Straight from the Crates.

April 23, 2012

Britney Spears – …Baby One More Time

By rura88

Britney Spears
…Baby One More Time
Januari 12, 1999
Jive/ Sony Music Entertainment

(Today my friend RuRa88 a.k.a. R.R. reviews Britney Spears’ ’99 debut album …Baby One More Time and introduces a brand new format for straightfromthecrates.com. One for albums the author finds unworthy of a track-by-track, and don’t really have any real highlights. Did I just give away the ending? Oh well… As always whenever I feel the need to open my mouth whatever I say will be in Italics as well as in brackets. So for the extremely dumb among you: Whenever entire sentences are italicized and in bracket, it is I Sir Bonkers. Everyting else is R.R.’s. Enjoy and leave some comments for him below.)

I once made a promise, wrote a review and detested the promise I had made. This is the second version of the review given the first version lacked pun. Right, this is the second time I pressed the play-button of my CD-player thus the title of the review should suffice. I sincerely hope this will be the last time I have to listen to this shiny disc containing formulated Teen Pop from 1999.

Guess which album found its place in my CD-player? Britney Spears’ album …Baby One More Time. Let me give you an inside to the situation. A few minutes ago I was happy listening to old school Pink Floyd and now this. Do know I am censoring myself to save you from my more coarse vocabulary, arghhh…

Track one starts with teenage insecurity as the title of the album is the first track of the album followed by longing for the boys love à la (You Drive Me) Crazy. The second track at least has a guitar solo. Track three Sometimes focuses on insecurity en unpredictability in a relationship, oh my. Track four gives you time to bounce again since Soda Pop is quite bubbly sounding, leveling the vibes again. (If anyone cares, this track was also on the Pokémon Soundtrack, which was reviewed earlier on straightfromthecrates.com.) She is still waiting for the boy to make a move though, party time indeed. Party time is over with track five named Born To Make You Happy since the boy is gone. Apparently they broke up, aha. Even slower track six kicks in appropriately named From The Bottom Of My Broken Heart and yes the boy is still gone and the first love is very much missed.

Oh why? I will just have to finish the track list for now which is still tolerable given the production of the album itself is slick and it sounds very pleasant. The album is very vocal oriented and Britney does not sound bad at all.

The pace picks up again with track seven called I Will Be There. Reminds me of a typical Celine Dion song, oh well. In the mean time the story of the lyrics continues: I am still here, come to me! (A sign of hope I guess.) Nice guitar again and the backing vocals are really done well. A standout track follows. Yes it’s time for I Will Still Love You with Don Philips. Just for the instrumental side this track is a standout alone on this album but the lyrically it is a continuation of track seven. Nostalgia about love is nice; I get it. Up tempo, a dance beat and track nine kicks in, Deep In My Heart. The love is back, how romantic.

The Romance continues with track ten, Thinkin’About You since all is good again. Being together feels good, understood. Britney’s voice sounds very nice on this track. E-Mail My Heart is the name of track eleven. (Does anything date an album more efficiently than it containing a song titled E-Mail My Heart?) The boy is gone again. How to urge for contact: ask for an e-mail in 1999. The end is near though since the twelfth track is groovy and fun because The Beat Goes On. This line says it all: “Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain”. The first lines of The Beat Goes On do what most of the tracks on this album fail to do: they move me. Track twelve is worthy of the repeat button.

Now the largest problem I have with this album is the overall theme of ‘love’. The love theme is almost constantly being repeated with slight changes in context. Thus lyrically I find this album as good as processed food remains squeezed out of the body. Britney Spears herself had no say in the lyrics and just did a good job. Instrumentally the albums sounds slick and pleasant. No loudness, no sibilance, no excessive bass emphasis and not too much emphasis on anything really to annoy me.

If it wasn’t for The Beat Goes On I would have taken out this shiny disc and would have put in something less ‘formulated’. In a few minutes I will do so no matter what. Should I ever feel the urge to press play for this album it would be for track twelve. The extra tracks on my album version don’t interest me.

As for you my dear reader and Sir Bonkers, I shan’t recommend this album to anyone but a cactus since it lacks human ears. Of course feel free to give this shiny disc a listen while I feast my ears and brain to some old David Bowie music…

R.R.

Leave a comment | tags: 1999, All Seeing I, Britney Spears, David Kreuger, Denniz Pop, Eric Foster White, Jive Records, Kristian Lundin, Max Martin, Per Magnusson, Rami Yacoub | posted in 1999, Britney Spears, Pop, Rura88 a.k.a. R.R.

April 7, 2012

New Edition – Candy Girl

By Sir Bonkers

New Edition
Candy Girl
March 15, 1983
Streetwise/ Warlock

As a complementary post to my review of Whitney Houston (I started writing this one a long ass time ago) I will today have a look at the kickstart of, amongst four other singers, her ex-husband Bobby Brown. Soon after Bobby and Whitney married he was seen as an ’90s equivalent of Kevin Federline. This is not fair at all since he actually had a career with enough hit singles to compile a pretty decent Greatest hits album. But we’ll get there when we’ll get there.

So in the late ’70s Bobby Brown, Michael Bivins and Ricky Bell lived in the same Boston housing project. At some point they took part in a talent show as Jackson 5 imitators. Producer Maurice Starr thought that the boys would actually work as a profitable early eighties J5 equivalent and turned out to be damn right. At some point Ralph Tresvant came in and became the lead singer and the cousin of their choreographer: Ronnie DeVoe would also parttake in what was supposed to be a New Edition of the Jackson Brothers mid-sixties incarnation.

What no-one could imagine at this point that their career would in fact take off and never really die out (not even today). Since ’83 they have released seven group albums and every member has found some form of succes outside of the group. Bobby Brown being the best example, selling eight million copies of his sophomore Don’t Be Cruel. And every time the guys regroup they manage to rack up some interest, which is good for them, I suppose.

However in 1983 they were recording their debut on an indie label, hoping it would click with audiences. When it did turn out succesful they didn’t know how soon to jump ship to MCA, a major label, effectively leaving the guy who put them on the map: Maurice Starr in the dust. He however would find a way to exact revenge upon the group, as well as the entire world by effectively creating the Caucasian equivalent of N.E.: New Kinds on the Block, paving the way for Take That, the Backstreet Boys, Westlife, Boyzone, Blue, 5ive and any other example of a group of young, conventionally attractive white guys singing songs written by corporate songwriters and not playing any instruments and producing, generally speaking, horrible music without much shelf life.

So, about shelf life: How has Candy Girl aged?

1. Gimme Your Love
Right off the bat it becomes clear that Mr. Starr wasn’t kidding about that new Jackson 5 stuff. Lead singer Tresvant sounds almost exactly like Michael did on I Want You Back (even though the similarity would become less when Ralph matured it would never disappear entirely) However this is most certainly not Motown-esque in any way shape or form. With its raps and vocoder work this is 1983 to the max. The New Edition of Gimme Your Love would most certainly not have been out of place on S.O.L.A.R. records.

2. She Gives Me a Bang
It’s quite amazing how many bands and artists ripped off Zapp’s brand of bouncy electro-funk. Well, this goes short of overdoing it by keeping their vocoders in their pants and because of the boys said Jacksons-ishness they manage to not sound like Zapp at all. It’s still quite clear where Maurice got his inspiration for the beat from.

3. Is This the End?
I hope I can avoid referring to the J5 in every single paragraph but this sounds like New Edition’s answer to I’ll Be There. In 1997 Puff Daddy, Twista, Ginuwine and Carl Thomas raped and pillaged this one for a track of the same name. One of the better tracks off Puff’s No Way Out album, mind you. Anyway, this pretty damn passable.

4. Pass the Beat
Well here they certainly sound like an original entity. Over an Axel F-ish instrumental, classy vocoder work included, they spend most of their time rapping. It’d be quite a stretch to say this would be the origin of the early 1990s G-funk movement, so I won’t do that. I will say this is pretty damn enjoyable. N.E. is known for their ability so sing and rap on their records with equal succes. This has saved them and their record labels a fair amount of money on guest rappers throughout the years.

5. Popcorn Love
Now this sounds like a Motown rip off. Matter of fact, this is a carbon copy of I Want You Back. And if that weren’t distracting enough: this one was sampled on Harlem World’s I Really Like It, which is just a terrible song in any wat imaginable. This the boys cannot help I suppose, but that doesn’t make it any less distracting. If you look past those thing you’ll have a rather appealing, catchy song that’ll enrich the playlist of any ironic hipster partay, even though everyone will actually be genuinely liking it, as opposed to ironically, in secret.

6. Candy Girl
And this what ABC would’ve sounded like if the J5 had Zapp as their backing band. And I am getting pretty bored here. Not by the music I’m listening to but by my own goddamnm writing the exact same shit over and over gain. But this song isn’t bad.

7. Ooh Baby
While this doesn’t sound too much like any song I can think of to be considered a rip off I know it does suck balls. The instrumental sounds like the theme song to one of the shittier ’80s sitcoms and the by the number vocals and lyrics don’t do much to salvage it.

9. Should’ve Never Told Me
It’s pretty bonkers how in the years between the release of Candy Girl and today almost every R&B artist started squeezing sexual commands, bragging and lame metaphores for proclamations of love into meager rhyme schemes in lieu of actual songwriting and that digital processing has taken the place of actual singing, effectively making the genre hiphop’s diabetic little bitch-cousin. That, along with production trends shifting towards fusing every established genre with ridiculous, shitty electronic novelty ones, is why, to me, this album sounds better than for instance My Worlds.

