Boyz II Men peaked with their second album II. It was larger than life and they would never be able to duplicate that success. You could say that album was a gift and a curse at the same time. They sold tons of records, were on top of the music world, but by the time their third album dropped, they couldn’t keep the momentum going. But who could? With Evolution, they tried to stay relevant as the R&B group that everyone could love. They also tried to keep up with the times, but because music is so trendy and fast moving, by the time the album came out, what was hot when they were recording, might not’ve been hot at the time of the album release. Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs produced a handful of tracks, with one of them actually being a nice dance song. But you can’t really blame it on old Diddy. Boyz II Men were stuck with what they were good at and that was emotional ballads that allowed them to show off their fantastic harmonies. Part of the reason this album started their downward trend is because it’s simply uneven. But also, lead single 4 Seasons Of Loneliness failed to create the necessary buzz for the album. It was a fine song, just not a lead single. I’m not sure if there is a lead single on this album, but the Shawn Stockman produced Doin’ Just Fine was probably their best bet. It’s really an underrated Boyz II Men song and might be my favorite BIIM song ever. I didn’t even know there was a video for it. At the very least, it should’ve been a single.
– Hey, matching white suits. We’ve never seen that before.
– Didn’t Nate have the lead single to the soundtrack of Shaquille O’Neal’s movie Kazaam?
– “Now you say that you made a big mistake. Never meant to take your love away. But you can save your tired apologies. Cause it may seem hard to believe, but I’m doin’ just fine.” You tell her Nate! I just did a fist pump the equivalent of Tiger Woods at the US Open.
– Shawn is my favorite of the BIIM crew, but never in this man’s life should he be shirtless in a music video. If you have to, at least do some push ups man.
– A kiss in the wind and her love was gone. It was long gone. Like a whisper in the wind.
– Is Mike wearing some high waters?
– Ok, remember what I said about Shawn and being shirtless? Same goes for Wanya, but for different reasons.
– By the way, where’s Brandy in this video?
– “So unfair to me girl, you’re no longer my world, and I ain’t missing you at all!” Sing it Wanya, sing it! Wait, if you ain’t missing her, why all the emotion bruh?
– I like how Wanya rhymed his own name with “someday”.
It’s purely coincidence that a song from The Boss comes up on this list when Springsteen’s profile is higher than it’s been in some time thanks to a new album and his upcoming Super Bowl performance. Tunnel of Love is certainly Bruce’s best album of the Eighties (sorry, fans of Nebraska and Born in the U.S.A., and might actually be one of the decade’s Top Ten albums. Each of it’s singles, however, stand alone as classics by themselves.
Not only was Chris Martin a guest at Beyonce & Jay-Z’s wedding, but he’s been covered by Beyonce’s little sis Solange. The Knowles who released the better album last year tackles Coldplay’s #1 smash, and the result isn’t the train wreck it looks like on paper. However, keep your pants on. What it really amounts to is Solange singing karaoke to the Coldplay song. The band just recreates the original arrangement. The best covers have twists and turns in order to deviate from the original. This could be any chick with a moderately good voice in a karaoke bar. In this case, I wonder what’s worse, it sucking or it just being kind of “eh”.