appearance of Shooter on CD, and it becomes clear as day that Wayne and Thicke have real chemistry. Maybe it’s me, but I wouldn’t mind seeing these two record a real “Best of Both Worlds” type album. Thicke could be McCartney and Wayne could...no, that’s not right at all. They do match up well together on songs though.
Darien Brockington – Somebody To Love
Fiyaballs
Fiya 3 on the CD: Don’t Say Goodbye, I Got What You Need, I Need You (f/ Little Brother)
First off I’d like to thank Malik Sinsear for introducing me to Little Brother and their fresh outlook on Hip-Hop, which I was beginning to give up on. It’s through their album that I first heard the crew's in-house R&B hook guy (Phonte aside), Darien Brockington. I remember reading some trendy paper label him as the “neighborhood D’Angelo,” which made me chuckle, but honestly, I didn’t mind his riffing and harmony much, so I said I would give his debut album Somebody To Love, a chance. I was pleasantly surprised by how fluid and soulful it was. The album titled intro feels like a balmy winter afternoon in the city. It sets the tone for an album that is, without a doubt, made for the last quarter of the year. 9th Wonder, who has been quiet since his stellar production on the last Destiny’s Child record, comes back with, the now classic 9th drums and claps on All We Need and Think It Over. And speaking of Blaxploitation, this album sounds and feels a lot like Christion’s 1997 classic, Ghetto Cyrano. The bulk of the production does just enough to compliment “D-Brock” (drop the alias, sweety) instead of overshadowing him on tracks like Don’t Say Goodbye and I Got What You Want. Furthermore, if anyone told me a man would try to incorporate a Gina Thompson adlib on record, I would shutter, probably like you’re doing right now, but hearing Darien work Thompson's, The Things You Do into More and More was most definitely a sign that this album was going to be good.
*P.S. if the aforementioned writer is reading this, Brockington is more of a neighborhood Bilal than D’Angelo.
