5 comments about Recapturing the Banjo.

1. Man.
   Between Mavis Staples's new Ry Cooder produced album and this new piece of awe-inspiring artistry from Otis Taylor and friends, I'm just not sure which album lands in my top spot for the past year. But it has been an amazing year for Roots Music.
   Buy this. You won't regret it. Even if you aren't a Banjo Fan (and didn't grow up in a little town that had yearly Banjo and Fiddler's contests, like I did,)...you'll love this album. Even if you aren't aware of THE OTIS TAYLOR and the fact that he left music for 20 years only to come back and make my idiot self cry with joy and sadness over his content on the first album back. Buy this disc.
   
   Even if you aren't sure you could enjoy a Blues album? Buy it.
   
   ***Mavis? If you or Mssr. Cooder are reading this, I'll buy This Amazing Disc for each of you. You guys decide. Otis? If you or Cassie are reading this, I'll buy The Mavis Album for you both. Then you guys decide. Until then, It's a tie. Buy both.***
   We'll Never Turn Back



2. otis taylor continues to reinvent the blues in his own personal way. with this album, he does it again, featuring the banjo. it's haunting and beautiful. otis is one of a few artists whose cd's i will buy before i even hear them.



3. The rest of this review really speaks to the musicians other than the Great Don Vappie. Vappie's music reflects the tradition of four and six-string banjo and guitar playing that remained among Creoles in New Orleans as well as on the musics shared between African American Creoles in New Orleans with Afro-Caribbean Creoles on islands like Haiti, Martinique, and Guadaloupe. Vappie who was once one of the leading Jazz and R & B recording session guitarists and Bassists returned to the four and six string banjos played by the great banjoist of Jazz. In doing so Vappie is playing very authentic roots music in fact rooted in the very neighborhood in New Orleans he grew up in, yet he has become a world-class music.
   
   Recapturing the Banjo is not chiefly about repeating or even elaborating on the traditional banjo styles created by Black traditional five-string banjoists or the great Jazz banjoists of the 20s and 1930s. Rather, it is about using the banjo for new styles and new music of African Americans today. Very few of the recordings here follow the traditional finger or frailing styles used by the last generations of Black banjoists who can be found on field recordings like Black Banjo Songsters or Black Appalachia. This terrain has been explored by traditionally oriented Black string bands like the Carolina Chocolate Drops or the Ebony Hillbillies or individual players like Sparkey Rucker,
   Sule Greg Wilson, Rex Ellis, or my humble self.
   
   Rather, the artists here use the banjo for the mostly blues related music that they have all been creating for years. All of these musicians are not new to the banjo. Otis has told me that the banjo was his first instrument and he plays his other instruments, the guitar and the mandolin, the way he plays the banjo, not the standard ways. There is a famous picture printed in the Denver Post in the early 1960s on his web site. A younger slimmer Otis Taylor is seen riding a unicycle and playing the banjo on his way to high school! You can find some great traditional banjo playing on older CDs by Corey Harris and Alvin Youngblood Hart.
   
   What we have hear is blues and trance music and ballads influenced by this. What we have here is the creative use of amplification both in recording the banjo and in use of electric banjo and banjos with electric pickups. We have new rhythms for new times.
   
   The importance of this is that in African American popular and folk culture, the arrival of Blues and the forms of pop and folk Ragtime and Jazz that were associated with the Blues was what led to the demise of the five-string banjo among Black folk. For reasons I will elaborate in a book forthcoming from Duke UP called _Lost in the Mix__ (I am just writing one chapter) the actual five string banjos available at the time the Blues rolled in at the turn of the century were not as suitable for Blues playing as the inexpesnive steel-stringed guitar that had become available to southern folk just as the blues spread at the turn of the 19th to the 20th Century.
   
   The contemporary experience of Blues as a kind of caberet or concert music obscures the fact that Blues was a dance music. Blues singers like Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, or Lightnin' Hopkins, may have played in the street at times, but they made their money playing for dancers in juke joints and at house parties. Rather than the two or three minute Blues performances we get from recordings and reproductions of recordings, these actual Blues performances were often fifteen, twenty, or even thirty minute dance numbers.
   
   The five-string banjo was not condusive to playing the rhythm that Black folks danced these blues to. So, it retreated to smaller enclaves where the older music persisted, especially in the Piedmont and Appalachians of the Upper South. Even there, Black five string banjoists played the Blues, but blues that moved to the rhythm of the old dance movements. Very much of the revival of traditional Black banjo playing has been playing these old dance tunes and rhythms.
   
