I have loved Ashanti Douglas since she appeared on "Always on Time" and "What's Luv?" with Ja Rule and Fat Joe respectively, and I was a big fan of her first album, imaginatively entitled "Ashanti". So when her second album came out in 2003, I knew I had to buy it. However, it wasn't quite what I thought it was going to be. I was expecting a bit of a progression from her debut, but she seems to have gone backwards rather than forwards.
TRACK LISTING
1. Intro 2. Shany's World feat. Chink Santana 3. Rock Wit U (Awww Baby) 4. What Are They Gonna Say Now (Skit) 5. Breakup 2 Makeup 6. I Found Lovin' 7. Rain On Me 8. Then Ya Gone feat. Chink Santana 9. Living My Life 10. Black Child (Skit) 11. Feel So Good 12. Carry On 13. The Sugar Shack (Skit) 14. The Story Of 2 15. Ohhh Ahhh 16. Shany Shia (Skit) 17. Sweet Baby 18. U Say, I Say feat. Gunnz 19. I Don't Mind 20. Outro feat. Chink Santana
THE GOOD, THE NOT SO GOOD, AND THE CLUNKERS
I'm not completely sure what "Shany's World" is meant to be. There's a fairly dull backing track, Ashanti "la-ing" for all she is worth in the background and some dude called Chink Santana talking a load of rubbish over the top. A waste of recording time, if you ask me!
Thankfully things pick up with the arrival of "Rock Wit You", a song that never fails to make me think of summer. This is probably because there is a slight tropical
feel to it. Ashanti's voice sounds sweet and clear and deceptively innocent on it, and the verses are nearly as catchy as the chorus. The next tune, "Breakup 2 Makeup" is also a corker - it's fairly laid back and jazzy, continues the summery feel and has an unusual "plinky-plonky" backing track (sorry, i don't know how to explain that more eloquently!). The chorus is really catchy and sweet and the song is, as you may have guessed, about seeing your ex in the first time in ages and wanting to get back together. It really proves you can show off someone's impressive voice and vocal range without having to use a boring ballad to do so! The good tracks then continue with "I Found Lovin'" which has a retro, eighties disco vibe to it, which makes it easy to boogy along to, and is probably the most upbeat tune on the album - it has a very familiar ring to it though, so I have a feeling it's a cover.
The next tune "Rain on Me" ain't so hot. I don't really appreciate this tune. It's slow r & b, almost ballad-like, but it does pick up speed at times and become a little bit more interesting - before losing it again. It reminds me of the Beyonce tune "me, Myself and I", which I have never been a big fan of. I tend to skip this tune as one of my favourites comes next - "Then Ya Gone" is one of the standout tracks for me. It starts off laidback and jazzy and then picks up pace with a Chink Santana rap before the tune begins properly. The song is very catchy and the lyrics very poignant, basically saying we should appreciate what we've got and "live every day like it's your last one, cos one minute you're here then the next day you're gone". The style the verses are sung in remind me of "Baby", my favourite track on her debut album.
Maybe it is the fact that "Then Ya Gone" is sandwiched between two of my least favourite tracks on the album makes it more appealing to me. For the next tune "Living My Life" is a bit of a clunker. The only thing I like about it is that in the bridge she uses lyrics from her previous songs - "I went from going out of my mind to always on time/and I am no longer a fool since my days are cold without you/and I'm so happy baby baby baby babe" - but I'm not sure whether this was clever or that she simply had ran out of lyrics so decided to recycle some old ones. The next tune "Feel So Good" continues the bland theme - it is a trumpet-led, laid back tune and Ashanti's voice sounds fantastic on it, but it really is nothing to write home about.
After this comes the best track on the album in my opinion. "Carry On" leads off with the bass sound, which immediately grabs your attention. It reminds me a bit of her new track "Only You" (although this tune isn't quite as dancey and is slightly more rocky), but the lyrical content is quite different - "There was something in your eyes that I saw tonight, I never thought that I would see it/ Now there's holes in the walls and there's glass on the floor, and you said you didn't mean it". Unusually the chorus is a bit of an anti-climax as it is the verses which are stronger - the lyrics harsher and more bitter, and you can really hear the emotion in Ashanti's voice.
