Brave Williams-Fearless

Brave is one of those singers that you just can't help but love, even if you are not a fan of her music or her style, her beautiful spirit is just irresistible. I didn't think I'd see much from her once RichGirl disbanded and Sevyn went solo. (Funny how Sevyn went solo and turned out to be the most popular one, I personally thought Lyndriette was the best singer out of the group). Anyway, back to Brave, when I found out that she would be joining the cast of R&B Divas LA last year I guess you can say I begin to google her so to speak. I discovered "Oooh (Luv Ya)", I thought it was cute, though quite simplistic and loved the 90's vibe of the video. I begin to follow her on twitter shortly afterwards and I had actually begin recapping the R&B Divas series until circumstances beyond my control occurred and my recaps came to an abrupt halt. 

I got to listen to her EP on her channel, and it's not bad thought I do feel that there are way to many interludes on it. She would have been better off leaving those off and having two more songs. "OMT"(One More Time) is the sex song of the EP, not raunchy however she doesn't hold back. I love the first single, the second single "Road Trippin" is also worth a listen, comparing lovemaking to driving a sports car. With that being said, the song that really caught my attention was "Lesson In Love", clearly influenced by the Ying Yang Twins's "Wait" from the beat to the whispering rap at the beginning to the rap near the end. "put my sex drive got me gone in 60 seconds, say you got what it takes but I got another question, can you be one I call like 911" she strives to make herself the attention of her beau. Safe and Sound is an interlude that should have been a full song. 

The final track "Original" is the only track on the album that the intro really fits. Brave talks about growing up multi-racial w/ a white (Czechoslovakian) mother and a Black/Cherokee father and how she did not fill that she truly fit in w/ either crowd, the song is an anthem basically saying do you and do it well. So far so good, and I'd be interested to see were Brave can her career.

Dwele Review

Andwele Gardner, better known as Dwele is one of those singers that I've only recently begin to pay attention to. I knew of him from his collaborations with Slum Village, but I had never really given him much thought. I somewhat begin to check him out when he released "Some Kinda...." in 2005. While I liked "I think I Love U" and "Weekend Love", I thought that album had much fillers, not so much that the material was bad, but it was just a hit or miss. I really begin to pay more attention to him when he released "Sketches Of A Man". 

Believe it or not, it was out of nowhere that this happened. One day I was shopping on amazon and I came across SOAM, and decided to download the album via iTunes (at this time I had not really begin using the amazon downloads), and I'm glad that I did. I thought the album showed much growth. While it had a few interludes, I do appreciate it was musical interludes and not the skit nonsense that so many artists pull to fill up their albums! He has a pretty nice rendition of "Open Your Eyes" on the album as well as another track called "Brandi" where he reunites with Slum Village. "Five Dolla Mic" is a two minute interlude that really should have been a full song. Other gems on this record include "Blow Your Mind" which should have been a full song, "If You Want To", "Love Ultra", and "Vain", "

He has recently released his latest LP called "The Greater One" which feels like Neo-Soul meets "New Jack Swing. It features appearances from Raheem Devaughn, J. Tait, and Monica Blaire. The track w/ Raheem is nice and I'm not even a Raheem fan (I like "You" but much of his stuff is rather generic IMO). Highlights of this album are"Going Leaving", "Takes 2 2 Tango","What You Gotta Do", "Obey", and "Special".

Chrisette Summary

Recently, I came across my old Chrisette Michele "I Am" CD that I had gotten off of iTunes and decided to put it in the player. I began looking through my CD's because I wanted to add some music to my mp3 Player. As I put in in the player, unfortunately the disc was all scratched up, but I remember liking the album so much that I went and re-downloaded the album off of iTunes (new computer source), and burned it to disc. Let's just say I forgot how good that album was. She combines jazz, hip hop, and so well, so effortlessly, that one has to wonder. How the hell do you do it. She sings in a jazz style, but yet you catch collaborating with rappers like The Roots, Nasir Jones (we know him as Nas), Jay-Z, etc.