10. Got to Have Your Lovin’
Glittery, bouncy, teeny, sunny and not very special, creative or original. But still better than most of what you’ll hear on mainstream radio today by a pretty decent margin. Got to Have Your Lovin’ is this album in a nutshell.

11. Jealous Girl
Ma$e and Puff Diddy must love the shit out of this album because next to Puff recycling Is This the End? for his deut album and mr. Betha’s ripping off Popcorn Love for the occupational therapy project for Mason’s weed carriers called Harlem World‘s first single I Really Like It, the two of them pretty much cover this song almost straightforwardly with label labelmates/ Urban male vocal quartet 112 (pronounce “one-twelve”) as the closer for his own occupational therapy project for treating his narcolepsy/ debut album, also called Harlem World. That version of this song is so ridiculously funny that because of the memory of it I cannot stop laughing at the moment to form a coherent opinion about it. Candy Girl is over.

Best tracks:
Is This the End?, Candy Girl, Pass the Beat, Popcorn Love

Conclusions:
Candy girl is, like most teen pop albums, pure uncut fluff. It is however pretty good fluff. And while it doesn’t even hint at the greatness what was to come in the form of follow-up albums and solo projects by its various members it is more often than not bouncy, groovy, catchy music that’ll get you to tap your foot or nod you head or do whatever the fuck your music listening tic forces you to do. And for that it warrants a revisit. Also, the fact that nobody listens to it today (except for the people who were young in ’83) means you’ll probably be totally avant-garde in your retro-ness. Which is the only plausible purpose for peope to read this blog anyway, to increase the scope of their hipsterdom. So there, you are welcome!

Recommendations:
As long as you don’t look for creativity or originality in your music specifically and if some love for early ’80s pre Nre Jack Swing camp, you could do a lot worse than to buy Candy Girl. If you don’t take it too seriously you can have a lot of fun with it.

Leave a comment | tags: 1983, Bobby Brown, Maurice Starr, Michael Bivins, Ralph Tresvant, Ricky Bell, Ronnie DeVoe, Streetwise, Warlock Records | posted in 1983, Electrofunk, Funk, New Edition, Post Disco, R&B, Sir Bonkers

March 5, 2012

Drake – So Far Gone EP

By Sir Bonkers

Drake
So Far Gone EP
October’s Very Own/ Young Money/ Cash Money Records/ Motown/ Universal Music Group
September 15, 2009

Hadn’t I reviewed this one already? Yes and no. You see: After Drake’s free So Far Gone mixtape had gotten shitloads of critical acclaim Drake’s new major label home: Lil’ Wayne’s Young Money decided that it deserved a commercial re-release. However since Drake had borrowed liberally from a bunch of the songs on the mixtape, as is common practice with this type of project, releasing the motherfucker commercially would be a rather expensive affair, as clearing samples is costly. Also, who would pay for an album that was already available for free on the internet in the exact same form? So for the EP Let’s Call It Off, November 18, Ignant Shit, Little Bit, Unstoppable as well as some of the original recordings were cut and three new recording were added.

Off course what we have here is still a bit of a rerun of an album I didn’t like that much in the first place, so why review this? Well, l learnt to like couple of the songs off the original So Far Gone after accidentally landing it on my iPod, and no matter whether I’ll like this project I won’t take me long to cruise through as this is only seven tracks long.

Let’s check it out, shall we?

1. Houstatlantavegas
I thought this song sucked when I first listened to the album length mixtape version of So Far Gone, and I still do. Sorry Drizzy. Even though the beat is okay the lyrics are incoherent and nonsensical, dipped in some autotuned emo douchebag special sauce.

2. Succesful (feat. Trey Songz & Lil’ Wayne)
And why include Trey Songz on one of your songs when you yourself could in fact sing this bullshit hook in a nearly identical manner? Wouldn’t that save a paycheck? Also, if you’re going to insert a shitty Lil’ Wayne verse into your shitty song, do put in some more effort into hiding that it was added as an afterthought after Lil’ Weezy decided to show up at the studio after a weeklong sizzurp binge when everyone else had already left the studio.

3. Best I Ever Had
Or the reason I started giving a fuck about Aubrey. I used to dislike Best I Ever Had, but after repeated listens I realised why, to me, this comes off as insincere. This is Drake lying to every female on the planet that she individually is the absolute best thing to have ever happened to him, and getting away with it (He goes as far as to admit it on the intro). This is an admirable if immoral thing to pull off, but would mean jack shit if the flow and beats weren’t so tight. The lyrics are the superlative of corny but intentionally so. “And you don’t even have to ask twice, you can have my heart or we could share it like the last slice.” “Sweatpants, hair tied, chillin’ with no make-up on. That’s when you’re the prettiest. I hope that you don’t take it wrong.” And the flow gets switched up along with the tone Drake uses on the fictitious female this song is aimed at, which is pretty nice. Boi 1da’s instrumental has just the right balance of melody and bombast. Credit where credit is due, kids.

4. Uptown (feat. Bun B & Lil’ Wayne)
Wasn’t bad when I first heard it and it still isn’t but Lil’ Weezy sounds more annoying this time around. Speaking of him. Why should that motherfucker appear on three out of this EP’s seven tracks? I’m not an opponent of Wayne per se but here he does nothing but detract from the songs over all enjoyability. Oh right. He was at the time the most popular rapper on the planet, as well as Drizzy’s label boss and this EP had to move units in order for Drake to get a shot at a full-length. And also who gives a fuck about marginally important shit like talent and quality control anymore?

5. I’m Going In* (feat. Lil’ Wayne & Young Jeezy)
“I’m going in and I’ma go hard.” Who gave Weezy more sizzurp before he got into the booth? It doesn’t help that this is the hook, so you’ll get to hear it a gazilion times after each verse. Jeezy sounds as enthousiastic but incompetent as ever and Drake ends up having the best verse of the track to nobody’s surprise.

6. The Calm*
This is the Drake I learnt to hate over the years. Some whiny “introspective” lyrics over a crappy unfinished ambient sounding Noah 40 Shebib instrumental. Also, this isn’t calm, at all. “I called this shit the Calm, but I’m the furthest thing from calm.” Clever, no?

7. Fear*
Well, well, well. Aubrey said some shit about no autotune at the beginning of this track but it certainly didn’t take him long to break that promise. Everything I said about the Calm is also true about this, but DJ Khalil’s beat is a lot better than what 40 brought to the table on the previous track. I still didn’t really enjoy this but I didn’t hate it either.

Best track
Best I Ever Had, Uptown, Fear

Conclusions
So yeah. This EP sucks. Plain and simple. Some of it has to do with the more interesting cuts from the original release being taken off, some of it has to do with Lil’ Wayne’s presence and some of it with Drake recording while on his period again. Still, Best I Ever Had is a classic that’ll help anyone’s hiphop collection get better.

Recommendations
Considering that So Far Gone was already available in a better incarnation you shouldn’t pay a dime for that song or the EP. You should rather track down the best songs off the mixtape version and, hell I’m in a good mood, Fear and call it a night.

*Not on the So Far Gone mixtape

Leave a comment | tags: 40, Arthur McArthur, Boi 1-da, Cash Money Records, DJ Khalil, Drake, Motown, Needlz, Universal Music Group, Young Money | posted in 2009, Canadian Hiphop, Drake, R&B, Sir Bonkers, Uncategorized, Young Money

March 1, 2012

Perfume – Perfume: Complete Best

By Sir Bonkers

Perfume: Complete Best
Perfume
August 2, 2006
Tokuma Japan

(Okay, so my homeboy Van Wonder decided to put in some work and review Perfume: Complete Best for straightfromthecrates.com. As I know nothing of Japanese pop music or Japanese culture in general I’ll shut up during the remainder of the review. Please leave some comments for him below.)

NIHON, SUKI DESU!

Konichiwa, Van Wonder desu. Hajimemashta. <3

Seriously, that’s how far my knowledge of Japanese goes. Which is sad actually, considering the ridiculous amounts of me singing faux-english, half Japanese lyrics that I make my neighbours endure.

There’s something weird about Japan, everyone knows it. Heck: Alphaville knew it way back in 1984. Being a Japanophile myself, I don’t necessarily have the same opinion, I agree it is pretty weird that you can buy used panties in a vending machine, that the parliament proposed a law against sexual depictions of not-so-very-legal characters in anime and it didn’t pass. On the other hand, its population is one of the most prude people in the world. The Japanese are masters of outright sexual display, without it being overly sexual. They call it ‘moe’, which means cute. Cute girls in all its variations, be it little girls in maid outfits, 48 girls dancing perfectly synchronized to horrible pop music. To me exemplary, and also one of the ways I got into this mess, is the pop formation Perfume. I skipped out on using the word band, because that comes dangerously close to giving them artistic merit. Harsh? Nah, I bet they can take it. They’re adults now.

When I first heard them they weren’t: they started their careers of when they were twelve years old (Angola is among the few places where it isn’t considered statutory rape, also did you know that there’s no age limit on Antarctica?). Right, so… Lolicon issues aside (Google it yourself, I’m not going to explain everything). The reason why I struggle to give them any credit for the music, is because of their producer. There’s no Western producer that comes close to the way Yasutaka Nakata murdered their voices. He’s famous for stripping away irrelevant things like personality and ‘human feel’ to make the singers he uses do exactly what he wants. They started out as a cutesy shibuya-kei trio. Shibu… ? What? Sigh, Shibuya is one of the biggest fashion areas in Tokyo and ‘kei’ means ‘style’: so that would make it ‘the style of Shibuya’. Music that focuses mainly on electro pop, incorporating new wave sounds and it also has plenty bossa nova and jazz influences. It’s one of the biggest things to come out of Japan really, with its influence sphere reaching all the way to France and if you’re trying really hard I guess England too, why the hell not?

