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Back in the mid 90s, I use to be a sucker for boybands. My favourite one was Imajin, ATL and N-Sync as I enjoyed their music and they were all in my age range, followed by the Backstreet Boys and O-Town. However, in this day and age, I’m over cheesy pop tunes and dated dance routines. JLS are cool but they need better material. Good job they have hottie Marvin Humes in there as their music lacks appeal (sans a handful of songs).
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I don’t mind boybands though. As long as the music is good, I’ll gladly support, minus the groupie behaviour I possessed a decade ago (hanging posters on my bedroom wall, collecting all their interviews from teeny bopper magazines, buying all their records, skiving school to catch performances, etc). And one of the boybands that impressed me more recently was Def Jam signees Brutha, as their debut album was simply the business!
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The brothers are back with a new sophomore album which is titled ‘Vacancy’, and it will be out later this year. The new project is preceded by the R. Kelly-penned ‘One Day On This Earth’, with the video being directed by Rage.
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On my old blog, I even wrote an album review, which I’ve reposted after the jump for those that never got to read it (I need to get back into the groove of writing album reviews again. I guess I can chalk it down to laziness since they are so time consuming to write). However, it seems that 2010 is the year we will see the ressurection of boybands.
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Brutha are a new five-piece R&B group from Los Angeles who happen to be a quintet of blood brothers (just like Bad Boy’s R&B group B5). The youngest Harrell brother is 19 and the oldest is 25. They were signed to Island Def Jam by the late Shakir Stewart and are managed by their uncle, Donny ‘Drano’ Harrell who is the CEO of Goodfellas Entertainment. Their six-episode reality show ‘Brothers to Brutha’ premiered last month on BET and explicitly detailed their transformation as a group. It documented their close-knit relationship, struggles and fight, and more importantly, their devotion to their music and family. The brothers self titled CD ‘Brutha’ was released this week (Dec 23rd in 2008), and during the Christmas period I actually got the chance to give it a listen. I’ve been listening to a lot of albums over the Holiday season which is why I’ve written quite a lot of album reviews lately, and since I had all that extra time off and I enjoy writing, I sure as hell made the most of it…

On the project, songwriting and producing duties include contributions from Jazze Pha, Shae Taylor, the Corna Boyz, the Heavyweights and 112 founding member Daron Jones. Their lead single ‘I Can’t Hear The Music’ features a guest spot from rapper Fabolous. The track hasn’t picked up at radio, much. I thought it would because it’s a catchy dance-driven R&B club number. And their highly energetic dance moves pretty much display that as well. You can really grind to it. The fact that they can sing and dance is a sure firestarter. ‘Bang Bang’ is yet another deceptively infectious track with its punchy organs and guitar riffs. It expresses a man’s deep regret and sadness at ruining a relationship due to his betrayal. As a result, losing his girl is like a gun shot to the heart. I’m presuming they must be Kill Bill fans because for the chorus section they sample Nancy Sinatra’s ‘Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)’. Other break up tracks reside in heartfelt ballads like the piano-laced ‘She’s Gone’ as well as ‘Ghost’, which once again echoes pain and regret.

‘Set It Off’ is a gorgeous ballad and is very mature in its production. A definete favourite of mine. The song is a nice mix between good Soul and R&B and also channelling some of the earlier works of Dru Hill. The harmonising among the brothers is pretty impressive. The infectious ‘Like This’ is yet another contagiously catchy R&B number which exhibits much of that grown and sexy nature, just like Set It Off. But comparing a woman’s body to a car is something I’ve heard way too often in R&B music. However, tracks like ‘Afraid of Love’ consists of an intoxicating melody over a snaky, skittering production. A cool R&B number lies in ‘What If’ which is made up of background synths and and a looped guitar chord. And ‘Just Be Honest’ has a thumping beat with more of those synths taking over alongside a twinkling of the piano here and there. The album ends with the extremely catchy ‘Make You Love It’ which consists of marching band style drums.

Already, I am seeing that Brutha are getting the 112 comparisons alongside all the other 90’s R&B boybands like Next and Ideal and so forth. This was a really good R&B album. It wasn’t anything spectacular but for a debut album, it was good. The album as a whole has a very mature sound and feel. I was sceptical at first because I thought it would have a teeny bopper vibe ala B5. And no young R&B boyband in their twenties have really wooed me since my beloved ATL, who I miss so damn much. It’s not fair! Overall, they are all talented guys who have proven themselves as good dancers and singers. My worry is that there are not many R&B boybands dominating the scene as of now, but I wish them well. I really like them. The final episode of their reality show aired on Dec 23rd, the day their album dropped. The first episode documents them auditioning for Jermaine Dupri in Atlanta. You can click here to watch archives of the show.

Rating: 3.5/5