Boyz II Men are still doing albums? They certainly are! They don’t receive much publicity as they did back in the day and have released some albums from under your noses in Japan. They’re not as potent as they were when Michael McCreary, the baritone voiced former member was in their roster. This latest endeavour is an assortment of covers from the Motown catalogue and almost a sequel from their “Throwback” release in which classic R&B/soul tracks were covered. From a listener’s standpoint of vintage Boyz II Men, it wasn’t a total awe inspiring effort. There are some highlight tracks though that get the seal of approval such as the El Debarge cover of “All This Love”, The Jackson 5’s “Got To Be There”, the Patti LaBelle feature on Ashford & Simpson’s “Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing” and Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)”. It was rather strange and obscure to hear Edwin Starr’s “War” covered by the trio, almost in the effect of hearing “Bounce, Shake, Move, Swing” which was a curve ball thrown from their excellent “Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya” release. Stevie Wonder’s “Ribbon In The Sky” could have been a lot better had there been instrumentation involved rather than an acapella. If the new generation of people are being introduced to Boyz II Men, then it would be considered ear candy. I couldn’t be negative towards these guys because they have given so much and have been a source of inspiration for love. The bottom line is that Michael is missed. Let’s hope to hear another effort that will be released in North America that’s not in cover form.
-O. Santos
Boyz II Men – All This Love
Posted by Bhanu on January 13, 2008 at 10:16 am
I don’t want to “judge” their “comeback” without listening to some more of their new stuff…But I wasn’t feeling anything off this one…
Posted by O. Santos on January 14, 2008 at 4:42 pm
This effort was just another “Throwback”.
I totally agree that it’s not gonna be a memorable album because it took a few listens for me (when I first listened to it, I didn’t feel any of it).
They did release some stuff in Japan like “Winter/Reflections” and “The Remedy” and I thought they didn’t have the hits that they had when the quartet was complete.
Always been a Boyz II Men fan…didn’t want to knock ‘em too hard, but I guess I went easy on them.