Music Reviews

Louisville, Kentucky R&B trio Playa burst onto the scene as part of DeVante Swing’s Da Basement Cru, aka Swing Mob, in the early nineties. While the group’s work with Swing remains in the vault, the group’s 1998 debut Cheers 2 U is easily one of the strongest albums of that year. I plan to revisit Cheers 2 U for Second Listen Sunday soon.

R&B songstress Mýa will grace the stage of The Theater at MGM in Oxon Hill, Maryland, tonight along with Faith Evans and SWV as part of the Femme It Forward music series. I have seen SWV live more times than I can remember; however, I have not seen Faith; she was an opening for Usher on his 2002, 8701 Evolution tour.

In the late fall of 1989, Prince would release The Scandalous Sex Suite, a three-part suite of 19 minutes of the song, with the parts titled ‘ “The Crime,” “The Passion,” and “The Rapture.”
Thirty-three years after its release, “Scandalous” is not only one of the best songs from any Batman soundtrack but a song better than the entire catalogs of some artists who made their record industry entrances in the years that followed.

R&B crooner Trey Songz was still basking in the success of his platinum-selling fourth album, Passion, Pain & Pleasure, when he decided to release his first EP. Carrying the moniker Inevitable, it hit stores on the singer’s 27th birthday, November 28, 2011.

After their 1990 sophomore album release, The Future, R&B trio Guy began an extended hiatus. Teddy Riley went on to form another group, Blackstreet and then become an in-demand producer. While Aaron Hall would go on to start his solo career with the risqué ballad “Don’t Be Afraid.” Like most R&B fans, I was curious to know what the third member of Guy, Damion “Crazy Legs” Hall, would do.

After an excessive twenty-year wait, R&B quartet Jodeci returned to the music scene with their fourth album The Past, The Present, The Future. Arriving in stores on March 31, 2015, The Past, The Present, The Future was the first taste of new Jodeci music sans soundtrack appearances since the mid-nineties.

As quintessential R&B group New Edition travels across the country on the Culture tour, I wanted to look back at the group’s final album to date, 2004’s One Love for this week’s Second Listen Sunday.

As quintessential R&B group New Edition travels across the country on the Culture tour, I wanted to look back at the group’s final album to date, 2004’s One Love for this week’s Second Listen Sunday.

“Old Friends” gives Tresvant the chance to show off his tenor singing style in all its glory, and you generally feel the pain in his voice. In the early days of New Edition, Tresvant was known for his Michael Jackson -esque falsetto. Similar to Jackson, Tresvant’s voice got better with age. Honestly, had Tresvant decided to release his third solo album in the late nineties, this would have been a great lead single.

Soul singer Bobby V was already eight years into his solo career, with five solid albums and one EP to his credit, when he released the very soulful Peach Moon in 2013. Serving as the singer’s second EP, Peach Moon found the singer taking a different approach to give fans a sound in the vein of Neo-Soul.

I flirted with the idea of ranking songs with the word Valentine in the title. For my rankings, I could have pulled the catalogs of numerous singers, including James Ingram, Eric Bellinger, Lloyd, Michael Henderson, Ryan Leslie, and New Kids On The Block. In the end, I decided to go with 112’s Cupid.

At the tail end of 2021, Ne-Yo slowly crept back into music with the release of two singles, “What If,” and the Young Bleu assisted “Stay Down.” While neither song particularly caught my interest when Valentine’s Day approached, I decided to revisit the surprise EP that the singer gifted fans with on February 14, 2014.