   Yet, we live in a world whose musical culture has been transformed by the Blues and the musics it has spawned. In its Africanness, the five-string banjo provides a great platform for playing blues. The dance demands of a 1900 juke joint and the limitation of gut stringed banjos are gone. Steel stringed tone ringed banjos and modern amplication create different possibilities for the banjo. Blues rhythm has become more complex. These musicians expert in the Blues and in the Black banjo tradition, reverse history and bring back the Blues to the Banjo and the Banjo to the Blues.
   
   The result is powerful music that returns the banjo to the arsnel of comtemporary African American music. It lives, not as a recreation of a lost past, but as a living expression of the present



4. Otis Taylor's songwriting typically takes me to places I normally wouldn't venture. This cd is no exception. An excellent inside cover with history of the banjo and description of the musicians and their playing styles (in regards to the banjo). Thanks otis, Definition of a Circle and this follow-up are two of my favorite back to backs of any musician. p.s Cassie (his daughter) kicks it on bass.



5. This isn't a bluegrass CD. You obviously don't know bluegrass from a hole in the ground.

5 comments about Hope Waits.

1. This eponymous debut is one of the most interesting c.d.'s to be released in a long time. Hope Waits sounds like 2 parts Maria Muldaur, 2 parts Bonnie Raitt, .5 parts Madeleine Peyroux and 1.5 parts Sheila Jordan. Her music is similarly multi-inspired, being an interesting mix of jazz, rhythm & blues, and blues (both Chicago electric and "Muscle Shoals-variety").
   
   The best thing about this c.d. is the production. With Hope Waits front and center throughout, the c.d. has a variety of musical colorations. Whether horns, accordion, capriorgan, tack piano, or a plethora of guitars, the c.d. never fails to fascinate. Kudos to the three producers: Douglas Grossman, Peter Malick (tripling as songwriter and guitarist) and Ducky Carlisle (also the mixer).
   
   And it has a lot of creative musical touches. Consider "You Crossed the Line," with its whistles and Carlisle's "doo wops" portending restraint throughout the blues shuffle. Or consider Jerome Kern's staple, "Yesterdays," sounding like a Parisian opium den of the 1930's. Or consider the fuzz guitar on Dylan's "Ring Them Bells," sounding like a cracked one. Or consider Marty Ballou (string bass) and Ms. Wait's duet on the Arlen standard, "Come Rain or Shine," which sounds like a competition to see who can bend the most notes in a blues mode. Or consider the set ender, "Ignatius," which is a hymn sung over Malick's Frisellish chords.
   
   Bottom line: the whole thing is quicky. But quirky is good! I hereby commission all hitherto unknown artists (and a few known ones, too) to get down and get quirky, by the powers invested in me (of which there is little, I know).
   
   So far, 2008 to me has been hallmarked by the remarkable number of very good debut c.d.'s. Kelly Eisenhour's, Raya Yarbrough's and now Hope Waits' debuts have caused 2008 to be a year to be remembered for that reason alone. RC



2. With 1/3 Joan Osbourne, 1/3 Melody Gardot, and 1/3 Nora Jones, these CD is solid through and through.



3. Prior to buying this CD I only heard Get Behind the Mule. So beyond that song I wasn't sure what to expect. So what a wonderful surprise to listen to this CD and hear several amazing songs. The first song I'll Be Satisfied brings you right into the listening experience right away. Some of the sound is an older big band music but only in certain spots. Her singing really stands out and doesn't get drowned out by the music. She has one of the best voices I've heard in awhile. I would describe her as a more folksy Melody Gardot. However this is not folk music. Her sound isn't anything like Nora Jones or Bonnie Rait, but her style may be described as a little bit of those two singers. The only one I could compare her sound to might be Susan Tedeschi.
   I really enjoyed the first 9 songs, the last couple songs were a little slower than the rest but as a whole this is an outstanding CD. Hope is definitely going on my list of must see singers.



4. Excellent first CD, sounds like a cross between Norah Jones/Maira Muldaur and Diana Krall, moreso then Bonnie Raitt, in my opinion anyway. Someone gave me this CD and said it was Tom Waits daughter. No it isn't, as stated on the other reviews listed here. Non the less, she does cover Get Behind The Mule, and does an awesome job. Great Jazzy Bluesy album. I really "Hope" I don't "Waits" too long for her next album. OK, sorry, that was dumb..



