Miscellaneous Performers
Putumayo: Euro Groove
R&B Love Collection - Miscellaneous Performers Album Review
Album Review
Some of the biggest names in Pop / R&B come out to play on this recently released compilation.
Still at number one after eight weeks at the top of the UK singles chart, Rihanna’s Umbrella kicks off CD 1. It also tops the R&B singles chart, with her album Good Girl Gone Bad at 2 on the R&B chart. B.E.P.’s Fergie, who shows her classy adaptability, is currently at 8 on the singles chart with the superb acoustic led Big Girls Don’t Cry, while former No Doubt star Gwen Stefani is holding on this week at 24 with 4 In The Morning, her weakest song to date, but does better on the R&B singles, new at 3.
There’s also rising stars like Californian sensation Robin Thicke with his lightweight falsetto on potential summer hit Lost Without You, a Latino tinged ballad which entered the singles chart at 19, though it’s 2 on the R&B chart already. His album’s just entered at 30.
Big names like Ex- Sugababe Mutya, whose album hasn’t exactly been well received by music critics, gets an inclusion with recent single Real Girl now at 30, though it’s doing well on the R&B at 6. Canadian Nelly Furtado sparkles with infectious hit Say It Right, a new entry this week at 26. She pops up again with studio tweeker turned singer Timbaland and Justin Timberlake for less impressive Give It To Me.
Best of CD1 are soul bird Ne Yo’s sublime Because Of You, Brandy’s cool beats on the Boy Is Mine with its sweeping chorus, and the Black Eyed Peas’ sensational Don’t Lie, with Soul /R&B diva Mary J.Blige setting the standard with string heavy Family Affair.
CD2’s best bits are P Diddy, yes P Diddy, featuring Keyshia Cole on the rasping dancer Last Night. Most outstanding track of the entire collection is the one and only Amy Winehouse with a top remix of You Know I’m No Good. Surprise inclusions are, a poor reworking of Chaka Demus & Pliers’s 1993 hit Tease Me, though Boyz11Men dazzle on 1994 top 5 hit I’ll Make Love To You.
Like most compilations, it’s padded out with low points. Here they’re, Cassie – Me & U, Mariah Carey’s limp We Belong Together, LL Cool J’s forgettable Hush and Aaliyah’s disastrous One In A Million, N Dubz’s lousy I Swear, and saccharine smoochy If I Ever Fall In Love by Shai. There are others, which I won’t mention.
