The boy band resurgence of the late nineties was a time. While the Backstreet Boys and N’Sync were primed to pick up where the New Kids on the Block left off, other groups were also making quality music, including 98 Degrees, whom I chose to highlight for this week’s Slow Jam Saturday.
Signed to Motown, 98 Degrees’ first single was “Invisible Man”. A ballad written by Dane DeViller, Sean Hosein, and Steve Kpner, it was a heartbreak song, the kind that defies a radio-friendly smile. It’s a feeling you get from the opening moment of the song. Everything about it sounds naked.
From those weeping harmonies that swirl like fog around an urban landscape, to Nick Lachey’s lead vocal, there’s a yearning in the performance that you can feel in the bones. The pain of watching the woman you love laugh and flirt with another man, knowing that you’re right there in the room with them – unseen, unacknowledged, yet still laying it all out on the line. That’s R&B, however you want to classify the group.
The production has an organic feel, with live drums, the subtlest of guitar stings, and keys that sound like they could slide right off a dashboard and melt into tears. Nothing about the performance sounds artificially enhanced. It’s smooth soul for the cinema made to sound like pop; the kind of record you imagine Babyface approving in a quiet moment.
There’s no gimmick to “Invisible Man”; its timeless quality comes from how honest it sounds. Every note, every twist of melody exclaims, “I’m not perfect, but baby I love you anyway.” It’s the theme song for every man who’s been hit on by their best friend before it was trendy to be “friend-zoned” and every woman who’s ever come to regret that one too late.
Twenty-nine years later, “Invisible Man” still sounds like a silk ribbon wrapped around a broken heart. The instant when a boy band’s shiny veneer met genuine R&B aching. For my fellow slow-jam junkies, this one’s not just a trip down memory lane. It’s an illustration of how sincerity never ages.
While 98 Degrees would eventually lean more toward pop, their debut single is still a fine slice of late-nineties R&B.
Final Grade: B+
“Invisible Man” is available on all streaming platforms.
As a longtime music enthusiast, I’ve often wondered how quickly record labels expect lead singers from groups to release solo albums. This question came to mind recently when my iPod played “So You Like What You See” by Samuelle. Listening to the song, I realized he would be a great choice for this week’s Second Listen Sunday.
You know the voice. The moment Michael Marshall starts singing the hook in Luniz’s “I Got 5 on It,” anyone who grew up in the nineties knows exactly what time it is. However, nearly a decade before that 1995 hip-hop classic, Marshall was already responsible for another instantly recognizable vocal.
There are some albums you revisit because of nostalgia, and then there are albums you return to because they remind you just how high the standard used to be. Anita Baker’s Rapture falls into that second category. Released in 1986, the album did more than make Baker a star. It helped define what sophisticated, grown R&B could sound like without losing any soul, sensuality, or personality.