5. Hope Waits debut CD is awsome! Hang on and ride it out.. and ride it out again.. I have played it several times since getting and love it all, and I know you will too!!! Can't wait for more to come from this artist!!

5 comments about Command Performance.

1. GREAT CD!!!! ALMOST like being there! Great jams by great artists! Pick this one up for a great time!!!! Should be in every cd player for a long trip to be shorter or for every party to be started!



2. Great blues Cd.
   Always a joy to hear music,when various artists get together and jam it up.
   The artists sound like the were just having a ball playing together



3. Pros - I first heard a few cuts off of this album on Sirius and was truly impressed with this collaberation of fantastic artists. They really turn it up and 'rock the joint'.
   
   Cons - The recording quality is lousy - plain and simple. There is so much distortion from the recording levels being set too high it really takes away from a great album. I hope mine is just a bad CD, but I don't think so. I did contact Delta Groove Productions and am awaiting their response.



4. I saw the show at BB King's in Manhattan about 2 months ago (before the official release of the disc). Grabbed one on the way out, and have been listening ever since. Been a fan of Tommy Castro and of course the incomparable Magic Dick for years (when are he and Peter Wolf gonna get together again !!). They are both in fine form. The ensemble cast is great, with guest Curtis Salgado ripping through a cover of the Jimmy Reed tune It Ain't Me. Great stuff throughout. Highly recommend this disc. From beginning to end--you will not be disapointed.



5. The Tommy Castro Band (with associates and friends) delivers a Stax/Volt Caribbean vacation workshop on how to play the blues! This is a live powerhouse set from the best of the best including the mouth harp of J.Geils frontman "Magic Dick," the piano and sax stylings of the east coast "Girl in the Band" Deanna Bogart and the Chicago guitar bluesman Ronnie Baker Brooks who sounds like Otis Redding himself reincarnated on the soulful "See You Hurt No More."
   
   The best of the blues is the "Shuffle" beat and Castro regulars Scot Sutherland-bass and Chris Sandoval on percussion are simply "smokin" throughout the entire CD particularly on the CD's best number "I Feel That Old Feeling Coming On."
   
   Deanna Bogart is a real treasure as she nails the piano and then fills in with a "FAT" Tenor Sax on the closing number "Sea Cruise" with the added attraction of Louisiana swamp keyboardist Marcia Ball and Castro stalwarts, Trumpeteer Tom Poole and sax phenom Keith Crossan. The CD also features San Fran sideman Mike Emerson on the Hammond B-3.
   
   This is one terrific CD featuring the blazing guitar and vocals of the best of the new generation of bluesmen Tommy Castro...six minutes of "If I had a Nickel" just wasn't enough.
   
   Five stars for the CD and two more stars for Ronnie Baker Brooks when he opines the nasty "She's Nineteen Years Old!"
   
   My next vacation will be aboard the Rhythm and Blues Cruise!

1 comments about The Whole Fam Damnily.

1. Well, if you mix Dom Flemmons (carolina chocolate drops), Charlie Patton and Jack White (from the white stripes) together and have it start smoking at age 10, you've got the Rev. Peyton...
   
   The rhythm section can be a bit weak at times, but it's still awesome... As good as Mama's Fried Potatoes....

5 comments about Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble.

1. And as always is SRV's music is outstanding! However, the case was broken so how can I review it than anything more that on a 1-10 is a 1.
   Cheers,
   Greg



2. AN EXCELLENT CD & DVD BOX SET FOR ANY SRV COLLECTOR....!!! WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS ITEM!



3. This is a great CD from Stevie Ray Vaughan. I would recommend it to all Vaughan lovers.



4. I'd attend every Stevie Ray concert ever held if granted a wish to change something about my life. This box set is about as close as I can get to that wish. It covers his career pretty well and includes his excellent cover of Jimi's "Third Stone from the Sun." The only disappointment is the brevity of the video disc: an Austin City Limits performance that left me crying for more!
   Love Stevie Ray? Buy this box!!!



5. The CD set arrived in excellent condition and well within the stated delivery time. I was very pleased with my order.

5 comments about Toni Braxton.

1. This was a replacement copy, was happy to find it at such a reasonable price.
   I have always enjoyed the sounds of Toni Braxton, I find her music not just romantic, but also soothing.



2. this is a great album to play when you're having a waiting to exhale party. her voice is very sultry and the lyrics of her songs make you shake your head in agreement. classic!!!!



