Music Reviews

“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.

Johnathan Butler was a decade into his career when his self-titled album arrived in stores in 1987. Listeners may recall his hit singles “Lies” and “Overflowing” from that album.

H-Town was one such group who burst onto the scene with their debut Fever for da Flavor. When the group’s debut album arrived in stores on April 15, 1993, its slow jams stood out the most. However, I want to focus on the album tracks before that.

Pulling out the liner notes, I discovered that Lil Jon had sampled the song from a singer named Michael Sterling, who is this week’s pick for Slow Jam Saturday.

The classic Shalamar lineup of Howard Hewett, Jody Watley, and Jeffrey Daniel followed their third album, Big Fun, with 1980s Three for Love. Reuniting with iconic producer Leon Sylvers III for album number four, Three for Love hit record stores on December 15th just in time for the holiday season. Three for Love also found the group contributing to the writing and funk band Lakeside.

Cassandra Lucas and Charrisse Rose, better known as Changing Faces, started as backing vocalists for Sybil in the music industry. In 1994, the duo released their debut self-titled album, which featured two lead singles, “Stroke You Up” and “Foolin Around,” by a writer/producer who shall remain nameless. Instead, I want to focus on the album’s third single, “Keep It Right There,” for this week’s Slow Jam Saturday selection.

Following a successful world tour supporting their first two albums, R&B trio SWV returned to the studio to begin work on album #3, Release Some Tension. Arriving in record stores on August 12th, 1997, Release Some Tension was led by the single “Can We” (featuring Missy Elliott).

“Come Around” from Dos of Soul falls into that category and is this week’s Slow Jam Saturday selection.

Dos of Soul was a quartet of three male singers and one female. 

Soul singer David Ruffin had already earned his place in R&B history during his days as the lead singer of the iconic group, The Temptations. Over the next twelve years, Ruffin would release eight additional solo albums, including this week’s Second Listen Sunday selection, Gentleman Ruffin.