Blackstreet's 'finally' back after break

Having taken three years off since 1996's smash Another Level, Blackstreet members Teddy Riley, Chauncey Hannibal, Eric Williams and Terrell Phillips have chosen an appropriate name for their latest effort: Finally. While it is not the finest representation of recent R&B, the album still showcases what Blackstreet does best - mixing catchy, danceable tunes with a little bit of innovation.

Blackstreet has stayed true to the elements which have carried the group to the status it now enjoys. All of the songs are essentially romantic works, with little effort wasted on the pompous showboating that many similar artists incorporate into their work. From heavy, hip-hop-esque grooves like "I Got What You On" to sincere love ballads like "I'm Sorry," Blackstreet continues to redefine the style that put them on most R&B fans' must-have lists.

In addition to building upon the foundations which made Blackstreet popular, the group has also shown that it can expand their music-making repertoire. Of special note on Finally are tracks on which the crooners loosen up and just have fun with the music. The Jackson 5 remix of "Take Me There" - featured on the soundtrack to last summer's "Rugrats" movie - is an example of such a take-off, and features guest vocals by Mya. The hit single "Girlfriend/Boyfriend," a collaboration with Janet Jackson, also falls into this category, bouncing along beats laced with enjoyable, humorous lyrics.

Other featured guests include acclaimed gospel-crooner Hezekiah Walker on the soulful "Finally" and legend-in-his-own-right Stevie Wonder playing harmonica on "In a Rush."

While excellently done, there is not much that fans of Blackstreet will find to be new on Finally. A radio hit or two tossed among, for the most part, more or less typical R&B songs (along with the token inspirational number) appears to be the standard today. Yet, in Blackstreet's case, it's also a formula for success. From fun to faithful, from sorrowful to sultry, Blackstreet's Finally overcomes its lack of extensive originality to achieve status as a better-than-average R&B album.

- Joel Sandi | Staff Writer

Redundant Renée

Ho hum, another pop album by another generic female vocalist. When will the sea of sub-par pop musical farces ebb? Like other bands everyone loves to hate (read: Hanson, 'N Sync and the Spice Girls), Nicole Renée is deserving of a special kind of ire. The only redeeming quality of this album is that it ends.

There are women in music, such as Lauryn Hill, who make music that stands out. Renée, a prodigy of The Artist, can't seem to move beyond the master's magic. She employs the same spell - lyrics about sex, sex and more sex, catchy, pop-y music, an annoying voice and the occasional nod to a higher power, whom she annoyingly refers to as "Ugh." Aside from copying her former boss' song craft, she screams, whines and pouts in the unique style of His Namelessness so convincingly it sometimes sounds like him. Don't be fooled - he had nothing to do with this.

The real evidence exposing Renée as a musical fraud is in the songs themselves. Sample lyrics include Cocaine Lane, I feel high / Cocaine Lane, I feel high / I feel high, I feel high, high, high, highŠ. It gets even worse: It's the sound of love / 'Cause everything I hear / Reminds me of you. In the background one can almost hear hearts breaking. The real treat is to hear her sing so convincingly about sex of the unmarried sort, then praise the almighty Ugh (God) with lyrics such as Ugh / I will go / to the end of the world for you. One has to wonder if she's aware of that commandment about promiscuity.

There is no question this is a terrible album. The one quality that approaches acceptability is the production. It has that squeaky-clean style of mixing that all pop albums seem to suffer from these days. But the sound is nice and clean, just like all good pop albums ought to be.

- Andrew Plewe | Staff Writer

Copyright 1999 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 136, No. 59 (Wednesday, April 21, 1999), beginning on page 8 and ending on page 9.