3. I LOVE THIS ALBUM SOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH IT IS SO BEAUIFUL AND SOULFUL AND VERY NICE I LOVE THE STYLE OF THE ALBUM THIS IS MY FAVORITE ALBUM AND ALSO MY OTHER FAVORITE ALBUM BY TONI BRAXTON IS [SECERT]THAT ALBUM IS ALSO MY FAVORITE TO



4. I just love this album!!! I grew up listening to Toni Braxton and missed how music used to sound back then. The music we have out now absolutely have no soul!!!!!! It's definately not worth my time listening to, but this album is a classic. I feel sorry for all the poor children who have to grow up listening to the crap they have out now. I love all the songs on the album! It's all really good and flawless.
   
   1. Another Sad Love Song-the sound in the beginning sounds very familiar...like i heard it somewhere b4. i think it was from tlc. anyway, this song sounds very easygoing like you're in some tropical breeze. 5/5
   
   2. Breathe Again-who hasn't heard this song??? this song is beautiful and breathtaking and so is the video! 5/5
   
   3. Seven Whole Days-ohhhh....yes, for the girls who have been played by those back-stabbing players. yup! u know who u are. 5/5
   
   4. Love Affair-the saxophone playing in the video sounds very sensual and seductive. she explains that she don't want to be tempted to cheat. kinda reminds you of rihanna's unfaithful. 5/5
   
   5. Candlelight-this song sounds very special just like it says "candlight...it makes things special."5/5
   
   6. Love Should Have Brought You Home-she sounds like the young version of Anita Baker. the piano playing and the sensual vocals make this song very appealing. wonderful song!!! 5/5
   
   7. Spending My Time With U-I could somehow relate to this song. It's sounds very cheerful like I could imagine a scene for this song. Spending the day at the mall and running into this guy you've been crushing on. lol 5/5
   
   8. I Belong To You-i love the beats in this song and how toni sings. but the lyrics made me roll my eyes cuz not all guys are that perfect. and it sounds unrealistic, no offense.5/5
   
   9. How Many Ways- this song was okay. it just talks about how she finds that person special. i love the music, but the lyrics are kinda mushy for me. i guess i could somehow relate to it. 4/5
   
   10. You Mean The World To Me-beautiful 5/5
   
   11. Best Friend- okay song. 3/5
   
   12. Breathe Again (reprise)-not gonna rate this one cuz it's the same song.



5. ASLS - 4
   BA - 5.25
   SWD - 5.5
   LA - 3
   CL - 3
   STWY - 3
   LSBYH - 4.5
   IBTY - 4
   HMW - 4
   YMTWTM - 4.25
   BF - 3
   BA(R) - 5.5
   
   Cover Art: A-
   Inside Art: B-
   Songwriting: A-
   Vocals: B+
   Length: A+
   Overall: B-
   
   4.083333333333333 = 4.08
   
   4.08 stars.

2 comments about No Paid Holidays.

1. Once again.. Watermelon Slim is a winner.. The guy is a great musical genius.
   Love it.
   
   Wonderful mix of modern and traditional and even some whimsy...
   
   I have seen Watermelon Slim twice in person. The guy and his band are amazing performers. Slim's slide guitar and harmonica are incredible.
   
   If you have to do without lunch for a day or two to afford this, DO IT!! You can feast on the blues by Slim and the Workers!!!



2. As usual, Watermelon Slim is at his best in his latest work. If you know of him, then this is a must get. If you don't know him, then this is a must get.

5 comments about Truly: The Love Songs.

1. Well, Once again Mr Richie comes out with a great CD ! All you need to do is put it in your CD player kick back and relax . A+



2. Lionel Richie, whether that was his intent or not, became the Johnny Mathis of the 1970s and 1980s with his obvious preference for the love ballad, both during his career as lead singer with The Commodores and as a solo act. From the first group hit [Machine Gun] in 1974 to his last solo charter in 1996 [Don't Wanna Lose You for the Mercury label], he was responsible for 36 Billboard Pop Hot 100 hit singles [all but one with Motown] and, with a few exceptions, most fit under the category of love songs.
   
   It's not surprising therefore that this CD, despite NOT being billed as a "greatest hits" or "best of" compilation, has no less than 17 which were hit singles, six of them #1s [only tracks 1 and 16 were not hits]. Seven of them [including two #1s] are from his Commodores stint. Would that most greatest hits albums were as this thorough.
   
