During the past week, Jennifer Lopez, (formerly known as J. Lo) premiered her third album, "This Is Me Then." I can honestly say, as a lover of good music across all genres, the album is far, far from perfect.
"This Is Me Then" is a compilation of about 10 love ballads, with the exception of two hip-hop collaborations, one featuring LL Cool J, the other with Styles and Jadakiss. Without those two tracks, the album would seem like one long, drawn-out love ballad. This is unfortunate on many levels.
First of all, the most essential requirement for a ballad is an assuring voice. The one thing that Jennifer Lopez has lacked ever since she stepped into the singing business is an assuring voice. Don't get me wrong, she can sing on key. The problem is a complete lack of resonance. At times, she almost sounds like she's whining.
The other thing is her pitch
- it's too high for the songs that dominate this album. Songs like "Still," "Loving you," "You Belong to Me," "I've Been Thinking" and "Baby I Love You" clearly have R&B intentions, but the execution could have been done with more justice using an artist with actual R&B ability.
My final note on the voice issue is this: Something is definitely wrong when the background singers sound better than the lead.
It's obvious the producers assumed that if they just over-produced the songs enough, attention would be drawn away from the lacking lead vocals. And I bet there'll be quite a few who will buy the album out of the pure power of the name Jennifer Lopez (plus, you get a scent sample of her new perfume!), but the fact still remains that these songs would sound a lot better if sung by a different voice.
Good vocals are essential for the album to work, not just because of its many ballads, but also because the lyrics lack depth. This is no surprise, considering the last two albums put out by Ms. Lo, but there is a crucial difference between those albums and this new one. The last two were styled to be pop. There were plenty of fast beats and booming bass lines to distract from vocals or even from the simplistic lyrics.
This new album is a bit too naked. The only seeming distractions are the supermodel-esque photographs that adorn the album cover and lyric booklet. Speaking of lyrics, here's an excerpt from the song that Lopez co-wrote (am I missing something here?) for her new fiance (um
Ben Affleck in case you're living under a rock): "I love you you're perfect / A manifestation of my dreams / You make my body feel / About a million different things."
The song goes on, basically saying the same thing over and over again using different multi-syllabic words to give the illusion of depth but not actually getting out of the kiddy pool.
Even though Lopez didn't independently write any songs on this album, she really tries to be sincere about her feelings of love. But if she views her relationships as shallowly as these lyrics portray, it's no wonder she's on her third engagement.
The album's only single so far is "Jenny From the Block," one of the two hip-hop collaborations. What makes this song such a success? That's an easy answer, really. Her pitch is taken down a few notches, and she's not singing the majority of the time. When she is singing, it's with back-up singers. Most importantly, the beats are tight, and Jadakiss and Styles already have their own followings.
Her song with LL might have just as much success. Sony and Epic aren't new kids on the block; they know how to produce a star and how to sell albums. Without a doubt, this album will sell and will sell big. Sadly, this product does not offer any sort of musical prowess, and, what's even more saddening, it is obvious that Lopez wasn't really reaching for it.
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