"I Am" is one of those albums that has you feeling like you are sitting in a lounge with a glass of wine watching one of those girls w/ a flower in their heads sing. The opening track "Like a Dream" is hip-hop and jazz influenced track about a guy she likes who also happens to like her but she does not know, while "Work It Out" is about the ups and downs of a relationship. "If I had my way" is a song laying out how most of us would love for a relationship to be. On tracks like "Best of Me" and "Your Joy" the production is centered around a guitar. The former is about a love gone wrong, but it's not a bitter break up track, while the latter is a daughter's ode to her father. We get a dose of neo-soul with tracks like "Good Girl", "Be Okay", and "Mr. Radio". "Golden" we get to hear her at her most passionate, while "Let's Rock" gives us a mild disco vibe where she discusses her influences. "Love is You" is a beautiful track w/ where she gets assistance from John Legend on the piano. "In this for you" is a declaration of the appreciation for smaller things while "Is this the way love feels" explorers the one of the singer's first experiences with love. The title track "I am" is an inspirational track The itunes version of the album also includes live versions of "Good Girl", "If I Had My Way" and "Golden". This was a good album for Chrisette and it was a breath of fresh air in the urban music market. Her second album on the other hand was more mainstream, but I would not say generic. It was quite different from her debut but when you have Neyo produce it, what do you expect? NOTE: I love Neyo, this is not something that I am saying in malice it just is what it is. My favorite songs were "Epiphany"[the title track], "Notebook", "What You Do", "Blame It On Me"[where she just wants out of a relationship and doesn't give a damn who blames who], "All I Ever Think About Is You", and "Porcelin Doll" (a demand to be treated like a woman and not a child). I have yet to hear third album, I'll have to try and get to that some day.

SWV-I Missed Us

I know it's somewhat late, but I thought that I would talk about the new album from SWV. Now many of us have been anticipating the album since the last time we heard from them was 1997 before Coko went solo in 1999 and released "Hot Coko", her solo debut. It spawned two singles that I know of "Sunshine" which got moderate play on urban radio and BET, and "Trifflin" which could not compete w/ the former.  In 2005-2006, Coko comes back w/ a gospel album which, in my opinion was a hit or miss, it had some good tracks on it, but other tracks on the disc could have been much better. On the other hand, her second gospel album , "The Winner in Me" which was superb, not to mention much more mature (spiritually speaking that is).

Back to SWV, I grew up on them and I  had been anticipating an comeback album from them since I saw them on the BET awardas back in 2008 when Alicia Keys brought them on the stage! I had no idea that in 2011 I'd hear "Co-Sign", the first single off the new album, "I missed us", which is a good album, but I do wish it had a few more ballads. "Show Off" is pretty good, but it would have been nice to have some ballads similar to "Weak", "Rain", "Downtown", and "All Night Long"(good job to Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds"). "Everything I Love" really did not need to be on the CD, it probably would have been better on a soundtrack. My highlights are "Co-Sign", "All About You" which has the New Jack sound all the way, from the hype man to the production of the DJ used "Better Than I" and the remake of "If Only You Knew". "Do Ya" actually took a few listens to get used to because I wasn't expecting Coko to go there lol, not that she did anything dirty, but the rap was a bit risque from Brianna, and while I was not bothered by it, I'm sure some of the Christians who were wanting Coko to stay in gospel were. But is that really a shocker? The track is hot w/ a Chaka Khan sample. "The Best Years" is a laid back track which has a rather impressive ending, I actually thought I was listening to a different song because the entire production switched. My other favorite track "Better Than I" has a generic message but listening to LeeLee and Coko exchange verses was satisfying and Taj's rap shows that she can hang w/ the younger ones w/o coming across as desperate.

The only track I did not really care for was "Keep You Home", that one would be my least favorite. I'm glad to see that the women are still doing their thing, and I was glad that we got to hear other vocals besides Coko's. Not that I don't like her voice b/c she can sing her ass off, but after a while it gets kind of old hearing her do song after song. What were your highlight tracks of this album? Let's hear it!

Sparkle-So Bad

Sparkle, born Stephanie Edwards began as a protogee of R. Kelly and we remember her from songs like "Be Careful" where where she argues with Kellz about who contributed and who didnt to the relationship and that what goes around comes around. In the year 2000 she came out with a song called "It's a Fact" where she kills her SO after she had enough (view the video). This song got good play on urban radio (atleast in my  hometown). There was another song released called "Don't Know Why" which got moderate play on urban radio and it seems that after that, she just dissappeared. Oh wait, she did testify against R. Kelly when the sex tape of him and her niece came out.

Anyway, she's back, with a song called "So Bad", which is another song, yep about how a guy did her wrong. But the song does sound good, the vibe is rather chill with a nice piano and drum (machine) in the background. The song finds her lamenting on how bad the guy  has hurt her and how she trying to get her mind in another direction. Unlike a decade ago where she seeemed to be more bitter than anything else, she's justifying her emotions with lyrics like "you can't help who you love, and you can't help you hate". Her vocals are still as strong as they were 12 years ago, and did I mention that she looks STUNNING??? I'm loving the track, sounds like something that should have been recorded a in the late 90's to early 2000's but it's still fits in this era despite the obesession we have with Chris Brown. Listen to the song here and tell me what you think.