Oh right, so Yasutaka Nakata signed them to his label when their mediocre attempt at making it with some indie label in Tokyo didn’t work out. Fresh out of acting school they were naïve, maybe, young: yes. So they signed and sold their soul like anyone would. Yasutaka then moved them to the Akibahara-district, the electronic shopping district in Tokyo (this is where you can find that vending machine, you guys). It was while they were giving live performances on the streets of Akiba (shortening names is the shit in Japan) when they found their target audience. Horny men who were all too excited to see three adorable girls lip-synching to chiptune sounds (= using vintage computer game sounds in music).

The launch of the first album Perfume: complete best, a compilation album consisting of their singles produced at the indie label pimped by Yasutaka and some of his own compositions, was possible largely due to their successful appearances at the venues in Akiba and a minor commercial success in the charts. Because of Yasutaka’s rule over the songs it features a lot of vocoder and other computer synthesized voice editing and sounds, although sometimes you can hear small whimpers of natural sounding voice coming trough. I bet that when you play the album backwards you can hear them pleading to gain their human rights back.

Luckily for us, if you play the album like it’s supposed to it’s all fun and games, sugar-coated happy fun time land.

1. Perfect Star Perfect Style

The first track is the only new track, specifically composed for this album, and this is undoubtedly Yasutaka’s furthest move from his Shibuya roots on this album; incorporating a steady house beat throughout the song. While heavy on the autotune, this song suprisingly actually features some clear vocals from the girls during the slower, ballad like parts. Hold on, let me use my incredible intel to find the lyrics. … “The truth is, I’m unwavering, and I just can’t pull away, I still gently carry in my arms that file that remains important to me”. Assuming the translation is accurate, this would suggest that it’s a song about a psychopath at a desk job (they call those salarymen in Japan). “Even my outstretched hands can no longer reach you“. Ah, thank god, it is a love song after all. The glimpses you get of the ‘real’ voices blend together nicely with the auto-tuned tracks, a catchy, emotional song to set the mood.

2. Linear Motor Girl

And as soon as the mood that’s been set by the previous song has sunk in, this thing starts playing. Utterly tearing it apart. Easily the most juvenile song on the album and I’m not even talking about the lyrics. They’re exactly what you would expect: it’s a song sung in awful Engrish about a motor girl, who’s very fond of traveling in a linear way. The instrument Yasutaka chose for the melody reminds me of, I don’t even know: the song reeks of kindergarten and little kids choking on crayons. Not surprisingly though, as this was the first Perfume single Yasutaka produced outside of the indie label, so he was probably playing it safe.

Ugh, I wish he didn’t.

3. Computer City

Now we’re getting to the good stuff, the sixth single under Yasutaka’s guidance and we can already get a glimpse of what we’re in for. This song features heavy voice distortion right from the bat, but to keep things light there’s that same house beat as we saw in Perfect Star. … Kind of disappointing that upon further inspection it does sound precisely as the beat in the first song but oh well? How many different generic house-beats can a man create? Interesting about this song is that the lyrics focus on technology a lot, “This town was made with perfect calculation, I want to escape it, I want to break down”. Emphasizing the hard life that comes with ever changing realities, caused by fast advancement in computer engineering and new media is something we haven’t really seen around since Kraftwerk. Interesting Perfume, interesting.

Oh no wait, it’s a love song. “I wonder if the truth exists, in a paradise made of perfect calculation, the only thing that is true is my love”. 10 points for reminding me of Kraftwerk though.

4. Electoro World

We westerners would pronounce it ‘electro’, but everyone knows Japanpeoples are incapable of normal English. This song progresses on the technology-theme introduced by the last song, which is to be expected since they came out shortly after each other. Focusing yet again on the fearful aspects of too much tech in modern culture, but this time without transgressing into a sappy love song. Goodu Jobbu, Yasutaka! I simply love the voice track on this song, over-produced synth-heavy stretches of sound that really make this one of the stand-outs on the album. Also: electric guitar what?

5. Inryoku (Gravity)

Released as a b-side to Vitamin Drop, an early Indie label release, it has the same base instrumentarium as Linear Motor Girl and that same kindergarten-feel to it. Except in the case of Inryoku it doesn’t make me want to punch a preschooler in the face, it actually makes me uncomfortable happy, now why? I think it is because this song has so much more to say for itself, instead of just focusing on the obvious: omigawd, check out this innocent young girls and their cute little dances; the song incorporates a lot of chiptune and makes some sexy allusions to Shibuya-kei pioneer Fantastic Plastic Machine. His style is clearly recognizable through the chopped up lyrics at the beginning, the quirky interlude notes Yasutaka made the girls sing and the bossa nova synth in the background. Together, the chiptune and the FPM homage coat the song with a nostalgic feel, bringing me back to my gameboy days. Pretty okay.

6. Monochrome Effect

THIS SONG IS PURE HAPPY. Now, it might be because I’m just, well… me, but this song just blows my mind. So HNNNGGH happy and cute. Only the second song they made together with Yasutaka and the first one to get a semi-professional clip. Now, this is before they achieved their Akiba-fame, so the clip… is pretty interesting to say the least. Whereas later on in Electoro World the girls wake up in some kind of dystopic tech-lab, in the video for Monochrome Effect they take a ride in a giant Shark-submarine, wear jawdroppingly cute (read: moe, not sexy. Per se…) outfits and don’t display the high paced synched dancing they’re famous for just yet. It is adorable. When sad: eat sugar + watch this .

7. Vitamin Drop

It seems as if the complete middle of the album is infected with the cutes. Vitamin Drop is also early Perfume stuff, but a lot more generic than the last song, it’s a shame that you have to sit this thing out for five minutes. Except for the translated lyrics, this song is pretty boring, but I wouldn’t want you to miss out on those for the world: ‘Closing the deep wound, Ah, Verbal abuse, Will it disappear some day?’.

8. Sweet Doughnuts

‘If I warm the inside of my heart with a microwave oven can I eat it too?’ It seems the cuter the songs get, the more morbid the lyrics are. I can’t say I really adore this song, although it does fit together nicely with the rest of the songs in the middle. Right now, I am trying to quit my Ibuprofen addiction and this song does not bode well with withdrawal headaches, but otherwise: this is a song you play when you need to get somewhere fast, forcing you to grin like a maniac upon arrival.

9. Foundation

Finally, this song offers us a chance to cool off and let my headache sorta subside. I already know what’s coming next, so I can tell you this is just an interlude to the final sugarcoated smack in the face Perfume will be handing out on this album. A nice, easy paced song, to relax the body, until: wham! Disco beats? Okay… I guess , time to get up again. Ugh.

10. Computer Driving

There’s a very sharp note playing throughout the song, that’ll hit you on the head and make you cringe every few seconds. Other than that, this b-side to Linear Motor Girl smells like crayon for sure, but there’s actually a pretty nice bass involved at some point. That, together with the addition of some new, slightly different chiptune bleep’s and bloop’s and some twists in composition make this four and half minute song highly enjoyable.

11. Perfume

Ahh. This brings me back. The first song I heard from the group, ‘Perfume’ is a ridiculously high-paced anthem-like song, it has everything a good Perfume needs to have: cute deranged singing, faster than light house beats and synths and apparently a surprise xylophone. Pretty sweet. Pretty sweet indeed.

12. Wonder2

As the final song on the album this is a foreshadowing of what Perfume is capable of in the hands of Yasutaka. One of the more grown-up songs on the album (it was a b-side to Electoro World). Clearly showcasing the evolution Perfume has undergone in the first three years, the sounds and the girls voices are somewhat childish still, but also gained a less compassionate more industrialized feel to them. Likewise the beat has lost its disco, lost its Shibuya-kei influences and has transformed into a droning electropop beat. A calm, drifting ending to our sugarhigh. Perfect.

Best tracks:

Electoro World, Monochrome effect, Computer City and Perfume.

Conclusion:

The album is a nice summary of the three first years of Perfume, although I strongly believe that the album could’ve done without a few of the early indie label productions. They seem shallow and just plain silly next to the later works of composer Yasutaka. That said, with the amazing progression on this album alone it’s not hard to believe that they would become one of Japan’s most influential electropop bands, paving the way for more computerized vocal experimentation such as the vocaloid software and clearly showing that it is still possible for a niche like Shibuya-kei music to gain mainstream success. But that’s looking to much ahead in the future, in 2006 their fans were still just the people passing by one of Perfume’s early street concerts on their way to buy the latest porn game.

Recommendations:

As I said, there’s a few way too sugary child abuse inducing songs on this album, if that is your thing: righto, good for you. They’re great songs to clean to aswell. What I can recommend to anyone who fancies electro music is the rest of the album, they make such a nice shift from our, compared to, boring repititions of the same beats and samples. Truly refreshing,

Leave a comment | tags: 2006, J-Pop, Perfume, Tokuma Japan, Yasutaka Nakata | posted in 2006, Perfume, Van Wonder

February 13, 2012

Whitney Houston – Whitney Houston

By Sir Bonkers

Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston
March 14, 1985
Arista Records/ Sony Music Entertainment

Well, well, well. That was not-quite-unexpected-but-still-mildly surprising.

Yesterday Whitney Houston, aged fourty eight, died of as of now unknown causes. Divorced from R&B bad boy Bobby Brown and “clean” for six years one would imagine that her life was finally taking a turn for the better. Maybe she died of a lack of drugs, Amy style. Not here to speculate about that for too long. After all this blog is about the music strictly, obviously.

