Pros: Nicely showcases N'dea's versatility and fluid singing style. Stylishly packaged, with a sense of humor.
Cons: Most arangements fit into a formulaic style (contemporary R&B), with playing and singing to match.
The Bottom Line: Unless you're a fan of N'dea or love "contemporary R&B," this is all too forgettable. Get your fill of this style by tuning to this radio format in your area.
willl's Full Review: N'Dea Davenport by N'Dea Davenport
Eight Years in the Making
This debut album for N’dea took eight years to come together, and if you check the liner notes, you'll see that it was recorded in half a dozen cities in the U.S. (Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Nashville, Shreveport, and New Orleans). You can also note that N'dea produced most of the tracks herself (with some help), and seems generous in her credits and acknowledgements in the liner. So was the making of this album a "labor of love," or just a long party?
A Tribute to N’dea
I don’t fault the professional quality of these songs; in fact, I could easily imagine several of them getting regular airplay in some of today's radio formats. What I do find unappealing about it has mostly to do with the style and taste of the music.
"Contemporary R&B"
For the first half of the eight years during which this album was put together, N'dea was the lead singer for the British group Brand New Heavies, whose music I've heard described as both "acid jazz" and "funk revivalist."
The style of music on ND (N'dea Davenport) is a lot different from the kind of "funk" I usually think of, which would be a lot more like, say, Average White Band's "Picking Up the Pieces," Miles Davis's "Black Satin," or even James Brown hopping up and down and shouting while his horns and band propel him on a tight groove. In fact, most of ND seems the exact opposite. Instumentally, the bass lines usually sound much more mixed down and laid back (except for the riotous tuba on "Getaway"), there's little rhythmic complexity, and the drum set almost exclusively plays a simple two-and-four "rock" beat at a medium-slow tempo (a-one-a-WHACK! a-three-a-WHACK! a-one-a...). It's that slow, simple beat that for several years now has dominated "contemporary R&B" radio (which I think in professional radio is known as "urban CHR," where CHR stands for "Contemporary Hit Radio").
A Change of Pace
I'm not really much of a fan of this "contempo-R&B" style. It's so stylized and predictable that there's not really much to listen to. I'd say it's more suited for dancing, where you may have a partner to focus on and keep your interest. And with such a simple rhythm, you're at least not likely to lose the beat.
So maybe it was the change of pace, but the slow and bluesy "Save Your Love for Me" (track 3), the sensitive "Real Life" (track 9), the loping "Old Man" Neil Young cover (track 10), and the New Orleans-style "Getaway" (track 13—recorded in the Crescent City with the Rebirth Brass Band) kept my attention the longest.
My biggest wish for her next album, if there is one, would be for her drummer (on most tracks, it's Brady Blade, Jr.) and rhythm section to get more going on rhythm-wise.
Another Diva?
Although I made a serious attempt to critically listen to this whole record, it was more than a bit hard to stay interested for very long in any of these songs. They all seemed to be done more for the singer's personal entertainment than for my own, and at the times where N'dea begins to break out of her commercial mold, she hams it up by singing "yea, yea, yea..." or exclaiming "Wooooooooo....!" Maybe with some more maturity, her style will develop, but personally, if I were to go out to buy something by a pop diva for my own listening, it'd be much more likely to be someone like Mariah Carey, Madonna, or Aretha Franklin.
"Maybe, But Probably Not" Recommend Button
So would I recommend ND to a friend? Since Epinions still doesn't have a "maybe" button for this required part of their reviews, I'm going to go ahead and be even more specific here by checking the "maybe, but probably not" one.
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