It took five years coming, the cover art sucks, but TLC’s
\nFanMail<\/i> topped Billboard in both album and singles charts
\nnot three weeks after the album dropped. Music critics everywhere
\nacted surprised but really, they just needed extra words to fill in
\ntheir alloted inches. Hip-hop has had a drought of good material
\nfor the longest time, and TLC is still known as a name that
\ndelivers.<\/p>\n
Do they? “No Scrubs” has the makings of the perfect TLC single:
\ncompact attitude, hones lyrics and Lord, these ladies are so COOL
\n(too bad the rap was cut in this mix, but it’s still OK).
\n“Unpretty” is also single-ready with its humorous\/introspective
\ntheme that’s a trademark of TLC’s (remember “Waterfalls”?). And the
\nsparse ballad “Dear Lie” with its double meaning and acoustic
\nguitar hooks is clever enough to garner cross-platform airplay.
\nThere’s even a ho-down of a Diane Warren ballad “Come On Down”…
\nbut isn’t everyone getting sick of her by now?<\/p>\n
There are some tracks that have funky, futuristic grooves that
\nmight remind listeners of Janet’s
\nThe Velvet Rope<\/i>.
\nFanMail<\/i> has that synthesized vocal texturing and e-mail
\ntheme, “Silly Ho” has an Akihabara cutting-edge sound with those
\nkarate sounds in the background and some electronically processed
\nvocals. “Lovesick” is cute with its telephone hook but nothing
\nclassic.<\/p>\n
But almost half the tracks fall on the generic side. The
\nmini-epic “I’m Good At Being Bad” is funny, it’s cool, but it’s
\nbeen done (and not just the overuse of a certain racial epithet).
\nGroove-dependent “If They Knew”, “Shout”, “My Life” and “Automatic”
\nmight stike different chords to different listeners but overall,
\nthey’re fillers. Aside from the Diane Warren ho-down is a Babyface
\nfeather duster called “I Miss You So Much” and the title is enough
\nto know what’s inside.<\/p>\n
\nFanMail<\/i> is endlessly replayable, relevant and even the
\nfillers vibrate with TLC’s coherent spirit; the meshing of their
\nvocals, the meshing of the groove. If you think you’ll enjoy it,
\nyou probably will. TLC, as usual, delivers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7336],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-38842","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-tlc","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38842","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=38842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38842"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}