By the way, if you can’t handle biting, nasty, flat-out mean remarks about our suject of today, her private life or her music, this early after her passing I suggest you leave now.

So, in 2006 crackhead Whitney ditched her deadbeat crackhead hubby B. Brown, possibly to get out of the daily crackhead-routine, and started working on a comeback album, which would surface in 2009. And whilst it was commercially not entirely unsuccesful it did show quite clearly that after years of chain-smoking and freebasing little was left of “the voice”. I haven’t yet listened to that fucker beyond its singles, but yeah what I did hear was pretty fucking depressing. I can imagine young listeners hearing her for the first time wondering what the fuss was all about in the first place. Well, here we are. It is 1985 and Whitney Houston came fresh on the scene with her self-titled debut album.

Whitney was the daughter of grammy winning gospel singer Cissy Houston, with whom she toured a lot at a young age, gaining her first stage experience. Apparently she was offered a bunch of record deals at a young age but her mother declined these because she wanted Whitney to finish high school. In 1983 however, she got signed by Arista head honcho Clive Davis. And Davis, Houston and a bunch of producers, including for some reason MJ’s big brother Jermaine, got it cracking. Allegedly because of Whitney’s gospel-styled vocals it took them two years to find a suitable set of pop songs, because as tame and slick as Whitney Houston is, it was considered revolutionary upon release. That is really hard to imagine for those who weren’t there at the time to experience the buzz firsthand. You see. For those of us who aren’t middle-aged housewives, Whitney Houston is best known as that annoying bitch whose overblown yelling, placed over barf-inducingly saccharine instrumentals, plays in the background while we’re at the mall, where we didn’t want to be in the first place, to purchase a new winter coat. Yes Whitney is, by those who aren’t hardcore fans, seen as the most generic of all divas.

That is entirely unfair. Houston pioneered the style. The style being melismatically singing over sugarcoated, marshmellow-centred pop instrumentals. Not that that’ll convince anyone who thinks otherwise that her music is any good but it does give her producers and her originality points.

Also, the girl could sing. Before the was smoking bobby brown with Bobby Brown and before mariah Carey stole her style wholesale and topped her in the vocal range department she was arguably the best singer in the game. This is evident when you realise that some of this mid-1980s shtick is actually bearable and that these corporate-songwriter creations are sung a lot more convincingly than they deserve to be. Aiding her in coating these tin cans with a thin layer of gold was her enormous, unusually clear mezzo-soprano voice. Off course to maximize the potential you’d have to give apply this fantastic instrument to some well written, interesting material. Alas,not much in the form of that is to be found on Whitney Houston, but it would occur later on in her career (i.e.: My Love Is Your Love).

Right then. Let’s get this over with.

1. You Give Good Love

Well this certainly isn’t bad. But you’ll need to have some sort appreciation for downtempo ’80s R&B-cheese to get anything out of this, obviously. What’s most impressive from a 2012 perspective is how clean this sounds even though it is devoid of vocal effects. “Clean or sterile?” I hear you think. This one walks the line.

2. Thinking About You

This instrumental sounds like something that would be played during a car chase in a 1980s cop show. Not much else to be said about this.

3. Someone For Me

I expected this album to be totally funk-less but this cut is funky, albeit in an overtly Lionel Richie-esque manner, as not to distract the shopping audiences from buying that perfume in time for Valentine’s day. Glad that Whitney Houston isn’t entirely without up-tempo stuff though.

4. Saving All My Love For You

An affair with a married man? That’s way edgier subject manner than I expected. Well, this one is an adult contemporary classic for a reason. The ’80s-porn-movie sax helps to make this a guilty pleasure. And there’s off course Whitney’s singing. Technically perfect and confident as ever.

5. Nobody Loves Me Quite Like You Do (feat. Jermaine Jackson)

I actually like Jermaine Jackson’s voice, but in the context of this cheesy piano ballad I start wondering what kind of lemon meringue of a song would’ve been created had brother Michael chose to be on this, since he also had a thing for horribly bland balladry (i.e. I Just Can’t Stop Loving You) . It’d probably be just as disappointingly bad as Whitney’s duet with Mariah off the Prince of Egypt offial Soundtrack, though.

6. How Will I Know

Sunny radio song with mild Zapp influences. Sounds like New Edition’s Mr. Telephone Man, which had her future hubby on leads. Now, this one is so gloriously over the top that I really dig it.

7. All At Once

I really, really, really hate this one. And I have high sugar tolerance, so I suppose that if someone with actual good taste in music heard this song he or she would die instantaneously of diabetes. I should add that this is a blue emo-power ballad par excellence. That is to say: Within this particular genre of music this is the very best of the best. Big hook. Emotive singing, and all that. It’s just that the genre as a whole blows big floppy donky dick.

8. Take Good Care of My Heart (feat. Jermaine Jackson)

More mid-tempo Lionel Richie-like funk-light stuff. Not terrible, not fantastic either.

9. The Greatest Love of All

Pretty much the uselessly bombastic self-help anthem-sequel to All At Once‘s uselessly bombastic depression. Also, the use of phrases such as “children’s laughter” make this one that much more ridiculously disney/ hallmark-ish.

10. Hold Me (feat. Teddy Pendergrass)

This song is like scented candles. It is meant to set some sort of romantic mood but I cannot, for the life of me, grasp how it plans to do that since it fucks up anything good in the atmosphere by producing deadly clouds of vanilla-gas. Oh, and Teddy is on here too.

Best tracks:

You Give Good Love, Saving All My Love For You, How Will I Know

Concluding:

Whitney Houston is simultaneously a good showcase of Whitney’s talents and something that has aged terribly. For the most part she does her nickname the Voice justice, but. There’s Kenny G-esque sax solos, horrible synth playing and syrupy strings gilore. And Whitney, while technically is singing excellently, sounds insincere for the most part at worst, or not life-experienced enough to sing these overly dramatic numbers, at best. Life experience would come a plenty in the future. And so would better music. But, that’s for another review. About the matter at hand: it blows.

Recommendations:

In all honesty. There is no reason to actively look this up. You’ll hear even the decent songs off this more often than you’d like to anyway, in shops, elevators, on the radio, weddings, funerals et cetera. That’s not meant as a dismissal of everything Whitney Houston ever recorded. But it is a dismissal of the most of this album. Still, the three songs in the “best tracks” section are worth a download. Although they can be found easily on any Whitney Houston Greatest Hits album, so perhaps that’s a better and a cheaper option than iTunes.

Leave a comment | tags: 1985, Clive Davis, Jermaine Jackson, Kashif, Michael Masser, Naranda Michael Walden, Whitney Houston | posted in 1985, Post Disco, R&B, Sir Bonkers, Soul, Uncategorized, Whitney Houston

January 25, 2012

Aaliyah – Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number

By Sir Bonkers

Aaliyah

Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number

June 13, 1994

Blackground/ Jive/ Sony Music Entertainment

There’s a lot to be said about Aaliyah. First and foremost that she may have been completely overrated in a 2pac-ish manner, (an artist at the top of his/ her game dying at a young age and in a tragical manner has that effect on the collective memory of him/ her.) Secondly, she was massively influential… as Timbaland and Missy’s tool. Finally, well… just take a quick peek at this album’s cover and title. The man in the background is R. Kelly, who wrote all but one of Age‘s songs, including its title track and allegedly married our main attraction of the day, when she was only fifteen when he was something like twentyfour. In the light of his later legal troubles this sheds a disturbing light over Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number.

Before the disturbing pedo-stuff kicked off however the title of this album was interpreted as a testament to Aaliyah’s supposed artistic maturity, which is fair enough I suppose, since she certainly comes across as less of a twelve-year-old here than Robert does on most of his 12 Play.

Aaliyah was signed to Blackground records, a label owned by her uncle Barry Hankerson, who was also Kells’ manager at the time, in 1991 when she was only twelve. Later on (I hope) Hankerson decided to introduce his two artists and Robert became her mentor and producer. Age would be the only collaborative effort between the two because, obviously, soon after the marriage thingy both wanted to make everyone forget about the two of them a.s.a.p.

So, what do we have here now?

1. Intro

Well, at least the musical marriage between Robert and this little girl doesn’t seem to be an unfortunate one yet but hey, this is only an intro.

2. Throw Your Hands Up

I assume the girl rapping and ad-libbing alongside Aaliyah’s sing is Aaliyah herself because I can’t find any proof of any other possiblities. Besides after years of listening to 12 Play I found out that it was in fact Robert (who wrote and composed almost all of Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number) who was often rapping alongside himself (~~i.e. on~~ ~~I Like the Croth on You~~) I will say that this isn’t half bad a piece of early 1990s R&B/hiphop nostalgia. It helps that the instrumental has just the right amount of bump-’n'-jive and the vocals are pretty good too. If Kells taught her anything it’s that just because you’re physically able to hit a lot of notes it doesn’t mean you absolutely have to all the time on everything you record (a lesson that seems to be lost on Beyoncé, who unfortunately seems to have paid more attention to Mariah for inspiration). Off course there’s the chance that she knew already that melisma abuse wasn’t mandatory before sharing a studio with the man.

3. Back and Forth

Apart from that Robert seems to instruct Aaliyah specifically to back and forth on him a whole bunch of times (that’s just an interpretation by the way), this one was nice too. The funky-mellow description she gives the instrumental isn’t without merit (and fits most of the beats on this album) and nor is her performance on here.

4. Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number

It really isn’t. Or it is. Um… I’m trying to say that the claim made by this double negative is correct when taken literally but incorrect in what it actually tries to state. Age is more than a number, although the idea that it isn’t or shouldn’t be, is very well suited to fifteen-year-olds, so ironically enough in that aspect this is quite age appropriate. Well at least Robert didn’t put down some supporting vocals on this female sexual empowerment anthem for minors… But perhaps he’d better have restrained himself from actually writing and producing this fucker too. Not because it’s terrible when it is on, but rather because it leaves a poor after taste.

5. Down With the Clique

This is the point where some new ideas would’ve been welcome. Sounds just like Throw Your Hands Up or Back and Forth.

6. At Best (You Are Love)

An Isley Brothers cover. But that’s not surprising. In 1994 you couldn’t find an R&B/ hiphop-album with a cover or something sampling interpolating them even if you tried. What is surprising about it though, is how comfortable Aaliyah actually does sound with this decidedly more mature (note that I didn’t use the word adult here) material. Also, this kid has a fantastic singing voice, actually. ~~Sometimes age really is nothing but a number, huh?~~

7. No One Knows How To Love Me Quite Like You Do

Except for R. Kelly playing the role of Aaliyah’s love interest, or his version of Puffy to her B.I.G., again, I liked this one too, because it is hooky, groovy and catchy too.

8. I’m So Into You

Kells’ production style on both 12 Play and this album is a like a pleasant blend of Dr. Dre, JoDeCi. This leans toward the Dre light, although Dre probably wouldn’t do stuff like this at the time having so much street-cred and all. Also, Andre Young is a perfectionist and this is pretty meh.

9. Street Thing

This sounds interchangeable with both Robert’s own song It Seems Like You’re Ready and his remix to Janet Jackson’s Anytime, Anyplace, although there are hints of his later adult compositions such as I Believe I Can Fly, I’m Your Angel and You Are Not Alone, which Michael Jackson originally recorded and released in the year following this album, too. For my money I’d rather listen to the Janet remix on repeat ’til infinity than hear this ever again, because this isn’t very good.

10. Young Nation

References Funkadelic of all things.

11. Old School (feat. R. Kelly)

Apparently this was the very first thing Aaliyah and Robert ever recorded together and it’s definitely the only point on the album where he steps out from the not-quite-background to spit a quick verse. To say that Aaliyah repeatedly begging R. to play her something from the old school is suspect, is both all sorts of redundant and a bit of a stretch so I won’t do that.

12. I’m Down

Decent. Nothing more, nothing less.

13. Back and Forth [Mr. Lee & R. Kelly's Remix]

Sounds exactly like the original except inferior. And we’re done.

Best tracks:

Throw Your Hands Up, Back and Forth, At Best (You Are Love), No One Knows How To Love Me Quite Like You Do, I’m Down

Conclusions:

So reviewing this fucker has become an exercise in trash-talking Robert, but that’s only because I’m forced to scrutinize every suspect detail put on here by that suspect guy. And really, it is this album in combination with R. and our hostess’ marriage certificate as well as that video tape that makes him suspect. However, if I hadn’t paid so much close attention to the details of this disk ~~or was oblivious to the fact he married his starlet shortly after the release of this and at another point in his career made a video of himself pissing over another minor girl~~ I would quite likely have simply enjoyed it, shut up and nodded my head, because whatever may be wrong with Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number, except for the repetition of some ideas leading to some filler, it sure isn’t the music. Aaliyah was a really good singer. Seductive and capable of staying not only within her reach but also (gasp!) holding a note when necessary. Although it should be noted that she ain’t nothing but R. Kelly’s (studio) toy here. But, who cares aboout that when the results are good? Robert does his thing behind the boards, which for the time being means jiving, mellow, rhythmic, mildly grooving hiphop-light and funk-light tracks and expert post-NJS ballads. The best song on here rival the highlights on 12 Play and there are less clunkers, so yeah: Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number is a pretty good album. Not the best shit ever taken or anything, but still enough so that after some artistic growth on follow-up albums she might prove to be somewhat more deserving of her rep. then I initially thought.

Recommendations:

Well, I suppose you should buy this. I can’t promote what is in my opinion terrible music even if it’s done by a goodie-two-shoes such as Bieber and, well… even though the conditions of this album’s creation are quite a bit suspect that doesn’t actually influence the quality of the music negatively. It is what it is.

Leave a comment | tags: 1994, Aaliyah, Barry Hankerson, Blackground, Jive Records, R. Kelly, Sony Music Entertainment | posted in 1994, Aaliyah, Aaliyah, Hiphop Soul, Hiphop Soul, R&B, Sir Bonkers

January 3, 2012

R. Kelly – 12 Play

By Sir Bonkers

R. Kelly

12 Play

11-09-1993

Jive Records/ Sony Music Entertainment

First off. Happy new year to each and every one of you! I hope some of you have enough brain cells left to be able to read. It’s been a while since I last posted anything because I got caught up in a Buffy the vampire slayer binge/ marathon (you see, my 1990′s camp-fetish goes well beyond the wonderful world of music alone.) which took away a lot of time from my bloggery.

And what better a way to return than with R. Kelly’s official solo-debut 12 Play. (12 Play may have been Kells’ official solo debut but the year before he released an album called Born Into the ’90s as part of the “group” R. Kelly & Public Announcement. I say “group” because there wasn’t a trace of any of the other members to be found, either listening to the record or reading the liner notes. Perhaps the group consisted of Kells and his imaginary friends. That would be sad. Poor Robert…) I first purchased this album when I was fifteen and therefore 12 Play will bring up happy memories of times other than 1993 whenever I listen to it. Also, for fans of the Lonely Island (and I know you’re out there): you should check out 12 Play because this is the musical genre that Samberg and Timberlake were parodying with all three of their collabos. In fact they may be going after the man personally for all I know, because it wouldn’t be inconceivable for Robert himself to write and record a song about putting his dick in a box, doing a devil’s three-way or fucking your mother. Because in the last two decades he has written songs about having sex in space, his girl reminding him of his jeep and him wanting to ride it, having sex in a zoo, his dick being his girl’s remote control, having sex in a kitchen, seeing visions of a tropical river (while having sex), putting his key in your ignition, having sex while smoking weed and what not. You could simultaneously call him extremely single-minded and extremely creative and you would be dead on. Anyway, whenever I bring up that I fucking love Kells’ music people are calling me crazy and shit and start making jokes about urine and underaged girls. Those people I would like to invite to come along on a ride into the sensual, perverted, soulful, synthy, silky, buttery, inspirational, raunchy world of the man known as the pied piper of R&B. Confused yet? Not as much as you will be. This album will have you simultaneously turned on, disgusted, touched, laughing your ass off and wanting to dance.

(For those of you who were around and aware in the ’90s… What the fuck is the man holding in his hand on the album cover? To me it looks like a paddy whacker with a single handcuff attached… Did anyone of you sport one of those at the time of this album’s release?)

1. Your Body’s Callin’

This in one of Kells’ more subtle bedroom songs and even this is dripping with bodily fluids. This song is guaranteed to get you laid if you put it on. As far as sex music goes this is pretty much flawless because of the R.’s tendency not to melismatically yell his vocals like contemporaries K-Ci & JoJo of JoDeCi and off course because of his feather light, sensual, self-produced instrumental.

2. Bump ‘n’ Grind

I’m sure you’ll believe the man when he says he don’t see nothing wrong with getting it on. But he sure goes out of his way to try to convince you, for the duration of this song, this album and the entirety of his discography, really. Perhaps the man is secretly an asexual virgin who tries to come across as sexually normal via his music but ends up hilariously overdoing it because he actually knows nothing of the subject. Anyway, this song is pretty good, but the Old School Mix, provided by Sylvester himself is excellent. Also, that remix contains the immortal pre-refrain “Now, show me some I.D., before I get me deep into you…” I wonder if Kells’ lawyer used that as a defence when he had that little pissing-over-a-fourteen-year-old-girl-courtcase thingy going on.

3. Homie Lover Friend

In this song Robert describes his ideal partner straight rapping, and not in the sing-alongy manner he’d use later on in his career. R. Kelly is a perfectly serviceable but completely indistinct rapper, not unlike MC Hammer on a good day. The instrumental is ditto. It is what it is.

4. It Seems Like Your Ready

The instrumental on this sounds so much like the one Robert provided for his remix of Janet Jackson’s exhibitionist song Anytime, Anyplace, released the same year as this album, that I’m pretty sure he simply tweaked it, sold it to her,charging the full price without telling her that he had already used it himself. This justifies a comparison and this comparison ends in Janet’s favor, probably because 1993 Janet Jackson wasn’t only a pretty good singer but also drop dead gorgeous (Not a musical argument you say? Tough shit. Go check the video to that one and tell me I’m wrong.) , but this one is pretty good too.

5. Freak Dat Body

R. Kelly doing another hilariously explicit but ultimately not very good rap song.

6. I Like the Crotch On You

Uhm, thank you?

This is rather similar to Freak Dat Body except for that this one is pretty goddamn glorious. Next to the hook, which consists of variations of the title being chanted rather enthousiastically, we have our host soulfully crooning “What’s going on inside my paaants? I can’t explain!?” over a beat that should make you want to shake your ass, unless you’re Stephen Hawking off course. No wait. I bet Stephen Hawking would give his left nut to be able shake his ass regardless of what’s coming out of the stereo. And I just snapped out of that bullshit stream of thought because R. Kelly rapped about “[liking] ‘em 18 and over and 16 and under.” What the …. So he checks their ID’s only to be 100% sure that they’re minors, before he ~~pisses on them~~ makes sweet love to ‘em? You should be happy that the DA never listened to 12 Play Kells…

Attached to the rear end of this track is a rather silly intermission.

