29th December - Christopher Williams' Changes

Artist – Album: Christopher Williams - Changes

Released: 29^th December 1992

Sounds Like: Scraping the Barrel

What can I tell you about Christopher Williams? Um... not a lot. Honestly, I haven't got a clue who the guy is. Changes (or at least the bits I managed to find on Youtube, the record not being good enough to be in the gargantuan Spotify library) seems to be a completely inoffensive, if uninspiring, R&B album. The first song I listened to I quite liked until I realised it was actually just the soundtrack to an advert and the real song hadn't started yet. I really wouldn't think that it's worth your time unless you're massively into your slow and sensual neo-soul, and even then I'd recommend that you take a few cold showers and put something a bit more substantial on like Otis Redding or Marvin Gaye. 

Wikipedia - which we must never doubt - can fill in some of the other gaps in our knowledge about the man himself...The nephew of legendary jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, he most certainly has not been living off that claim to fame his whole life. No. He has starred in films such as 1991's New Jack City, and the 1990 police drama New York Undercover, in which he gave a memorable performance as "the singer". Some people thought he had died of an unknown illness in 2005 but it turned out that was just an internet hoax. So, that's not really anything... And he categorically did not beat up Halle Berry when he dated her in the late Eighties/ early Nineties, despite what you think, and he reckons it was probably Wesley Snipes that did it. Which seems like something you wouldn't want to say about someone who is liable to beat you up.

What a hero. Definitely someone worth my blogging about and you reading about. Cheers guys. 

Albumaday... rating: 5/10

1.       All I See – 4:18

2.       Don’t U Wanna Make Love – 6:53

3.       Good Lovin’ – 4:48

4.       Come Go with Me – 4:59

5.       When a Fool Becomes a Man – 5:26

6.       Changes – 5:10

7.       Where Is the Love – 3:55

8.       Let’s Get Right – 5:14

9.       Where Are U Now – 6:28

10.   Every Little Thing U Do – 4:44

11.   Please, Please, Please – 4:19

12.   Dreamin – 4:40 

Listen to ‘Changes’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfJJtumgudE

21st December - Jodeci's Diary of a Mad Band

Artist – Album: Jodeci – Diary of a Mad Band

Released: 21^st December 1993

Sounds Like: Diary of a mad man

Why did I choose Jodeci? It was a straight shoot out between this and a half-decent DMX album called …And Then There Was X. Honestly, I kind of assumed that Jodeci’s Diary of a Mad Band was a metal album and so I chose it to give us some respite from the countless R&B records we’ve been through recently. How wrong I was.

Jodeci are not a metal band. They do not rock in the slightest. They are, instead, early 90’s exponents of boring R&B and New Jack Swing (fun fact: those irritating manchilds JLS are named after the movement Jack the Lad Swing, a direct descent of NJS) who sound like a Boyz II Men tribute act. Never bad, it somehow tightrope walks that thin line of total indifference, which in it’s own way is much, much worse. Previous bad albums such as those infernal Dixie Chicks were terrible, but at least they left a mark – Diary of a Mad Band skips across my conscience like a skimmed stone. I’ve half a mind to give it a worse score than the lowest ratings I’ve yet meted out but I actually don’t want to honour it with that anti-accolade.

The album may have a pretty damn impressive claim to fame – it features the first ever album appearances from each of Timbaland, Missy Elliott and Ginuwine – but even those illustrious acts cannot save it from beige mediocrity.

Albumaday... rating: 5/10

1.       My Heart Belongs to U – 5:02

2.       Cry for You – 5:01

3.       Feenin’ – 5:10

4.       What About Us – 5:20

5.       Ride & Slide – 4:57

6.       Alone – 4:44

7.       You Got It – 5:56

8.       Won’t Waste You – 4:55

9.       In the Meanwhile – 4:22

10.   Gimme All You Got – 3:42

11.   Sweaty – 5:54

12.   Jodecial Hotline – 3:11

13.   Success – 4:41

Listen to ‘My Heart Belongs to U’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh5h2hYMjbo

Also released on the 21^st December:

1999: DMX - ...And Then There Was X