Saturday, October 20, 2007

Soon As I Get Home...

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Disclaimer!!!!: This is a write about 90s R&B...GOOD music...so u beyonce stans may wanna sit this one out..u may get a nose bleed from reading....

Its not uncommon for me to listen to one cd once every 2, 3 or even 4 months between each listen, but its rare that i listen to a album and fall MORE inlove with it each listen. Faith Evan's 1995 debut Faith is definitely one of those for me, I've ALWAYS loved the album, but as i get older and with each listen i appreciate it for what it is, what it was intended to be, and what it surpassed...

Faith has always been thought of as the poor man's Mary J. Blige, but for every "People" that Barbara Streisand had, Bette Midler had a "Do U Want To Dance" that was fierce in its own right! (and no im not saying Mary is Barbara Streisand, so put the pistols DOWN..im just stating that many people love(d) Barbara, but that didn't keep Bette from making good music...same with Mary and Faith :-)...now cool it) After the Initial Success with Mary, Puffy thought it would be cute if he made a Mary 2.0.... BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER (vocally he succeeded, take a listen to their 'Love Dont Live Here Anymore' duet if u dont think so) but he failed to take into account one thing...as much as u try and mimic a sound and feeling, the personality of the artist WILL ALWAYS come through the music (love @ life anyone?)...and while Mary was a bottle poppin (sometimes over bitches heads) coke snortin train wreck..Faith wasn't...and it came through in her music...Faith was a much more polished and smoother version of Whats The 411...From the time Mary first dropped in the early summer of 92 untill the time Faith did in the late summer of 95 the Diddster had time to perfect his musical direction and his production skills ability to get a good production team together and take all of their credit...and THIS time around he didn't have to put up with an artist that actually spoke her mind and gave much rebuttal...im sure Faith was his wet dream come true (that yanno, actually involved a woman)...

Yea i said it...Faith is better than Whats the 411...in my opinion ofcourse...but My Life it is NOT..why? because formula can get u only so far and work in your favor so much..MARY made that album what it is..the pain in her voice, the conviction in her the words, the rock in her hand!...all of these things made that album what it was and what it will always be...a CLASSIC...While i do believe that album, and the antics of Mary herself, helped push her into the Level of success she experiences today...it was also the GROWTH...where Faith herself has fallen short of...With every album a bit of faith has been lost, atleast the initial faith that came across on her debut album. If You listen to every Faith album (all 4) in chronological order, by the time you hit 2005's The First Lady you'd ask yourself "Who is this broad?"...u walk away knowing nothing more than shes a girl with a GREAT voice that loves to sing...Where as you listen to every Mary studio album (all 7) in chronological order you get a GOOD idea of who she is, what shes been through and how shes overcame...Could it be because Mary has 3 albums on Faith? I don't think so, because if u look at Mary's first 4 (which didn't span over the course of 10 years like Faith's) you still see an EXTREME amount of growth from Whats The 411 to, My personal favorite Mary album, 99's Mary. Even with the trials and tribulations that surrounded Faith around the time she recorded The First Lady, on the album she still kinda had nothing much to say..

I'm not saying that Faith should run out and collaborate with the first old white rocker she see's, or beat us in the head about what shes went through every 5 minutes (i still love u anyway Mary!)..I guess i just want to see an album that says FAITH just like her debut did, rather than say THIS IS WHAT MUSIC IS NOW...and i have a feeling that's coming from her soon, shes too much of a powerful voice to continue to have nothing to say!...In every artist career there is a Glitter, a Love and Life, and in Faith's case...a Keep The Faith moment *shivers*...but I'm almost positive the her debut wont be the only memorable moment of her career...I'm definitely not counting her out..and I don't think u should either.

Thoughts? Opinions? Ideas?...and Whats an album for you guys that makes u fall inlove with it more everytime u listen to it? leave a comment


4 comments:

S. said...

OMG I loved this CD back in the day! "No Other Love", "Soon As I Get Home", "Love Don't Live Here Anymore".

It's really impossible to pick any ONE album that's gotten better over time (including from the 90's), because the music sucks so bad today, it makes Vanilla Ice sound memorable!

A couple I've revisited lately and recommend would be Changing Faces (with "Fooling Around"), anything by Robin S., and Kut Klose's "Surrender" album.

Will bookmark your blog and read more soon!

RhythmicSoul said...

Mary and Faiths rendition of "Love dont live here anymore" is one of my fav remakes..i would die a happy man if they were to perform that live together SOMEWHERE now...but ur so right, i think we appreciate the music of the 90s now SO MUCH because it was GOOD..GREAT actually compared to todays music

Anonymous said...

"Reasons" was my cut off the Faith cd. She really opened her heart on these songs. She failed to do so on the rest of her albums.

Thanks for writing this and reminding people of this album's greatness!

Miss Awesome said...

I feel like maybe I'll just unpack my bags and move into your blog now.