Album Reviews: Maxwell, Ginuwine, Jordin Sparks

Probably the most anticipated album in years was finally released about two weeks ago. I'm talking of course about Maxwell's "BLACKsummers'night", his first album in over 8 years. In today's industry, going 8 years between albums is unheard of. Especially without releasing ANY material within that time frame, like a Greatest Hits or Live album or even a Remix or Duets album. And to be honest, at about year 4 I wasn't sure if we'd ever hear another Maxwell CD again. It actually surprises me that his label allowed such a long break, but I guess it takes a truly dynamic and unique artist to get away with that. And Maxwell definitely fits the bill, and this album shows why.
Now, was the album worth the wait? Of course. The thing is, Maxwell is very much driving in his own lane. He's true R&B, he's never given in to gimmicks physically or musically to help sell records. And that definitely makes him stand out amongst all the rest of the R&B crooners out there. In fact he's so beyond most of them, that he practically has no peers anymore. So if he was gone for 10 or 15 years, any album of his would be worth the wait because you aren't going to get truly genuine R&B out of anybody else but him. At certain points, like the opening track "Bad Habits", you can hear definite inspiration vocally from Marvin Gaye and Prince yet it never sounds like he is mocking their style, just adding hints into to his own very unique vocal delivery. And the writing on this album is pretty amazing. The album might seem on the surface like a Love Story, the musical accompaniment is very smooth and sweet R&B but the lyrical content illustrates a relationship gone terribly wrong thanks to a woman who turned so "Cold" (one of the stand out tracks on the album... "Global warming ain't got nothing on this chic she's not to play wit"). The albums first single "Pretty Wings" is a perfect example, one of the sweetest R&B songs you can imagine, except you get lyrics like "You toyed with my affliction, Had to fill out my prescription, Found the remedy, I had to set you free".
I think the most exciting thing about Maxwell coming back is that we finally have an ARTIST in the record stores again. True artists are few and far between these days, you even have great artists that buckle under label pressure to conform to what is popular for radio play. Maxwell definitely delivered something that is thought provoking, and is simply great music. There are a few songs that maybe could use some work, but with only 9 songs at least everything works well together. And an additional note, whatever session band he used for this album (I did read that it was the band he normally tours with), they did an EXCELLENT job. In fact, I'd put the instrumentation on this album above the vocal and lyrical work he excelled at.

So, part of me thinks that last review was a little harsh on the other R&B dudes out there. Sure Anthony Hamilton still puts out quality R&B, Musiq Soulchild is up there just not necessarily on the same level. Stepping outside of the Neo-Soul realm, there aren't many really great Male R&B Arists, and I say that simply because they all generally sound the same. And about 4 years ago I would have said the same thing about Ginuwine, who released his sixth album "A Man's Thoughts" at the end of June. His previous album "Back II Basics" might have been good, but it seemed that since him and Timbaland parted ways earlier this decade, that he didn't have much to offer the music world. He's had the occasional hit since, but hasn't put together a truly solid album since his sophomore 1999 album "100% Ginuwine". "A Man's Thoughts" finds Ginuwine in a much more mature place, don't get me wrong there is definite filler, but for the most part it's a pretty satisfying R&B record. Mainly because he's not going through the cliched Male R&B concepts... "Your man ain't nothing... get with me" or "I'm gonna sex you down like a (insert non-clever euphemism)" or "I cheated on you, so why won't you forgive me". This album he's really talking about being with ONE woman, appreciating her, and owning up to responsibilities as a man. The true stand out, and probably one of the best songs he's recorded in about 7 years, is the albums first single "Last Chance" a song about realizing what you have in a woman and doing whatever you can to make it work "I'm gonna do it, from a boy to a man, like Barrack and his plan -- if this is my last chance to love you, I'm gonna play it like a grown man ought to". Such a refreshing song to hear on the radio, although it's unfortunate "Birthday Sex" is heating up the charts instead (I actually do like that song by the way). Good Job Ginuwine, not the greatest release of this year by any means but definitely a job well done on his part and something people should definitely check out.

Enough about guys, let's talk about chicks man (LOL, "Soup" reference. GET IT?) Jordin Sparks has just released (today July 21st) her sophomore effort "Battlefield". And yes, she did release a debut... it's just without the huge hit of "No Air" with Chris Brown a lot of people probably didn't even notice. Her debut was literally a paint by numbers pop album, and I'm not going to pretend her follow up isn't. However, on this album you do get more of a sense of who exactly she is. She has definitely grown vocally, and mainly because she seems to bring a lot more attitude to her performances on this album. "Emergency (911)" might be the best example, it's also a great example of how age-appropriate this album is. The song talks about a boyfriend who isn't showing enough attention and the girlfriend who is practically begging for it and at the same time is giving him a final warning. Sparks definitely is treading the line of a teen Icon and a burgeoning adult Diva, and she does a fine job of not over stepping either line with the material on this album. Of course it is a pretty Safe pop album, covering all the basics. There's a little Pop-lite Rock, there's Pop-lite Dance and Pop-lite R&B. There's even a few Whitney/Mariah type power ballads (specifically "Was I The Only One"). This isn't a great album, but it doesn't have anything on it that is terror to the ears. Sometimes you don't need amazing material for people to notice you, just some sort of a personality on said material and she actually does a really fine job of bringing that out on this album finally. I've always been a Jordin fan from her days on Idol, I was pleased with her win (even though I was a bigger fan of Blake and Melinda) because she was the contestant with the highest chances for Pop Domination and she's getting that much closer. I'd expect to hear her second single "SOS (Let the Music Play)" all over Pop radio in the coming weeks (though I could be wrong, because I predicted the albums title track would be huge and it's slowly creeping up the charts)

And I'm DONE!!!
I might post a few more album reviews this week... i DO have a bunch to review that I've been really lazy about.

