903 Destiny's Child - The Writing's On The Wall (1999)

Studio Album - Pop R&B

About the Act:

Destiny's Child were an American R&B/pop girl group from Houston, Texas. In 1990, they were formed as Girl's Tyme, There wee 6 of them, including Beyonce Knowles, their sometimes front-woman and their most successful as a solo artist, and Kelly Rowland who I think, made it to the end. They competed in a TV talent show, Star Search, but lost. Over the next few years they tried different names, Something Fresh, CLiche, the DOlls and Destiny, before becoming Destiny's Child in 1996, by which time Beyonce's father Matthew was their manager.

Two albums in, they hit the big time, lost two of their then four members and gained a couple of others. They soon settled on being a threesome with Beyonce, Kelly and Michelle Williams, a new arrival.

Five albums in, having sold many, many copies, and being one of the world's biggest R&B pop acts, in 2006 they disbanded amicably, all three having solo careers.

About the Album:

This was the group's second, and breakthrough album. Massive success. Some critics liked it, some less. As for what I think, read on....

My History with this Album:

None, I vaguely recognise "Say My Name" which was a hit.

Review:

Everybody needs there to be artists, writers, musicians or performers of some kind to express what they themselves find hard to express, even make-up plastered teenage girls who are too shy to talk to boys, but so full of hormones that when safe with their peers they are all giggles and innuendo about boys. Maybe even especially those girls. This album is for them. It would be easy for me, as the middle-aged male critic, to get quite critical of this album, overlooking the qualities that could have drawn me in two decades ago, had I just 20 years younger, and female.

Yes, this is definitely a challenge, way out of my comfort zone. Let's take it a bit at a time. 

The music: well I'm not that versed in R&B pop, but some has filtered through to my aged brain. Musically, this has two main flavours - soul-based smooth sounds, sometimes with fairly complex chords, and descended from the sould of Barry White and Marvin Gaye and others. The production is more modern, but the backing is full, and these songs are quite slow. They remind me of slower Spice Girls songs. The other flavour is the more R&B style, which is mostly faster, sparser, and very sample-based. In fact the similarities between this kind of backing and the backing for hip-hop rap seem to have a lot in common. These tracks seem to make a feature of very staccato use of mostly sampled instruments - the guitars sound fake, as do most of the instruments, actually, presumably deliberately so. There are very deliberate gaps in the backing, silences. The drums are also obviously programmed. This kind of modern pop production has been taken to extremes in the last 10 years, with backing tracks being more and more minimal. This was where it seemed to start.  The production is very, very, precise and careful, nothing is out of place. Musically it's OK, but not really my cup of tea.

The singing: is very, very technically strong, with layers and layers and many harmonies. This is really skillful, and I presume they did this live, which is impressive. In fact, a lot of the minimalism in the backing is compensated for with the vocals. At times it's beautiful, but just a little bit too clinical. I would highlight the outro of the album, which is a version of Amazing Grace. Now, Amazing Grace has a long history of a multitude of musical interpretations, it managed to somehow hit a brillinat combination of amazing words, with an effective tune and chords that lends itself to being messed with. In particular Gospel music has taken many stabs at this. Destiny's Child's version on this album is a consummate rendition, amazing harmonies, and technically beautiful, but ironically without the feeling of soul and meaning that other versions have achieved. It's still my favourite track on the album, easily.

The words: Arghh!!! Given the target demographic is teenage girls, do you really have to fill their heads with this rubbish? Most of the songs are about relationships, and while some are less problematic, the predominant theme is one of self-serving roles in relationships, of using and moving on, of cheating even, and of conflating sex with love. Other than Amazing Grace, my favourite is Bug-A-Boo, about being bugged by a boy you are not interested in. 

All in all, then, in summary, vocally brilliant, musically OK, production-wise perfect, and message-wise patchy. I'd rather listen to the Spice Girls, who generally had more sass and less whine.

5/10

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/283NWqNsCA9GwVHrJk59CG

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL19A80C76FE183024

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Writing%27s_on_the_Wall