7. Summer Bunnies

This track incorporates elements from the GAP Band’s Outstanding and does so in a pretty decent manner, with R. rapping about having to have respect for women in one line and about liking have foursomes in the next, and singing on the hook about the titular summer bunnies driving him crazy. This is hilarious and catchy which is what R, Kells is for, ya know?

8. For You

Oh Robert. After a seven song killing spree like that you’re going all romantic on us?

9. Back to the Hood of Things

Meh. Allegedly Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre had something to do with creating this song and indeed Robert does sound like he’s imitating Dre rapping a song Snoop wrote for him in the early 1990s. Just not a very good one.

10. Sadie

This cover of a relatively pious song, originally performed by the Spinners, sounds completely out-of-place on 12 Play but it’s still pretty good. Robert sounds perfectly natural and sincere singing this soul song, originally from the mid-’70s, which he sorta-kinda touchingly dedicates to his late mother during the intro. It’s just that if his mother was anything like the mother described here she would’ve slapped her son silly upon hearing pretty much anything off this album. This composition was also interpolated in 2pac’s 1994 song Dear Mama, for those who care.

11. Sex Me [Parts I & II]

Well look who snapped out of it! And considering that this lasts over eleven minutes it goes a long way in restoring the lube-level of the second half of this album to that of it’s drenched first half. The only reason I can think of that they crammed these two songs into one track is that otherwise 12 Play would have thirteen tracks, and we couldn’t have that now could we? The first chapter has a floaty softness over it, not unlike Your Body’s Callin’ and the the second one, which comes after an answering machine skit, has a more fierce gospel-ishness not unlike Bump ‘n Grind. Eleven minutes is a bit much of Sex Me which is why usually whenever this pops up on other albums it is usually cut down to one of either chapters which helps the listening experience significantly. Amazingly Robert would completely overcome the problem that his songs of an extended length could get repetitive in 2006 when he released the first dozen chapters of his ridiculously captivating thirtysomething part urban opera Trapped in the Closet. Honestly, if you start watching that shit you’ll be listening to the same instrumental for several hours, while following Robert (and his Beretta) through an epic tale of sex, deceit violence and confusion and I’ll be damned if R. made any of the shit that goes down there up, because it is too goddamn absurd to not be a true story. You can’t make that shit up without your head exploding. As for this, it’s also pretty good.

12. 12 Play

This one was decent too. Although the fact that he can think of only twelve ways to please a woman makes it clear that this is only the beginning of his career. Today I think he can think of more than there are particles in the universe.

Best tracks

Your Body’s Callin’, Bump ‘n Grind, It Seems Like You’re Ready, Summer Bunnies, ~~I Like the Crotch on You~~, Sadie, Sex Me

Conclusions

On 12 Play R. Kelly is a completely different artist than he was on Born into the ’90s. He has completely dropped the Guy-ish new jack swing in favour of a JoDeCi-esque hiphop-soul which suits him just perfectly. But he never comes across as outright copying that group because Robert doesn’t yell as much as K-Ci & JoJo, which was really nice of him since it helps make the music sound better. Also his lyrics are on a level of poetry the Hailey brothers never quite grasped. When written out he comes across like a fourteen year old boy peeping into the girls’ locker room wrote them and when sang he still comes across as a fourteen year old boy peeping into the girls’ locker room. Why does any of it work then? Well, that’s because of R. Kelly’s buttery yet not slippery voice (the man could record himself reading a grocery list out loud and it would still be a major worldwide hit, and if ever he does just that remember you read it here first.) and his self-produced instrumentals which are just what his lyrics aren’t. Subtle and varied. There’s mostly R&B on here that screams 1993 but there’s also a few hard hitting hiphop beats and a throwback to ’70s soul to balance things out. Put all of this together and you get an artist so genial that can manage to make his alleged child-abuse but a footnote in the story of his life and career. I mean, who can make sex music that is simultaneously comedy music without compromising it’s functioning on either level? What Robert does do wrong here is that he raps quite a lot. His singing voice is really nice but his raps are, when they’re not hilariously filthy, painfully mediocre. I suppose someone told him that and that’s why he stopped doing it on his self-titled 1995 follow-up.

So 12 Play is quite the hit-or-miss affair. And the hit-rate is about 50%. There’s a lot of filler which, even though it will not piss you off because of poor quality per se, just doesn’t make for a very interesting listening experience. This album as a whole is fine. It’s just nowhere nearly as fantastically twisted as what was to come as R. Kelly’s brainchildren are concerned. It was however a enormous leap forward for mr. Kelly in becoming an unique enduring artist.

Recommendations

While this album provides good enough a listening experience to warrant a purchase you shouldn’t spend enormous amounts of money on it. It’s a rough economy. Chances are that you won’t need to because this is quite the discount section album.

1 comment | tags: 1993, Barry Hankerson, Dr. Dre, Jive Records, R. Kelly, Snoop Dogg, Sony Music Entertainment | posted in 1993, Hip-Hop, Hiphop Soul, Hiphop Soul, R&B, R. Kelly, Sir Bonkers, Soul, Uncategorized

December 11, 2011

Amy Winehouse – Lioness: the Hidden Treasures

By Sir Bonkers

Amy Winehouse

Lioness: the Hidden Treasures

12-2-2011

Island Records/ Universal Music Group

So what I predicted in my review of Frank happened, although one hardly needed to have a 6th sense to predict the release of this one. When Amy Winehouse died in July this year she hadn’t released anything in over five years. So, ladies and gentlemen, it isn’t very likely that, if she were around still we would have any album by her ready, conveniently enough just in time for the holiday season, unless Island records would have gotten sick of her behaviour and her and dropped her from their roster, in which case a Greatest Hits album would’ve hit the shelves, because she wasn’t actively recording and nobody in their right mind would buy an album assembled from tracks that didn’t make the cuts of Frank or Back to Black if they wouldn’t have known for sure it would be the very last they would ever hear from her.

To be fair, this really isn’t like one of those posthumous 2pac albums in that everything on here, save for one song, was produced by Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson, two people who Amy actually worked with during her lifetime, whereas Shakur’s from-the-grave discography was filled with producers and rappers he often had never met or worked with and possibly wouldn’t have recorded with, had he had the opportunity, so that works in Lioness’ favour, actually. There is one guest artist on here who sounds like he’s been edited in after Amy’s passing, which is because he was, but it’s not as tastelessly or blasphemously done as those 2pac-Ja Rule or 2pac-50 Cent joints, because Amy was actually a fan of his.

With that said, three of Lioness’s cuts are inferior alternate versions of Winehouse songs already released and five cuts are covers of standards beaten to death by every singer since the dawn of man. I suppose that the people who compiled this album couldn’t be too picky.

Tough luck bitches, I am.

1. Our Day Will Come

Allegedly this Salaam Remi-helmed, reggae-tinged cover from one of the classics from the great American songbook was recorded for Winehouse’s 2003 debut Frank. That makes sense as this would fit seamlessly on there. The fact that this not only wasn’t the lead single upon its recording but also was left on the cutting room floor speaks volumes, not about this song per se but definitely about the album on which it is featured.

2. Between the Cheats

A lot of the critics went apeshit over this one. Well that’s not completely true but they did universally acclaim this as one of Lioness’s finest moments. It’s pleasant and all when it’s playing but it leaves very little in the form of an impression. What kind of fuckery are we in?

3. Tears Dry [Original Version]

An alternate slowed down, less catchy version of a song which I remember not having much going for it, except catchiness.

4. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow

This was recorded for the score to the 2004 film adaptation of Bridget Jones and was actually released in its intended manner. This cover of a ‘60s Shirelles song doesn’t do much for me. What made Winehouse interesting when she was interesting was how she abused the faux-‘60s productions which Mark Ronson tossed her for telling grimy, depressing, gritty hyper personal tales of her own. When she simply covers originals she comes off, to me at least, as just a competent enough singer, which isn’t a description that fits Amy, it rather applies to X-factor winners.

5. Like Smoke (feat. NaS)

Well, this is certainly something that’s got an air of could’ve, would’ve, should’ve been better. Winehouse was a huge NaS fan (Me and Mr. Jones references him) so at the very least him showing up to pay his respects is appropriate in that it results in something Winehouse would’ve been excited about doing. That is, a record Amy might’ve been into making if she were still around to do so. As is this sounds like a song she intended to record solo but passed out, never to return to the studio, before having the possibility of finishing it. That is off course not the case. Miss Winehouse didn’t record much after Back to Black. Hence she probably didn’t finish this because she was busy smoking crack. I must say that NaS Escobar does a decent job filling the void although it still feels incomplete. Also, this is alright but it’s not real…

6. Valerie [’68 Version]

The only reason I can think of that Mark Ronson didn’t include the originally released Winehouse version of Valerie off his own Versions album is that that one was already included as a bonus track on some incarnations of Back to Black. Fine, the fans have that album already anyway. That doesn’t excuse the inclusion of this slightly inferior version though.

7. The Girl From Ipamena

Call me a purist but I’m sure the production on this could make both Antônio Carlos Jobim and Astrud Gilberto roll over in their graves. Besides, I recall there being a gazillion covers of this anyway. Ah, the redundancy.

8. Half Time

Whereas the low-key production on this is pretty goddamn pleasant. It doesn’t surpass mere pleasantness in its 4 minute span but yeah this one is certainly iPod worthy.

9. Wake Up Alone [Original Version]

The third song that was included in a superior version on Back to Black. Oh well, that they’re scraping the plate this early on is at least an indicator that none of these reheated leftover albums will be released under Winehouse’s name again since they’re out of material already, which is just fine by me, actually.

