Joe is back and giving us that smooth R&B that we’ve come to expect for him and the message of settle down with one true love is icing on the cake. “I’d Rather Have A Love” is from Joe’s new album Doubleback: Evolution of R&B set for release in July. Enjoy.
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Happy Valentines to all those who are taken, almost taken, taken for granted, waiting to be taken, assumed to be taken, & those who aren’t taken seriously!
Share this free download among your friends to bless them with some musical joy on this special day!
This mix contains music from:
Joe, Usher, BlackStreet, Brian McKnight, Marques Houston, Bobby Valentino, Boyz II Men, Maxwell, Tamia, Avant, Eric Roberson, Keith Sweat, Jamie Foxx, Jodeci and many more R&B-allstars.
Full tracklist below:
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Over the years, Joe has delivered the R&B goods. Definitely because of his excellent vocal ability, but also his special ability to present the sexual tone of his music with a gentleman’s finesse. He can sing lyrics and subject matter similiar to what other R&B artists sing. BUT after he puts that with a nice melody, a memorable chorus, and spreads thick the whipped cream that is his voice; it translates as romantic, not offensive, and never as average. Case in point: “The Love Scene”, “My Love”, “More and More”, “I Wanna Know”, “Worst Case Scenario” and of course, “All The Things (Your Man Won’t Do)”.
But something got lost in translation on The Good, The Bad, The Sexy. It’s hard to taste the romantic special sauce. The trite lyrics on tracks like “Lose Control”, “Slow Kisses” “Pull My Hair”, “Tonight”, make them sound ordinary. As always, Joe’s vocals are on point, but they don’t seem to be enough to save the songs. There’s only so much he can do with the material. Musically or lyrically they don’t sound different from or stand taller than what’s currently on the airwaves right now.
While the current single “Dear Joe” doesn’t sound bad by any means, it isn’t distinctive either. Another artist could sing it. And that’s disappointing, because Joe has been in the game for long time and he’s one of the best. His talent is so far ahead of these current, so-called R&B vocalists that it would be an absolute shame for a listener to mistake one of his songs for one of theirs. Just as it would be hard to imagine another artist singing “All The Things (Your Man Won’t Do)”. We’ve come to expect a signature song from Joe–specifically a slow jam–that is a qualified addition to our “grown and sexy” collections. That one song just doesn’t show up on this album, though “Impossible” and “Dear Joe” are decent tracks.
In fact, the whole album is “decent”. The Good, The Bad, The Sexy isn’t a bad record. Joe’s too talented to make a bad record. But it’s just decent. As the title suggests; it’s also sexy. Literally. It definitely will create a certain, umm… mood. Especially the track, “Drink Up”. There’s no secret what he’s talking about, but there never has been. Joe is singing about the same thing he’s always sung about, but the songs don’t stand out the way they have in the past and that’s what keeps the album from being as good as it gets.
–KKC
Download The Good, The Bad, The Sexy on iTunes
Check out the new video for Joe’s new single, “Losing”. Joe always comes so smooth and sexy with his (especially in concert–if you can see him live, then do so), that it’s hard to take up any issues with him. But, “Losing” is different than what most of us have come to love and expect from Joe–a ballad showcasing the butter vocals. Not that he should stay in a slow-tempo box. Never that–in fact, he’s brought “something for the streets” before with favorites like “Stutter”. However “Losing” is so production heavy that at times Joe’s voice gets lost in the track, and vocals like his should never play second fiddle to the music. In any case, shout out to Joe for staying strong in the game for all these years and his new album The Good, The Bad, The Sexy hits stores on 9/27.
Joe | “Losing” (Visualized by Aristotle) from By Any Means T.V. on Vimeo.
Image source: http://www.parallaxent.com/
Another great interview by DJ Slam and a must read for all upcoming writers and producers. Great insights are shared as well as the ever controversial question, exactly “what is a producer??” Follow Slam on twitter here. Props to Slam for sharing with the GFM family. Enjoy.
YouKnowIGotSoul: Let’s start from the beginning. After completing your music degree from Denison University, pretty soon you took a job fixing copiers, but your passion for music was there. What was going through your head at this time, since you had a music degree, but you weren’t’ in music?
Edwin “Tony” Nicholas: Well, after I got the music degree, the job that I took at that time, I never ever considered for a second that I wouldn’t wind up doing music. I mean, I had my own studio that I put together so I had to have a day job to pay the bills. So I was working in the studio at night, and then working the day job during the day, so I never for a second thought that…you know it was strictly just to get money. And so, I actually was writing…my songwriter partner during the time was a guy named Foley, and he wound up leaving to go play with Miles Davis. At the time I took a music director job for a one hit wonder group called “Teen Dream” who was signed with Warner Brothers back then, I was their musical director, and so I kinda still had some things going on musically to where I had enough stuff to do to where I hadn’t really lost hope. But the copier job was strictly just for money, I never thought for a second I wasn’t going to wind up doing music.
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This post was submitted by Thomas Leo.
