Some Next Level Tunes (Another Level - Blackstreet)

Member Name: XICripZ

Product:	Another Level - Blackstreet
Date:	16/04/09 (92 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A couple of their best songs

Disadvantages: A couple of tunes aren't as big as the rest

"Another Level" came out in 1996, and was the seond, and most successful album from BLACKstreet. The group at this time consisted of Teddy Riley, Chauncey Hannibal, Dave Hollister, and Mark Middelton. Riley had moved on to creating this awesome four piece after the break-up of his New Jack Swing trio, Guy, and here he continues to take the same role in that one as he did before as he makes the Hip Hop-influenced beats for them.

1. "Black & Street" (Intro)

2. "This Is How We Roll"

To get things going, we have them warming the album up in a genlte way as they come up with a tune which has them coming with a soft-sounding one to just work your way into the album with a smooth R&B tune to have you in the right mood for what you are about to expirience.

**Five Stars**

3. "No Diggity"

This is perhaps the most well know single from the group, and it has lived on to this day as a classic from them, but I must admit that it doesn't do as much for me as others on the album do as this one has them doing a big club banger alongside Dr. Dre and Queen Pen as they just let off steam and have fun with what they are best-known for doing. It is a very good one by them, but shouldn't be as highly rated as others which you get here.

**Five Stars**

4. "Fix"

I thought I had kept up to date with all my favourite childhood songs, until I heard the start of this one, and it brought back so many memories of my dad bumping only the biggest R&B tunes in his car back when I was five. I don't know how I've been able to avoid this for over ten years since its release, as this is just a killer track from them, and it shows them at the absolute top of their game when it comes to creating amazing melodies and creating tension with short lines, and re-playing elements of "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five. Just listen to it.

**Ten Stars**

5. "Good Lovin'"

They keep the high standard of things in full effect with this one as you have them performing a tune which has them speaking on how they are always down for some "Good Lovin'", whether it be in the morning or evening. You get Riley taking things a stage further with the beats as he keeps to the Sing feel of things and tries new things with it. To make the most of what he is capable of.

**Five Stars**

6. "Let's Stay In Love"

Here is one which has them starting off a sequence of tunes which all seem to g on simialr types of themes in what is contained within it, and it is nothing but qualioty from them as you have them working to the best they can with what beats they chose to vibe from.

**Five Stars**

7. "Don't Leave Me"

This is another tracks worthy of the highly accolades as you get them doing one of their most emotive songs of all-time as thy take on the beat which many may associate most with 2Pac's "I Ain't Mad At Cha", although it was originally a Motown recording, and they come with the most genuine out-cry as they are desperate to show that they are incapable of continuing life without the one they love being a part of it. Somehow, this didn't make any sort of impact in the US, but made the UK top ten.

**Ten Stars**

8. "Never Gonna Let You Go"

Anything to follwo what you justheard is bound to be a big step down from what you received, however they just take things to a level which is seemingly a simple step down from what you just got as they come with another one o show that they will always be there for the one they love. This one has them doing some proper R&B, and don't try to complicate it with other additional styles thrown in.

**Five Stars**

9. "I Wanna Be Your Man"

As Teddy is so influenced by the work of Zapp, as he uses Roger Troutman's Voice Box to manipulate his voice in just about every track he appears on, I initially thought that this may be a cover version to this Zapp song. However that would have been far too easy, and instead they do one which uses the same sort of ideals as that to come up with another big tune from them.

**Five Stars**

10. "Taja's Interlude"

11. "My Paradise" (Lude)

12. "Deja's Poem" (Lude)

13. "Money Can't"

This one seems to be of the same sort of thing which find on "Never Gonna Let You Go" as it has them performing a love song which has them doing the type of slow jam format to show that they are able to offer much more than the types of things you heard as they killed off the Swing R&B in the previous album and elsewhere here.

**Four Stars**

14. "BLACKstreet" (Lude)

15. "I Can't Get You"

This one has them appearing to take on certain feelings from other songs, on the album, and adapting them to slightly different circumstances as you hear the way that the group perform one which has them speak on how they are fraught by the fact that they are unable to convince their girls that the haven't been messing with others and instead there is some innocent justification for why they have been seen with them.

**Five Stars**

16. "I'll Give It To You"

Here is one of the few weher they are able to go for a straight-forward love song, and they don't have to be weighed-down by complications included in the relationship which may hinder it in some way. You have them speak on how submissive they feel they should be in order to display just how much they love the ones they claim to feel this way toward.

**Five Stars**

17. "Happy Song"

This is yet another banger from the four member of BLACKstreet, and they do one which seems to force Swing into what is a mid-tempo recording so you feel the warmth of the fly producion, but are slowed by how the mellow oices are being sung to a much slower speed, and it makes for a well-performed tune by them.

18. "Motherlude"

19. "Lord Is Real"

After an interlude which has their mother's giving them more of a boost, you have them doing a tun which has them do a Gospel kind of thing to end the album off, but I simply cannot feel any kind of religious music as it just puts me off the quality of the vocals. I have to say that they killed it with the way they sang it, and managed to bring in other things which they had elsewhere on the album to make it a lot more commercial.

**Four Stars**

BLACKstreet are the only R&B group who I can come to give more than the top rating in stars, and they deserve ten stars in two on this album, so it means that you simply cannot get better than this with some of the tune s on here. On their debut there was one too, and for me there are my favourite ever R&B group as they bring the Hip Hop thing into their work in just the right amount to keep it to where it needs to be, without overwhelming it. This is down to the fact that Teddy is the brains behind it all, and he was one of the pioneers of the first Hip Hop/R&B fusion, New Jack Swing, and so has lots of experience in this field.

Summary: BLACkstreet's second album