Award Show Review: BET Awards 09

I'm like, really behind as you can tell. The BET Awards were on Sunday and it's now Tuesday morning. Not only haven't I blogged about the awards yet, but I have some work to do because I need to post a Classic Album Review for Michael Jackson, there are a few new albums I need to review and I have to give you the new set of 6 Artists on my Top 25 All Time Artists list. And I want to have it all done by Thursday night (when I leave for Atlanta for the weekend).

So here we go.

The BET Awards 09 was the first televised award ceremony since the unexpected death of Michael Jackson. And although I feel like it's more than appropriate for BET to celebrate him, being that a good 90% of the artists in the building owe so much to Jackson and the fact that BET have been long time supporters of all the Jacksons even when the other video networks betrayed him. And I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, they had less than three days to re-arrange the format of the show to make it a fitting and respectful tribute to the Legend.

For the most part, they did a great job. Jamie Foxx was the host and he did a pretty excellent job, his opening monologue included a hilariously funny attempt at Moonwalking and throughout the show he celebrated his love for Jackson and reminded the audience why he was so important.

There were a few performances of Jackson's hits by current artists. Ciara performed "Heal the World", Jamie Foxx and Ne-Yo dueted at the end on "I'll Be There", but Ne-Yo provided the best performance (imo) with "Lady in my Life". Ne-Yo connected with the song on an emotional level, and his vocals were the best I ever heard them. Aside from those handful of performances, and testimonies from stars in the audience on how Michael influenced them, there wasn't much else as far as a tribute to MJ. Michael's sister Janet Jackson came out to a standing ovation toward the end to speak for the family and thank the fans for their support.

The rest of the show was pretty typical Award show stuff.

I'm pretty sure Beyoncé won the most with two awards, Ne-Yo won, Weezy won, T.I. and Rihanna won, Lebron James won, Taraji P. Henson won. But this was not an awards show where awards were actually important. In fact, because of the last minute changes the awards alot of the categories were combined and the nominations weren't announced. Just the winners.

Performance wise, it was pretty boring to tell you the truth.

Jamie Foxx did a terribly auto-tuned live rendition of his monster hit "Blame It". It's sad when T-Pain outsings you live, and you have no sense of stage presence or choreography. His performance was a bit of a mess, but still fun enough to appropriatley get the crowd on their feet.

Keri Hilson performed an uptempo medley of her two hits "Turnin Me On" and "Knock You Down" (without Ne-Yo or Kanye). She tried. She really tried. However seems like she missed a few rehearsals, or she was just super nervous. She looked awkward trying to sing live and do the little bit of choreography she was expected to do, though she still wasn't terrible. She pulled it together enough for me not to laugh at her.

Soulja Boy Tell Em (like is that his full name? I thought it was just Soulja Boy) got the crowd all singing along to his hit(?) "Turn my Swag On", which I hadn't heard before and is actually a pretty catchy tune. He, like most rappers, didn't do much performance wise. Just kind of walked back and forth on the stage. It was the crowd that made his performance a winner with Taraji, Keri and Lebron dancing and singing along.

Jay-Z introduced his new single "D.O.A. Death of Auto-Tune" to a live audience and pretty much slayed it. You could tell our boy Jigga was more than happy to be back on stage. Meanwhile his wife slowed it down (and put a bunch to sleep, I have to be honest) with her beautiful rendition of "Ave Maria" where she incorporated Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" and went opera on us with the original Spanish version of "Maria". She sounded amazing, but I think everybody was expecting Sasha Fierce to come out.

Speaking of sounding Excellent, Keyshia Cole sang her duet with Monica "Trust". They both looked great, and Keyshia made a vast improvement over her mess of a performance last year. However Monica stole ALL Ms. Cole's shine. She sounded excellent, and like Jigga, was so excited to be back on stage. She'd be smart to release an album real soon.

Maxwell came out and performed his new single "Pretty Wings", a beautiful song sung beautifully but just like Beyoncé Keyshia and Monica, great vocals don't always make for the most memorable performances.

Drake and Lil Wayne's performance was memorable for the wrong reasons. First of all Drake was sitting down the whole time. It wasn't until the after show that I realized he was injured and couldn't move around. So he gets a pass, although I didn't understand why he didn't Sing the sung parts of his hit "Best I Ever Had", but whatever. The most bothersome thing about the perfomance is when Lil Wayne came out with his crew to perform "We Like Her". With all the terribly disgusting and vile comments they made within the song about Women and Sex I was really bothered with the fact they brought out about 5 or 6 under age girls (like 10-12) to stand around and dance to the song. What was he thinking?

Ofcourse there was the annual tribute, this time to The O'Jays. I can't for the life of me figure out why they'd pull Tevin Campbell out to perform for them, but they did. Than Trey Songz, Tyrese and Johnny Gill came and sang a trio of the O'Jays hits as "The Young O'Jays". They sounded good, but I have to say Trey Songz impressed me the most. He has great vocal talent. With the right material he'd be bigger than Chris Brown without a doubt.

I can't think of anything else to say about the show. Masterfully MC'd by Jamie Foxx, and pretty solid performances. I think overall I may just be getting bored of Award shows. However this was a good effort overall for the network. And I think they succeeded in giving Michael a great tribute.