I have a huge collection of soul and swing CD’s and this is still the most played album of them all, even though it is now 6 years old. I realise that Jodeci are not very well known in England so I will give you a run down of the band and the previous albums.
Jodeci are simply one of the best soul bands to grace the face of the earth. The sound is funky, sexy and very, very cool. The all male band consists of four members. K-Ci and JoJo are the two lead singers, they are brothers, but both have very different voices. K-Ci has a very clear, nasally sound, whereas Jojo has a smooth, breathy voice. The other two members are DeVante and Mr Dalvin, who are also brothers. De Vante is the most important member of the group, even though he doesn’t sing lead vocals, because he writes and produces all the Jodeci albums. Most of the credit of the group’s success and wonderfully sexy sound is down to him. Mr Dalvin is probably the least active member, he sings vocals, helps write the songs and occasionally he raps.
I have all three of Jodeci's albums, and all of them are faultlessly produced, written, and sung. Each album is very different in feel. The first album (Forever my Lady, from1991) is mainly ballads. It reminds me of Blackstreet in style.
In the second album Jodeci made (Diary of a Mad Band, from 1993), the sound is a lot heavier and has a lot of hip-hop and rap. It has some fantastic
songs on, and the group obviously matured a lot during the period in between Forever My Lady and Diary of a Mad Band. The sound is a lot more sophisticated and the voices are stronger.
The Show, The After Party, The Hotel was released in 1995 and is without doubt their classiest offering. Again, the band has matured and the sound is so chilled and sexy, it makes me tingle all over whenever I listen to it! It has a very original sound and uses some very unusual keyboard sounds; I don’t really know how to describe the sounds other than floaty. It is so unique to Jodeci; you will just have to listen to the album to know what I mean.
The tracks (excluding the interludes) are as follows:
1. Bring on da’ Funk. Does exactly what it says on the tin! This is a funk-ridden track with heavy drum beat, bass, and some great harmony from Jojo and K-Ci. Lots of voice and keyboard distortion, which gives a retro feel.
2. Fun 2nite. Mr Dalvin sings lead during the first verse of this song. He has a very relaxed, quite jazzy voice, in comparison to K-Ci and Jojo’s voices which definitely sound like they belong in a gospel choir. This song is very laid back, with some guitar chords and organ sounds in the background, again harmony’s take pride of place.
3. S-More. Ooooh, there is no other word to describe this song other than Sexy (with a capital S!). A strong bass line, piano accompaniment, and quite a Latin drum beat all add to the appeal of this song. All the boys sing in very breathy voices, which suits the very sultry and saucy lyrics ‘Girl you were bragging on the phone about all the things we could do when we’re alone’. Granted, the lyrics are not the subtlest around, but in my opinion Jodeci could sing about Daz Liqui tabs and it would still sound sexy!
4. Get on Up. A very up beat, happy song, complete with clapping hands and whistling accompaniment! This is a great song to lift your mood when you’re feeling down example lyrics. ‘Positive is the answer, negative is not the mood'. The lyrics are about forgetting all your problems on a Friday night and instead getting up and dancing the night away! Sounds good to me!
5. Can We Flo? Another very sexy song, using the clappy beat. Panting also takes quite an important role in this song, if you listen carefully you can hear some bloke panting throughout the entire song! This song is the first on this album to have a rap included (Performed by Playa).
6. Let’s Do It All. Smooth ballad, with Jojo and K-Ci singing their hearts out. What I love about this album is that even the ballads still remain funky and are not slushy at all, they are all very smooth and sexy. This song is full of harmony, again the voice distorters are used towards the end of the song.
7. Pump It Back. This is one of my favourite songs on this album. It has quite a simple bass line and drum beat. The lyrics are very sexy and the vocals are spot on. There is a long instrumental on this song at the end, which I love because it gives a great example of De Vante’s musical and production skills. There is also a female singer featured on this song called Rolita, and she has a very smooth voice, a perfect accompaniment to the boy’s!
8. Freak’n’you. This is the only song that Jodeci produced that entered the UK charts. It is a wonderfully simple song, an acoustic guitar riff is the basis of the song, and on the album version this is explored further than on the radio version. It is quite a simple song, with just bass, drums and guitar providing the basis of the song, with wonderful vocals on top.
9. Time and Place. There is a definite Latin influence on the percussion of this song. This song is very smooth and sweet. Lots of harmony is in this song too. An orgasmic woman also makes an appearance in the backing of this song!
10. Love You For Life. This is a beautiful song about marriage. It is a ballad, and words cannot describe the sound of the harmonies in this song. I think this is simply magic. The lyrics are wonderful, the backing joyful and simple, but the voices are so strong and the harmonies so complex. This song always brings me to tears (I know, I’m a real softie!).
11. Good Love. If there is one song Jodeci have ever done which shows off their voices to perfection it is this. There are no drums, no bass, no fancy keyboards, just a guitar and the four boy’s voices. Each sings a separate part of the song and the harmonies are again perfect. If you have never heard Jodeci before then I urge you to listen to this song, I promise you will be blown away by their voices and the complexity of the harmony’s, all sung live with no accompaniment other than the guitar.
In between each track on the album is an interlude. It tells a story of DeVante meeting a girl at a concert, taking her to the groups after party, and then taking her to the hotel room (hence the name of the album). Listen carefully to track 13 (in between Let’s Do It All and Pump It Back) and you will even hear De Vante’s wind whilst trying to bump and grind with his girl! I know it’s toilet humour but so what?
Since The Show, The After Party, The Hotel was released the band has split up. Jojo and K-Ci have released a couple of albums. De Vante has gone into producing, but I haven’t heard anything of Mr Dalvin since the group split.
I don’t think any member of the group will ever recreate the success and greatness of any of the Jodeci albums though, and I think The Show The After Party The Hotel will always be the group’s masterpiece. There is not one song on this album which is weaker than the others, each one is equally good as the rest.
This is the closest I have come to hearing a perfect album. If you love soul music you MUST buy this album!!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Jun 14th, 2001
(Jul 3rd, 2001)
very helpful by (100%):
