Worth it's weight in pearls. (Lucy Pearl - Lucy Pearl)

Member Name: bigbtommy

Product:	Lucy Pearl - Lucy Pearl
Date:	26/07/01 (89 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Everything, It's not cheesy watered down 'Destinys Child' style R&B

Disadvantages: Hollywood and Can't Stand Your Mother usually get the skip treatment.

You may have heard of Lucy Pearl, you may not. But I can tell you they have had some hits recentely, including "Don't Mess With My Man" and "Without You". And they have collaborated with rap superstar Snoop Dogg. So, there quite important in the music scene then. There new album, which is self-titled Lucy Pearl is a collection of some very smooth R&B numbers mixed in with some rap collaborations (Q-Tip and Snoop Dogg). It's R&B, but not as we know it. R&B has become very pop (aka. crap), with artists like Destiny's Child* and their contemporaries just doing a "I love my boy / I want to kill my boy / I want my boy back", and with artists like Usher, you can replace boy with girl. But Lucy Pearl's album seems a bit more real in terms of cool beats, well-written.

(* I didn't mind Independent Woman Pt. 1 though, but just don't tell anybody... but most of their stuff is crap "I'm a survivor -MMM- I'm gonna make it -MMM-", not exactly Shakespeare is it?)

They have also done a song for the soundtrack to the apparantely pretty awful MTV film "Save the Last Dance". It's all exposure, so can't be bad. This R&B 'supergroup' was actually formed from 3 members, Raphael, Ali and Dawn, members of 3 different R&B bands, En Vogue, A Tribe Called Quest and Tony Toni Tone. The name Lucy Pearl is a fictional name. It was originally Raphael and Ali, but then they searched out Dawn Robinson on the internet to join the band. Her label, RCA actually told her she couldn't be a part of Lucy Pearl, but she broke through them and now the album is out to door, and I really love it. Being a professional R&B hater (please... NO MORE USHER RECORDS!) as currently most R&B is mass-produced commercial pop crap, but Lucy Pearl is a bit more of an ear-friendly effort.

The real gem of the album comes as 'You', track 14, with Q-Tip and Snoop Dogg. It's infinitely li
stenable. A well-produced R&B-hip-hop crossover track. Follows that, is the only 'skit' on the CD, and a marching band interpretation of Dance Tonight. This may sound crap, but it is suprisingly good! Not many R&B groups can...
a) have a marching band on their CD
b) make it actually sound really good.
So, it's a really good achievement.

It has many really good tracks like Dance Tonight, a major hit over in the US of A, with oodles of real R&B smoothness. Another favourite of mine is Without You, a slightly more up-tempo, piano tune with scratches and really good stereo panning. A nice strum and sing along is had with Dont Mess With My Man, Lucy Pearl's original UK hit. I also really love the scratchy 'Remember the Times' which is a reminisce about school days. What's really good about Lucy Pearl is partly that they are not "Yesterday I shot 170 people, and raped 50 women...", or basically talking complete and utter bull. Yeah, it maybe radio-friendly, but it's well written.

Better keep my eyes open for some live tickets!

My usual playlist (by using the 'Program' function on my CD player)...
11. Remember the Times - a happy feel-good song about the bands school days.
12. They Can't - 'why are record companies such ____?' - replace with expletive of choice.
14.You (feat Q-Tip & Snoop Dogg) - a nice positive track about, yep, you guessed it, how nice it is to be in love.
8. Without You - a nice acousticy feel track, with real drums, bongoes etc.
3. Dance Tonight - This is what started the Lucy Pearl phenomenon
15. Lucy Pearl Tells - A Marching band on an R&B record? Yep, it's done, and it's done tastefully too.
9. Don't Mess With My Man - A bit more of a bangin' tune, but is still really good.

Unfortunately, I have heard that Lucy Pearl's singer, Dawn Robinson, has actually left the band, but, please, this can'
;t be true! It's one of the only R&B acts I like... This has been confirmed by Launch.com: but she has been replaced by Joi. They seem positive about it, and say it will help the recording of the new album. Let's hope it's not *too* different.

In conclusion, I highly reccomend this album for people who like R&B but is getting bored with Destiny's Child and TLC etc being so repetitive. This is a nice positive R&B record with infinitely hummable tracks.

Thanks for reading,

Tom.

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