                                                           

My Review on Triumphant (Get Em') by Mariah Carey

So I've been checking my twitter timeline quite a bit this year and recently I have been reading about an upcoming single by Mariah Carey. I've always enjoyed Mariah Carey as a singer, while I may not like everything that she does overall she's a legit singer and when she's good, she's damn good! I was not too crazy about the Memoirs.... album to be honest with you (Sorry Mariah, you should stick w/ Jermaine Dupri when you want to do R&B, the Dream does not do you justice, I actually like the Dream, but not for your production). To get to the single now. Can I just say I am SOOOOO glad that she used JD for the production of this single? I can tell that the single has the potential to be a good hit and would probably be better as a solo version or a version limited to one or two rap verses. I listed to the version featuring Rick Ross and Meek Mills and while it does not sound bad, I do think that we heard too much of them and not enough Mariah. In this version all we hear is Mariah singing the course. The song itself is a pretty powerful anthem, that to some extent reminds me of "Champion" by Ace Hood Featuring Jazmine Sullivan. Though I must say that I like the latter much better. One we know that it's an Ace Hood song, and Jazmine gets a pretty nice solo right before the final rap from Ace. "Triumphant" has the potential, but it probably works better as a solo, with that being said, I'm anxious to hear the rest of the album. Listen to the song for yourself and give me your opinion.

MARIAH CAREY-TRIUMPHANT (GET EM') [FEAT. MEEK MILLS AND RICK ROSS]

CHAMPION-ACE HOOD (FEAT. JAZMINE SULLIVAN)

                       

Kelly Price-Kelly

First entry of the new blog yay!!!!!! Okay, so this album is over a year old but that's not a problem for me. When I decide to review an album, I don't do it chronologically. I've only recently gotten back into blogging so I thought about creating an additional blog to my other blog where I would discuss music, musicians, singers, songwriters, music events and music players. With that being said, I thought to myself...hmm why not introduce this blog with an entry on a great singer and great comeback album? 


Kelly Price is a dynamic singer growing up with two pastors as parents in the Pentecostal church where I can only assume that she sang as well. She began her career singing back up for several artists such as Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey before launching off on her own. She released three secular albums before releasing a gospel album, then years later, when nobody expected it, she came back with another R&B album. The album opens up with an anthem called "Tired" which anybody who has just had enough can relate to. Anybody who is at a breaking point will feel this song as the pressure rises to her shouts at the end. "And You Don't Stop" is the dance track of the album, kind of a disco feel if you ask me. "C'mon keep moving and you don't stop".  She joins Stokley of Mint Condition on the next track "Not My Daddy" acknowledging that in order for a relationship to be successful, trust has to be involved w/o the "ask a million" questions game that parents do w/ children. After this track, she reflects on a man whom she was addicted to on "Himaholic". "I'm Sorry" finds Kelly apologizing to herself for a relationship that went wrong. "The Rain" is another ballad essentially saying that smiling through pain does not always fix thing. Sometimes you have to feel sorry for yourself for a bit in order to heal from the pain. The album then picks up again with "Vexed" with Kelly discussing her feelings of love and lust for a man despite the fact that he treats her like dirt. The song then switches over to "Speechless" which has a rather generic message, but the song itself is rather catchy. The song is basically about a lack of words women get when they are around a man they are fond of. "Feels So Good" is the self-help song of the album where we hear the perspective of a woman who has gained some self esteem after dealing with trust issues for song. She let the bitterness go and has taken control of her life. "You Don't Have To Worry" is the next track. What can I say? There comes a point when enough is enough and when you've reached that point, there is no turning back on leaving the relationship. Even if you have to leave yourself and leave a few things behind, you still have your dignity. We are then taken into the situation of having a back up plan when our partner is either abusing us or neglecting us (as in not giving us something that we need) with the track "Lil Sumn-Sumn". After being faithful so long only to get it thrown back in your face, you be a smart-ass and play their game. Translation: Don't get mad get even. In the final track "Get Right or Get Left" where Kelly is telling her man to get his act together or he will wake up one day alone.


I was actually not aware of iTunes having an deluxe edition until long after I ordered this album, the iTunes deluxe version has two bonus tracks "Intervention", which is about catching domestic violence before it results in the death of one or the other. On "Good For You" Mrs. Price finds herself telling her partner to stop being so afraid to face the relationship.


Overall I say Kelly did a good job telling her life story in this album, and I'm glad to see that she has not entirely given up on R&B music. Hope to hear more from her in the future.