After this high point, the album goes into a serious decline. "The Story of 2" is a bit dull and dated for my liking, and has an unbelievably cheesy intro, "Sweet Baby" contains an Al Green sample but it is essentially Ashanti-by-numbers and "I Don't Mind" is a sickly sweet example of the r & b ballad genre - it sounds like a far weaker, less dirty version of Janet Jackson's "Anytime, Anyplace". "Ohh Ahhh" and "You Say, I Say" redeem the latter part of the album but, while being good tracks, they wouldn't make much of an impression on the charts if they had been released as singles.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH IT?
For one thing, too many of the songs are "same-y", and this isn't a good thing. If more of the songs were same-y in the "When Ya Gone" or "Carry On" vein, then the album would have been far superior, but the fact is there are just too many of the typical laid back r & b type tunes. But I can only take my r & b a little bit laid back before I just want to fall asleep.
The second thing I believe is wrong with it is the absence of people who generally make r & b albums better, particularly around the time this album was released. I'm talking about producers such as The Neptunes and Timbaland, who could really have livened up a couple of tracks on this album and made it far catchier. However, everything seems to be very insular and has "Murder Inc" stamped all over it. While it worked on the last album, I think she should have opened up to outside influences a bit more on this one.
Finally, the skits. I DO NOT see the point of skits on albums - does ANYONE??? And there are FOUR on this album. FOUR. Why?
CONCLUSION
To be honest, I was going to give this album a worse rating originally but when I listened to it again I realised I liked more songs on it than I had originally realised. So I will give it three stars rather than the two I had originally intended.
I also plan to purchase her follow-up "Concrete Rose" because I LOVE the first single off that, and also Lucie_S1984 gave it a very good review which encouraged me to do so (so if it's rubbish, I can blame YOU, Lucie!!!). But I wouldn't really advise anyone to buy "Chapter II", unless you are a hardcore Ashanti fan, or if you liked the more boring tracks on her debut album. I am glad I own this album, but only for the three or four songs I actually like on it. I probably won't listen to it all the way through ever again now!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Great review, not really my sort of music but sounds like an okay CD. Matt
missixty 22.07.2005 15:16
Brill review hun - I'm gonna be reviewing this soon so you best get a job and get back on Ciao!!!!
DJ_primo 23.05.2005 22:08
You're right, Ashanti's has already turned mediocre. Besides I listened to her debut album (in 2002) and went to sleep. Since then, I AIN'T touched ANY of Ashanti's follow-up albums
Chapter II, the second album by 2002 hip-pop debutante Ashanti, is aimed squarely at the ... more
mainstream portion of her audience. She made her name with radio-ready duets featuring Ja Rule and Fat Joe, butChapter IIgoes light on the rap, opting for only a s...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Chapter II, the second album by 2002 hip-pop debutante Ashanti, is aimed squarely at the ... more
mainstream portion of her audience. She made her name with radio-ready duets featuring Ja Rule and Fat Joe, but Chapter II goes light on the rap, opting for only a...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Intro / Medley (Ashanti) Shany's world (Ashanti) (Chink Santana) Rock wit U (Awww Baby) ... more
(Ashanti) What Are They Gonna Say Now (Skit) (Ashanti) Breakup 2 Makeup (Ashanti) I Found Lovin' (Ashanti) Rain On Me (Ashanti) Then Ya Gone (Ashanti) (Chink Santan...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Advantages: really good rymes and beats, nice songs, more of a r n b album so good for people who like that kind of music Disadvantages: all the intros
Advantages: really good rymes and beats, nice songs, more of a r n b album so good for people who like that kind of music Disadvantages: all the intros
exceptional by (3%):
very helpful by (97%):