10. Best Friends, Right?

And we’re back to really, really pleasant. And this one is pretty clever too. This is song could actually have made Frank an even more enjoyable affair. I believe that this one was cut from that album because Back to Black severely lacked this particular witty aspect of Amy’s persona.

11. Body and Soul (Tony Bennett feat. Amy Winehouse)

What I said about Amy doing covers doesn’t apply here because Body and Soul finds her holding her own in duet with Tony Bennett, a guy who has managed to maintain a healthy successful career since 1949 and has the charisma of 20 singers rolled up in one, which takes away any possible criticisms I otherwise might have aimed at Amy singing this song. I must say that Lady GaGa’s duet with Tony was way better but this was pretty decent nonetheless.

12. A Song For You

Whereas this rendition of some standard is more boring than the Michael Bublé version of this song. And people, do not think I hate Michael Bublé, or anything. He’s a fine singer who manages to set the mood just right when you’re in an expensive-ass restaurant, or are reading a book or are doing some other boring crap, and he makes the “What to buy for mother’s day?” question that much easier to answer by releasing his albums. And with Justin Bieber and Drake coming after this cat he is far from Canada’s worst export. Oh, about this song? Meh.

Best tracks

Half Time, Best Friends Right?, Body And Soul

Conclusions

Lioness is both an incoherent mess and boringly repetitive. Covers, duets, outtakes and alternate versions can be interesting when they are packaged with the album they’re supposed to have appeared on, but when presented on their own in the manner they appear here a good album they make not. While it doesn’t really make the music presented to the listener objectively worse I think it is safe to say that Amy herself wouldn’t like this album. Even more than Back to Black, Lioness makes me want to listen to Frank. None of these songs are terrible but it for the most part terribly substandard. Nowhere does this album outdo anything of Amy’s we already heard, which was to be expected, but more problematic for this type of release, nowhere does it shed any new light on Amy, the artist or the person. If anything this album mostly presents her as a rather tame jazz singer in the category of Michael Bublé. Again not that there’s anything wrong with tame jazz singers but even as a non-fanatic I know Amy Winehouse was more than that. I think I am going to listen to Frank and forget all about this album. For a necrophilia piece put together to cash in on the mourning fans of a dead artist this isn’t bad but it still is a necrophilia piece put together to cash in on the mourning fans of a dead artist…

Recommendations

I suppose Amy’s fans will have little choice but to listen to this album for closure. And I can’t stop them, I suppose. Let me just advise anyone considering giving this a spin not to spend money on it. It is a) not worth it and b) not going to help pay for that rehab Amy wasn’t ever going to visit in the first place. The only ones who will cash in on this one is the Universal Music Group, an organisation which is in no way in need of your charity.

Leave a comment | tags: 2011, Amy Winehouse, Island records, Mark Ronson, NaS, Phil Ramone, Salaam Remi, Tony Bennett | posted in 2011, Amy Winehouse, Hiphop Soul, Hiphop Soul, Jazz, R&B, Sir Bonkers, Soul

November 25, 2011

Amy Winehouse – Back to Black

By Sir Bonkers

Amy Winehouse

Back to Black

10-04-2006

Island Records/ Universal Music Group

Okay, so it has been announced that Amy Winehouse’s first posthumous album Lioness: Hidden Treasures will be released in early December (let the 2pacing begin!). Since Back in Black is the only project standing in between her debut album Frank, which was the first album up for review on www.straightfromthecrates.com I might as well get this out of the way so I can review that ~~half-assed attempt at juicing her mourning fanbase~~ project when it comes out.

So 2003’s Frank was a hit in the Commonwealth world when it came out but left most of the rest of the world not giving much of a fuck. When Winehouse resurfaced, trimmed of her body-fat, tattooed full and with a huge beehive haircut in ’06 that would all change though as her second album was universally acclaimed by rabid critics proclaiming it an instant classic and comparing Amy to such people as Billie Holiday (which is batshit insane I don’t care how much you love Amy. Thou shan’t, won’t compare people to Billie motherfucking Holiday, that is sacrilege) and sold millions of copies worldwide, giving Winehouse the kind of success that would almost certainly made her follow-up a disappointment of huge proportions. That follow-up hasn’t yet surfaced, nor will it ever surface as everyone will agree on that whatever Lioness will turn out to be content-wise, it will not be a legitimate Winehouse album without her creative input, which, off course, she cannot provide from the grave.

Back to Black, though, was a legitimate Winehouse album and it was praised for its deftly produced soul-instrumentals created by Mark Ronson, Frank-veteran and NaS- producer Salaam Remi, as well as Sharon Jones’ backing band the Dap kings, and Winehouse’s soulful performances, unusually blunt lyrics, general funky offness and what not.

Should you give a fuck, though?

1. Rehab

A worldwide smash and a breakthrough single. And credit where credit is due, a pretty catchy tune whose refrain will, if this shit was based on reality, give Winehouse’s father a terrible feeling of guilt whenever this pops up on the radio. As a pop song though this is pretty damn captivating, not unlike the slowmotion instant replay of the 9/11 attacks were, right after the fact. But Rehab isn’t supposed to be experienced a horrible news-fact, it’s a grimy soul song about which no-one could say anything objectively because of obvious circumstantial reasons. I’ll try though. The instrumental, courtesy of Mark Ronson, the lyrics, the singing and the hook are pretty effective so in a different light perhaps this would be more enjoyable. It is said how the jazz of Amy’s debut Frank is tossed out of the window for a more classical soul sound. Rehab confirms this. Can’t say I completely agree with this decision.

2. You Know I’m No Good

Ronson’s instrumental is soulful and pretty upbeat. This is, off course, quite intentionally done to contrast with Amy’s singing about fucking up relations and what not. Let’s hope Winehouse and co. came up with more ideas during the recording of this album because if every song is “ironic” like that, well then this album will get boring even within its ten track span.

3. Me & Mr Jones

I wonder if this one is about NaS, given that she was a known fan of his and has Salaam Remi, the man responsible for giving Nasir his career back, behind the boards. If so then it’s a diss since “nowadays [he] don’t mean dick to [Amy]” and she’s mad at him for making her miss a Slick Rick gig. Anyway, I love the word fuckery as well as Amy’s apparent good taste in hiphop so that was nice. Also, it helped that she was sensible enough to simply cover Me and Misses Jones, Michael Bublé style, that’d be godawfully boring. Not that this is fantastic or anything…

4. Just Friends

Meh.

5. Back to Black

A pretty effective break-up song backed by a typically competent but little exciting imitation of ‘60s soul by Mark Ronson. I particularly enjoyed the first stanza, there’s literally no-one but Amy could’ve penned that stuff.

6. Love Is a Losing Game

Well, this sounds like the umpteenth cover version of some classic from the great American songbook but it isn’t, it’s an original Winehouse/ Ronson creation. You could take that as both a compliment and as a criticism.

7. Tears Dry on Their Own

I don’t know whether to get pissed over the blatant jacking of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s Ain’t No Mountain High Enough or to admire how this does in fact sound different from that song. I think I’ll do the former because this is the third breakup-song in a row, which is all sorts of redundant.

8. Wake Up Alone

The “at least I’m not drinking” lyric should ring a bell and strike a chord with every borderline alcoholic. Oh, you’re not a borderline alcoholic, you say? You just like a drink every once in a while? Relax, yo, it’s legal and I’ve got problems of my own. Anyway, this one seems to be about some of said problems so yeah, I was really feeling this one. Musically this one was only so-so but lyrically this was a lot more interesting to me than the three songs that came before this one.

9. Some Unholy War

I don’t like social commentary songs by pop artists. Although Amy doesn’t classify as a pop artist in the derogatory sense. And on closer inspection this isn’t a social commentary song. Not terrible, not awe-inspiring either.

10. He Can Only Hold Her

The first song from a second person perspective and some pleasant background-music but nothing more than that.

11. Addicted

Yeah it’s annoying when you’re in that stoner-phase of your life, and someone drops by and smokes all your weed. But seriously, is that enough of a premise for an interesting song? Amy apparently thought that not only it was but that said song would be a fantastic album closer too. I respectfully disagree as I found it hard to keep my attention on this. Not unlike someone who’s stoned out of his mind, I suppose.

Best tracks

Rehab, You Know I’m No Good, Back to Black, He Can Only Hold Her

Conclusions

So, yeah. The tossing the jazz-hop out of the window thing. Very much true. In its place are, mostly, Ronson’s classic soul meets hiphop production techniques. The problem with this is that these backing instrumentals aren’t very special. Everything is done professionally and without any major fuck-ups making it to the final cut but everything, except for the four tracks mentioned above sounds like a variation of the same song. It just makes me wonder what might’ve happened if Amy would’ve gotten down with the likes of the RZA, DJ Premier or Kanye West, rather than or in addition to Ronson and Salaam Remi, especially Primo, considering how much he did for Christina Aguilera. That would probably have done the album a lot of good since their horny soulful production styles would’ve fit onto the album seamlessly, but it still would’ve shaken everything just enough to make shit more interesting. An alternative to dragging more people into the booth would be recording some more Frank-ish tracks. Besides the production being decent, not great and a bit repetitive, Amy also repeats herself a lot. I get it, Amy, You’re depressed about your own alcoholism, drug taking and choice of partners. Do I look like a psychologist to you? It’s not like I don’t care but… are you meaning to say you’ven’t done anything fun lately? Still, these subjects, penned down by Amy’s unique songwriting hand make for a couple of interesting songs… just not eleven of them. The above tracks do stand out in a good way, or maybe I just got bored after the first two songs until Amy said something about a dick on the title track. No, Back to Black isn’t a terrible album but it’s most certainly not the classic everyone makes it out to be either. Nor, is her 2003 debut, but that one comes a lot closer. Back to Black is the more consistent of the two but Frank has more highlights. In fact, two cuts from that album which I didn’t like all that much on first listen of that album but grew on me afterwards, Stronger than Me and Fuck Me Pumps, could, by a small margin, kick the entirety of Back to Black’s ass. That leaves it being an album which with its eleven tracks doesn’t overstay its welcome and has five pretty good songs and six not-too-bad lesser but not-quite-filler tracks. Disappointing, but not bad.