   Also an accomplished saxophonist, Lionel left The Commodores in 1982 [his last hit with them was Why You Wanna Try Me?] and immediately struck gold as a solo act with Truly, a # 1 for two weeks in late 1982 [in 1981, while still a member of the group, he had cut the smash duet Endless Love [# 1 for NINE weeks] with Diana Ross]. Three more # 1 hits would follow, with the only one missing from this collection being 1983's All Night Long [All Night].
   
   The sound quality is flawless and if there is a fault it's the absence of any appreciable liner notes in the fold-out insert which contains merely a re-listing of the contents, but no discography, and a few more photos. There is, however, a short message from Lionel which fits into the theme of the album - "I find love - difficult to explain - impossible to control, comes when you least expect it and is for each of us a unique experience. I hope you can identify with and enjoy some of my experience."
   
   We did Lionel. And thanks for sharing.



3. Lionel = LOVE
   Best crooner of love songs ever!
   Have a memory for each song!



4. Lionel Richie is the greates singer of love songs. I love to hear his voice. He has this way about making a woman feel good about herself in a song. I love the old stuff.



5. Lionel Ritchie is the man! I find myself singing to one song after another. Great listen for when I'm in a mellow mood...

5 comments about Into the Blues.

1. The hugely influential and pioneering British singer-songwriter, is back with a brand new studio CD.
   The reclusive legend tries her hand at the blues and proves quite a dab hand at it.
   She basically plays everything here bar the drums and manages to inject everything with a sense of drive and passion. As always, her silky-smooth voice is the real star.
   Joan's new album is the latest in a long line of fabulous releases dating back to her wonderfully successful breakthrough albums in the late 70s and early 80s such as Show Some Emotion, To the Limit and Me Myself I .
   She remains an utterly compelling writer and performer of unique warmth.
   She cites "Into The Blues" as her best work yet.
   "I've wanted to make an album that truly reflected me and I think this does. I love the blues and while each song is very different there's a cohesive thread that runs throughout".
   Her 19th album is a celebration the blues, which she describes as "the bedrock of modern music".
   Her rich, mellow vocal suits the blues, as does her accomplished guitar playing.
   She really enjoys playing all those well-oiled blues riffs on her trusty electric guitar to ornament her compositions.
   One of them, "Baby Blue Eyes", features some impressive acoustic strumming, which adds a more earthy texture.
   Always bold and unpredictable, Joan Armatrading has come to Muddy Waters relatively late, but better late than never.
   This is an eclectic mix of blues-inspired songs that should please her loyal fans.



2. I fell in love with Joan in the mid-70's after hearing her Back To the Night album (vinyl issued 1975; so sad it is currently unavailable on CD) and her 3rd album called simply Joan Armatrading (1976). I was extremely charmed by her vocal (smooth & husky & strong & natural, capable of unbelievable finesses, which were, however, very functional and devoid of any signs of exhibitionism). She had an outstanding technique of tone forming which varied with every syllable she sang. The other point was she was a fantastic song-write of beautiful melodies, performed with great feeling, only occassionally bluesy. Her lyrics has been also delightful, sensitively marking the intimate spaces between two people. I came back to JA in the early 80's (Me, Myself, I album, 1980) and then again, I somewhat forgot about her (being principally a rock fan). Then it took me another 15 years to get astonished for the third time, by means of her fantastic comeback with the album What's Inside (1995). I thought this was to be her last masterpiece ... and I did not expect she might ever level this.
   
   It is now her curent album that shook me again. It preserves all the above mentioned attributes of JA's art, but, in addition, it indeed extends them. (I cannot recall many in the showbiz world that would be artistically growing and maturing being aged 57 - the majority can at best level previous efforts, but never go beyond). Joan's vocal darkened a bit, maybe as a consequence of the repertoire she performs. Although more than one half of the new songs are principally bluesy things (as indicated by the title of the album), it is incredible how Joan's creativity made the whole album so variable in mood, tempo, instrumentations. From the gloomy balads (the bluesy Empty Highway) to solidly rocking pieces (Deep Down, held on one single chord; There Ain't a Girl Alive); from her inventive classical song-writing (A Woman In Love; Baby Blues Eyes) to the classical electric blues things (My Baby's Gone; Liza). You may notice traces of funky, reggae, boogie, also gospel (Secular Songs). Another point is the instrumentation - as always, first-class. We used to hear many well-known studio musicians with her in the past - now Joan performes everything on her own with the exception of drums. There are wondeful guitar solos (some even aggressively rocking - There Ain't a Girl Alive), if not to mention the numerous tiny blues miracles she produces on her guitar. On one of the tracks (Baby Blue Eyes), her guitar playing even reminds of old Velvet Underground. The bass lines are perfect as well. Even the mouth harp appears (simple, but powerful). No backing vocals - just perfect overdubbs of her own. And last but not least - the lyrics. Simply you trust her, the charming lady, so open without any pretending in love affairs (..when you sing the blues, I'll take off my clothes for you). Surprisigly, even autobiographic (Mama and Papa) and social themes from an immigrant milieu appear, a feature I was not used to with Joan. The closing, slowly gradating bluesy song (Something's Gotta Blow) with the socially oriented lyrics is really overwhelming. Amen. We've heard the trinity of words, singing and music of JA, a mature woman who has created an extremely mature piece of art.



