K-ci & Jojo's "Love Always": Who Needs Those Other Two Guys Anyway?
by - Written: Aug 27 '08 (Updated Aug 27 '08)
Product Rating:
Pros: A mature and classy step up from Jodeci's material.
Cons: None worth mentioning. Just about every song here is a winner.
The Bottom Line: "Love Always" proved that K-ci & Jojo Hailey didn't need the other two members of Jodeci to make a commercially successful album-or a good one.
speeddemon531's Full Review: Love Always by K-Ci & JoJo
I'll put it in simple terms: if Boyz II Men were the prom kings of Nineties pop/R&B, Jodeci were their nasty Southern cousins. While BIIM promised to "make love to you", the 4 men that made up Jodeci promised to "freek you". Both groups undeniably had soul, but the Boyz were polished and fresh-scrubbed. The two sets of brothers that made up Jodeci had an edge about them, from their hip-hop derived wardrobe to the sandpapery gospel shouts of their most unique vocalist, Cedric "K-ci" Hailey.
Actually, one area where the Boyz almost certainly had an edge was in the vocal versatility department. While all four Boyz (even the dude that sang bass) were capable of taking turns as lead vocalists, two Jodeci members sang 99% of the group's vocals: K-ci (the one who looks like a frog) and his smoother voiced brother Jojo (Joel, the one who looks like a chubby frog). After a half-decade long run of three Platinum albums with Jodeci, the Hailey Brothers decided to break off and form their own group. 1997's Love Always was their debut effort as K-ci & Jojo. Turning down the suggestiveness of their lyrics and adopting a more mainstream pop/R&B sound, the brothers were rewarded with the biggest hit album of their career, and with good reason. This album stands as the best thing they've ever done.
The best-known song from this album is unquestionably All My Life. This sweeping piano ballad hit the top of the pop charts in spring '98 and became a wedding anthem. Simple yet romantic lyrics like "All my life, i prayed for someone like you/And I thank God that I finally found you" struck a chord with couples in love everywhere. It's a beautiful song, with enough melodic sensibility to make it a staple on adult contemporary/"Lite" radio while also still keeping a bit of authentic soulfulness. One thing you might not have noticed, however, is that there is only one Hailey brother on this song. Jojo (blessed with the more commercial voice of the two) sings this one alone from beginning to end.
Love Always is a ballad-heavy affair, which is a good thing, because the fast cuts on Jodeci albums were always the ones you skipped past. The tempo doesn't go above a subtle knock. Tracks like You Bring Me Up and Baby Come Back (bolstered by a tasty Jackson 5 guitar sample) have prominent rhythms, enough to get some serious bump in your sound system, but still maintain a fairly slow tempo. The latter of the two songs is also intriguing from a lyrical standpoint, as it shares quite a bit lyrically and melodically with Mary J. Blige's "My Love". As anyone who has followed the soap opera that is Blige's life knows, Mary J. and K-Ci were involved in a tumultuous romance that had only recently ended when this album came out. With that in mind, Baby Come Back almost seems like an answer record.
I'm as big a fan of sex as the next guy, but there's a lot to be said for subtlety and romance, and the biggest difference between this album and the typical Jodeci album is the attention paid to love, not doing the nasty. On Don't Rush (Take Love Slowly) the brothers even try to ward off an over-aggressive female, something you'd never have expected to hear from these guys. Songs like Now & Forever and Last Night's Letter are mature, thoughtful and classy songs about fidelity and heartbreak that give this album much more of an emotional heft than their previous work. The closest they come to the sleazy Jodeci flavor (which isn't really close...aside from mildly disturbing lyrics about "rubbin' your thighs" and "fiendin' to smell ya")is the organ-flavored Still Waiting, which, naturally, was produced by their former bandmate DeVante Swing.
This album really puts a stamp on what versatile vocalists K-ci & Jojo really were. With Jodeci, they proved that they were capable of handling hip-hop derived material, and this album proves that they suffered no loss in quality when the material was more commercial. The semi-acoustic ballad How Could You (which I swore was written by Babyface until the liner notes told me otherwise) is a perfect example of this, as is K-ci's solo version of the soul standard Love Ballad, which has been performed by LTD and George Benson, among others.
One sort of strange thing about Jodeci is that their material became less mature with each passing album. Love Always reverses that trend. It's thoughtful and romantic, and capable of being enjoyed by folks from any age level. After all, good material knows no demographic, right? So, if you're looking to get your groove on with a little bit of class, you might want to check out Love Always, which is actually one of the more underrated R&B albums of the Nineties.
"Love Always" by K-ci & Jojo
Released 1997 on MCA Records
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Track Listing: HBI (Hailey Brothers Interlude)/Last Night's Letter/Baby Come Back/Just For Your Love/Now And Forever/Don't Rush (Take Love Slowly)/You Bring Me Up/Still Waiting/Love Ballad/How Many Times (Will You Let Him Break Your Heart)/All My Life/How Could You
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