Recommendations

It’s okay.You can spend money on this if you want to. Just not too much, but chances are that you’ll find this in large stacks in the discount section of your local record store as literally everyone and their grandmother already owns a copy. There’s little chance you’ll hate it… Chances are you’ll find it pretty entertaining actually. Just don’t go so far as to proclaim this a classic. You’ll seem like an annoying bandwagon-jumper who’s out of touch with reality to people who have actually heard classic albums. And do put Amy’s debut Frank higher on your to do list. It is way better.

Leave a comment | tags: Amy Winehouse, Island records, Mark Ronson, Salaam Remi, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, The Dap Kings, Universal Music Group | posted in 2006, Amy Winehouse, R&B, Sir Bonkers, Soul

November 21, 2011

All Saints – All Saints

By Sir Bonkers

All Saints

11-24-1997

London Records/ Island Records/ Universal Music Group

And we’re back to 1990s pop. Although, at this point no-one should be surprised about this. I don’t know if it is a good or a bad sign that nobody else writes about this stuff. I probably have carved out a nice little niche for myself in blogland by now, but then again there remains the possibility that noone gives half a fuck. Nevertheless I shall merrily continue down this path as straightfromthecrates.com is mostly about occupational therapy for this reviewer anyway.

All Saints is a group that was formed in 1993 in London by Shaznay Lewis, Melanie Blatt and Simone Rainford under the name All Saints 1.9.7.5., because the group hung around near All Saints road apparently. Oh, well. That’s as good a reason for a band name as any, I suppose. In that year the original threesome were signed to ZZT records as studio backup vocalists but also managed to record a few entirely unsuccesful singles, after which they were off course dropped by their label and Rainford left the group. In 1996, the year that the Spice Girls made it big they were joined by Canadian sisters Nicole and Natalie Appleton making them a four-piece. Because the Saints consisted of three white girls and a tan one, and because of the timing of their rise to stardom it is oft assumed that they were wannabe(ha!)-Spice Girls. That is incorrect, they were actually going for Eternal. That same year they met producer K-Gee, not to be mistaken with Naughty By Nature’s crew DJ who goes by the same moniker, who recorded an demo of their song I Know Where It’s At with them and convinced London Records’ John Benson to sign them. And then the hits, the platinum plaques and the awards, (although to my best knowledge not much in the form of critical acclaim) kept coming until in 2001 they broke up for whatever reason (although in 2006 they had an unsuccesful attempt at a comeback, unsuccesful, I think because they recorded and released an entire new album rather than perform the past-glory material that might ring some bells with us 1990s hipster children, like Spice did.) All Saints was their late-’97 debut album, has gone platinum both in the US and the UK as well as in many other countries, spawned three UK #01 singles and two more more in the top 10.

Was any of this success justifiable?

1. Never Ever

This one was a number one single in the UK and Australia, and deservedly so. Right off the bat it becomes clear that the Saints are both better singers and better songwriters than the Spice girls by a wide margin. That’s right readers, this doesn’t sound like it’s written by for 8-year old girls. This is actually quite a mature, thought-through, well-written, well-performed R&B-ballad with very mild country and gospel influences. The instrumental was co-produced by Cameron McVey, at time of this album’s release: late of Neneh Cherry and Massive Attack fame, and soon to produce the Sugababes, as well as Magnus Fiennes, who has worked with Shakira, Lenny Kravitz, Jamelia and Tom Jones among others.

2. Bootie Call

Another hit single. The instrumental of this song consists mostly of beatboxing, drums and, I think, horse noises, mixed deep into the background, yes you read that correctly… Why’d you ask? Anyway, this meshes well with girls’ singing about one night stands and what not, and the blend turns out pretty effective bedroom music. And before you ask: No, I do not have a horse fetish. Thank you very much. Oh, and what would a ’90s sex song be without at least one condom reference?

3. I Know Where It’s At

This was the track that put the Saints on the map. Or their very first success on the UK charts anyway. This hip-hop infused instrumental-driven party track sounds more 1994 than 1997 to me, which is fucking fantastic. It’s also not very surprising when you figure that it was produced by K-Gee, who, according to whackipedia, was in the generically named early 1990’s UK hiphop group the Outlaw Posse.

4. Under the Bridge

Yes, this is what you believed it to be. And it is quite as blasphemous a cover as you might’ve thought. It takes a fat shit over a meaningful song by letting some people perform it who, at the very least sound like they don’t get what they’re singing. Wait, I think they’ve even sampled the guitar playing from the original… How high were the Peppers when they signed off on this? Then again, this as a double A-side with Lady Marmelade hit number one. Fuck.

5. Heaven

A contemplative midnight slow-burning, lounging chillout hiphop-R&B-track. Not nearly uplifting enough for its title but pretty decent nevertheless.

6. Alone

Midtempo hiphop-soul filler, but hey, at the very least it fills.

7. If You Want To Party (I Found Lovin’)

The beat, supplied by occasional George Michael collaborator Jon Douglas, can’t figure out whether it wants to be acidjazzed-disco or g-funk and in stead chooses to cover some pleasant middle ground. The girls do some rapping which, while off course not jaw dropping, fits is purpose on the verses and some singing on the hook, which is killer sexy too. There’s a version called Let’s Get Started [ R’n’B Edit] which has different verses, a different instrumental and shouts out All Saints 1.9.7.5, which was the group’s original name. That version is a lot more minimalistic and groove-heavy in its execution, and, in my opinion, also worth checking out. My guess is that that would be one of their 1995 ZZT singles. Although the alternative version is probably not very to the casual fan. And, at this point in time, I can’t imagine the Saints to have any diehard fans left. The version included on All Saints was a single too, but only in Japan.

8. Trapped

This instrumental, co-produced by London Records manager John Benson and apparently, but not likely, Neville Henry of the ‘80s New Wave band: the Blow Monkeys, is g-funk-influenced, too, although no one would confuse this with a Dr. Dre production from a mile off, because the whiny synth is mixed too deep into the background for that. The lyrics about a friend who’s not doing too well are pretty decent and overall this one isn’t bad at all.

9. Beg

Please refer to my comments on track 6.

7. Lady Marmalade

More subdued in every way imaginable compared to that other Lady Marmalade cover, from the beat to the singing to the rapping to the instrumental, but pretty similar nonetheless in that they both have singing, rapping, a hiphop-ish instrumental and are versions of the same song. I would say this was a pretty uninspired choice for a cover… if the Saints hadn’t gotten there before Christina, P!nk, Mýa, Kim and Rockwilder. Which version is best though, you ask? Patti Labelle’s.

10. Take The Key

Please refer to my comment on track 9.

11. War of the Nerves

Pretty much the first downtempo song since the first track, oh yes… unless you count that Under the Bridge cover. Had tried to forget about that one actually.

12. Never Ever [Nice Hat Mix]* (feat. K-Gee)

K-Gee throws one of his leftover beats underneath this album’s opening song’s vocal track, and it’s probably him too who raps the added verse. The beat is pretty fresh but it overpowers the girls’ singing, hence the overall track not being quite as good as the O.G. version. But I shouldn’t complain about a bonus track, should I?

Best tracks

Never Ever, Bootie Call, I Know Where It’s At, If You Want To Party (I Found Lovin’)

Conclusions

All Saints is in fact a pretty good album. The only weight holding this down are the covers. Pretty much everything and everyone else on here serves his/ her/ its respective purpose, and every sound is expertly and slickly made. There is nothing on here as tackily exuberant or catchy as Wannabe and such, but for mature audiences that is probably for the better as there may be something more to be found than nostalgia alone. My only significant critique of this is that the girls are perfectly indistinct singers, be it from one another or from other, similar acts, (this becomes especially clear on said covers compared to their originals) but they probably can’t help that, and unlike their Spice-colleagues they are in fact more than competent singers, so it seems to me they did everything in their power to make their debut a nice listening-experience and they mostly succeed. Besides, this is European mid 1990’s R&B pop, you don’t hope for extremely distinct vocalists (with some exceptions being Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey) or progressive experimentation, you hope for some catchy tunes and cutesy performances. These things All Saints delivers, in style.

Leave a comment | tags: All Saints, Cameron McVey, Island, John Benson, Jon Douglas, K-Gee, London Records, Magnus Fiennes, Melanie Blatt, Natalie Appleton, Neville Henry, Nicole Appleton, Shaznay Lewis, Simone Rainford, Universal Music Group, ZZT Records | posted in 1997, All Saints, Hiphop Soul, Hiphop Soul, Nu Disco, R&B, Sir Bonkers

Straight from the Crates.

Britney Spears – …Baby One More Time

New Edition – Candy Girl

Drake – So Far Gone EP

Perfume – Perfume: Complete Best

Whitney Houston – Whitney Houston

Aaliyah – Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number

R. Kelly – 12 Play

Amy Winehouse – Lioness: the Hidden Treasures

Amy Winehouse – Back to Black

All Saints – All Saints

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