I waited a solid hour overtime for him in the freezing Seoul
\ncold outside of Tower Records Kangnam, in line for an autographing;
\nto this day I harbor deep resentment to that fact. So call me a
\ntiny bit vengeful when I say, this is not a B review.<\/p>\n
The thing was, he was incredibly shy; when I asked “Hey Face,
\nhow’s your baby?” He kinda got real embarrassed and said “He’s
\nfine.” The reason this modesty doesn’t seem in character is that La
\nFace is one of the most influencial people in the Industry. He’s
\nworked with everyone from Chaka Khan to Celine Dion and has more
\nchart toppers than Diane Warren and perhaps Clive Davis.<\/p>\n
What’s even more dismaying is that this attitude carries over to
\nhis album (
\nhis<\/i>, as in, he actually sings main vocal in it). While some
\npeople might find this bashfulness as cute in “Every Time I Close
\nMy Eyes”, I find the slurring and halfhearted technique to be …
\nsleepy. This album is a lulluby collection.<\/p>\n
Babyface’s lyrical rhythms are top notch in every track, but
\nI’ve always criticised him for the lack of gut in his music. There
\nare no daring high notes, no dramatic low notes, just bedroom
\nnoises that go halfway. He doesn’t know where to go with his own
\nvoice and stays on a certain plane from beginning to end.<\/p>\n
“Every Time I Close My Eyes” opens the album with three big
\nnames; aside from Face, there’s Kenny G in the bridge and Mariah
\nCarey in the background. Both KG and MC know their worth; both left
\nto arrange their own roles in the song, they give themselves ample
\noppertunity to be heard. Their egos live up to the overall output;
\nthe bridge section and background vocals make the song more
\ntextured, and it’s texture that is lacking in this album.<\/p>\n
And let’s face it; it’s this star power that makes this all-star
\nalbum good. The Eric Clapton guitar in “Talk to Me”; it makes all
\nthe difference in the track. He tries to live up to Stevie Wonder’s
\npassionate delivery in “How Come How Long”, but does not do the
\nconscience-raising track justice. From Boyz II Men, Wanya Morris
\nand Shawn Stockman join the already talented team of backing vocals
\nand make an all-too-brief (and all-too-needed) appearance. And of
\ncourse, LL Cool J in “This Is For The Lover in You”; that rap
\nbrings some substance into the sound of the album.<\/p>\n
But there are good tracks. “Simple Days” is a song anyone can
\nrelate to; a certain summer we wish we could live through again. I
\ndon’t know how, but it’s captured; I would give Babyface credit but
\nthere are three other people who wrote this song with him so now
\nI’m not too sure. “Seven Seas” is also a good track, and would make
\na good music video. Like it’s mentioned in the reviewers’ bios,
\nI’ve lived in enough (too many) countries to know the feeling of
\nexotic discovery (accompanied by 12 hour jetlag and a 12 month
\nculture shock).<\/p>\n
And, of course, “The Day”. Even in profound revelation, this man
\nis shy. But sparse instruments and a highlighted vocal makes this
\nsong move you; its simplicity and perfect happiness is also
\nimpossible to ignore.<\/p>\n
Had insecurity made Babyface make such a star-studded album,
\neven if he’s likely aware that he will get bashed for it? Or is he
\ngetting payback for all the behind-the-scenes work he did? Either
\nway, he shouldn’t have done it. Three tracks are enough to convince
\nme that this man can do fine by himself and this handholding the
\nother stars are doing for him is not healthy towards the growth of
\nan artist. And above all: be on time. You never know if one of
\nthose skinny little four-eyed guys shivering in their parkas are
\nactually music reviewers at heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5800],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-35694","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-babyface","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35694"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35694"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}