761 TLC - CrazySexyCool (1994)

 761 TLC - CrazySexyCool (1994)

Studio Album - Hip-Pop



About the Act:

TLC are a vocal group from Atlanta, USA, comprising T-Boz, Left Eye and Chilli. They have real names as well. They started in 1990, and are still going. They have released 5 studio albums, and are the best-selling American Girl Group of all time, which is quiet a feat.

About the Album:

This was their second album, featuring all three of the listed ladies above, and 33 other musicians, and 37 "technical" people including producers. Take one producer into the studio? Not TLC. 

My History with this Album:

None

Review:

What do you get if you cross the Spice Girls with some Hip Hop? This. To my mind, though, they don't have the panache of the spicers. What they do have are the vocal harmonies, and I will grant you that they, and the music, are both sexy.

The music is broadly soul, that kind of pop-soul you get in the slower Spice Girls tracks, and a lot of other pop vocal groups around at the time, with some rap and hip-hop kind of things mixed in. Samples, beats, rap (I said that), and interludes, and guests, oh so many guests. It is very precisely produced and is smooth, but generally too calculated to actually be cool. Maybe slightly chilled on occasions.

The subject matter is fairly predictably pop stuff, about boys and hooking up and things like "I think I want to sleep with you but I'm going to judge you by how witty your chat-up is" and "if you get fed up with your fella, no problem, hook up with his best friend instead", and other wholesome messages for the millions of teenage girls that idolize them. It's about at deep as a puddle, and so utterly mainstream in appeal that despite their repetitions of "crazy sexy cool", I'm not convinced that there is much here that could be classed as crazy. Or, I'm sorry, anything that is really inspiring. Bleugh. I'd rather not think about the words.

So, some musical pleasure to be had for me, but not a lot, I'd much rather listen to something else, sorry. Mostly bland. Well-produced, calculated, and sometimes skilful, but still white bread. Maybe with the exception of "If I Were Your Girlfriend" which is musically nice, and "Waterfalls" which is at least familiar.

5.8/10


Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5eg56dCpFn32neJak2vk0f

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQrS_yooAdIE6JigKF421mxxlcBQ4mnf3

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CrazySexyCool



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