| CD REVIEW (This review was also published at www.701.com) |
| If sex sells, this CD ought to fly off the shelves just from the packaging itself. There's no denying Faith Evans has a doo-wop voice worth marketing, but why she (and a lot of other female singers) are still willing to market their talent through their mammary glands in the year 2001 astounds and disgusts me. Maybe if women could somehow wrest control of the music companies (Are you listening, Oprah?), we could turn the tables on male artists and insist that they expose their bodies to get their talent exposed. What happened to that self-respect she refers to in 'You Gets No Love'? While Ms. Evans is credited as collaborating on the majority of the tracks, why it takes up to ten persons ('Alone in this World') to write such uncomplicated songs with repetitive loops and programmed drum beats further mystifies me. The foundation of 'Back to Love' sounds like it was sampled directly from the introductory beats to Michael Jackson's single, 'Thriller', and never really goes further than that musically. The lyrics get stale really fast, too, as they mainly deal with romantic issues - love, hate, jealousy, fidelity, infidelity, but at least the vocals are layered to break the monotony. An exception to this is 'Heaven Only Knows', where the collaborators get pensive about the future of the world and the hopeless feelings that could ensue "if we don�t keep the faith" (a repetitive theme throughout the CD, which works itself in nicely with the artist's name, of course). It's fairly pleasant fluff, though, that seldom goes over the top, production-wise (c/o P. Diddy, formerly known as Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs, who also contributes vocally). For someone who doesn't really care for this genre of music, I was able to listen to it in its entirety without screaming in agony. Faith really does prove herself vocally, though, especially on 'Love Can't Hide'. She's got the vocal chops to compete with classic artists such as Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, or even Chakka Khan. I would recommend that she continue working with The Neptunes, as 'Burnin' Up' is an excellent example of how this artist could be produced to maximum effect. |
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| FAITHFULLY - FAITH EVANS |
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