3. Joan Armatrading's "Into the Blues" is a great set with many highlights. Of my four favorites is the rocking blues-inflected "My Baby's Gone (Come Back Baby)" with a great chorus and Joan's voice insistent, "Don't you know I can't live without you?" "Deep Down" is an amazing rock conflagration with Joan's band blowing out the repetitive lyric. She sets drummer Miles Bould free and mixes the drums up high that makes this track a cousin to some of the best of Cream. Joan follows this with another full-tilt boogie, "There Ain't A Girl Alive" that throbs passionately with Joan's blazing guitar as she spitefully wails, "Yea you like to go to the shopping mall; They got mirrors wall to wall; You like to be on the center stage; You can see adulation on a thousand faces." "Mama Papa" is a blues boogie with some tasty acoustic slide guitar on a track that sounds like a swamp cousin of Tony Joe White. Other songs like the title track, "Baby Blue Eyes" and "Secular Songs" also shine. This is an amazing CD. It will probably be on a few "Best of 2007" lists come year-end. Bravo!



4. I love Joan Armatrading and have all of her albums. This one, however, I'll be giving away. I was really looking forward to hearing Joan get into the blues and bought this album without hearing it. Mistaaaaake! There's one song in this selection that could be described as 'blues-ey" - the rest I don't quite know how to describe other than to say, this album ain't blues. I found most of the tracks agitating. My advice is to listen before you buy. It saddens me to have to give Joan a bad review, but hey, one dodgy album out of so many isn't bad!



5. Not the usual Joan Armatrading. A lot of soul, but a little heavier than in her past albums. She reaches into more of a hip hop style in a few of her songs.

5 comments about Aijuswanaseing.

1. i have all of his cd's and i think this one is my favorite. i like every track on it.



2. This CD tries really hard to be creative and unique, but I just don't see it. It seems too contrived and fake. Almost formulaic. I feel like I've heard all the songs before.
   It's not horrible though, don't get me wrong. It's a solid 3-star effort.



3. THIS GENTS DEBUT ALBUM WAS REFRESHING! I MADE ME REALIZE THAT THERE IS HOPE AFTER ALL FOR SOUL MUSIC. EVERY SONG ON THIS CD WAS WELL PRODUCED,
   HIS VOCAL STYLE I HAD TO GET USE TO,BUT LYRICS OVERSHADOWED THAT.I HOPE THE MUSIQ CONTINUES TO MATURE AND GIVE US MORE OF WHAT HE HAS TO OFFER.
   ANOTHER IMPORTANT SOUL ARTIST WE NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO.......NOT TIMELESS YET! BUT HAS POTENTIAL.



4. Well this album can be described in one word, BORING! Now i know for a fact i am not goinig to get alot of helpful votes on this one because for some reason people loved this album, even though it is truly boring. And it has nothing to do with Mr.Soulchild cause he did prove he has a great but very unique voice. He can do alot better than this, there is only like two maybe three songs at best on this album that i consider to be keepers. One of the being the mid tempo "Me & U" which sounds like it could be a Darkchild beat, this song he shows his vocals and the song actually has meaning. The other song being "Marygoround" which is very similar to "Me & U" in the way they sound. They just have totally different song meanings. The one is about love, while the other is about how she plays him. See the rest of this album is just boring nothing jumps out. I will admit Musiq does shine through a few of those boring songs with his great vocals but still doesnt save the album. Overall it is not a complete and utter failure for a debut album, but it is still not worth having unless you are a huge Musiq fan.
   
   
   Grade:
   D+



5. This cd is good, still his best. Intelligent and creative song writing with songs like Love, Me and U, Girl Next Door. He needs to find some of that to have an album equal or better than this one some day. A must Have