Listening to
\nDon’t Hold Back<\/i>, the latest release from Chicago’s own
\nPublic Announcement, I found myself struck by the concept that they
\nreminded me a lot of R. Kelly. That’s about the time I visited the
\nband’s website and discovered that Kelly had once been a member of
\nthis group. (Can you tell I don’t listen to nearly enough
\nurban-contemporary music in my diet?)<\/p>\n
Following the collapse of A&M Records through merger (and
\nsubsequent release from Interscope) and the departure of Euclid
\nGray, one could understand why it took the r&b quartet this
\nlong to follow up
\nAll Work, No Play<\/i> – and risk falling behind other acts
\njockeying for public attention. But the addition of Ace Watkins
\nseems to have breathed some new life into the remaining members –
\nEarl Robinson, Feloney Davis and Glenn Wright – and this disc,
\nwhile a little slow at times, proves to be worth the wait.<\/p>\n
Best known for their slow jams, Public Announcement show they’re
\nnot afraid to let the beat and the groove take things over on
\nDon’t Hold Back<\/i>, from the energy-to-spare title track to the
\nfirst single “Mamacita” to the Montell Jordan-like “Long Long
\nSummer (We Can)”. At times, the sexuality gets to be a little too
\nmuch, as on “Papi” and “Rithickulous,” but I’ll admit it’s not as
\nlascivious as some things I’ve heard over the years. Besides, it
\ncould be argued that Public Announcement is just following in the
\npath of someone like Barry White.<\/p>\n
What’s interesting to me is that, despite Public Announcement
\nwanting to grow past the slow jam ballads, it is this style which
\nseems to suit them the best. Songs like “Man Ain’t Supposed To
\nCry,” “When I See You” and “Lose A Love” are all pristine examples
\nof what this group is capable of, and they can set the mood almost
\nas well as a candlelight dinner and an expensive bottle of
\nwine.<\/p>\n
For all of the positive things one could say about
\nDon’t Hold Back<\/i>, sometimes the production of this disc
\nsuggests that someone is indeed holding back. The beats and
\narrangements often lean toward the sparse side – and, on occasion,
\nthis is the perfect arrangement style. But some of these tracks
\nalmost beg for richer orchestration, and they’re regrettably
\ndeprived of it. Public Announcement has proven they can do fast and
\nslow tempos well; maybe they could add the final piece to the
\npuzzle the next time around.<\/p>\n
Still,
\nDon’t Hold Back<\/i> is an enjoyable disc that should reaffirm to
\ntheir fans (as well as afficionados of r&b) that this group is
\nnot only back, but in it for the long haul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7604],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-39442","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-public-announcement","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39442","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39442"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}