JaZmine Sullivan - Fearless (Album Review)

I had been thinking about doing album reviews but I didn't know if I really felt like giving the effort - Seems like that would interfere with my laziness. But, I decided to review the new JaZmine Sullivan album Fearless.1. "Bust Your Windows"
This is her second single. I kind of want to like this song. Kind of. I really like the beat. According to wiki it was produced by Salaam Remi and samples "Bad Man Waltz" by Salaam Remi... Whatever that means, lol. Her voice isn't as grating on this song as the first single ("Need U Bad") but it's still not great. As for the lyrical content, it's about what you would expect. You broke my heart/So I broke your car/You caused me pain/So I did the same. Nothing really profound here.

2. "Need U Bad"
I hate this song. I just absolutely hate it. Missy Elliott's ja-fake-in thing she does irks me. JaZmine's voice irks me. The lyrics irk me. I need you bad I can't take this pain/Boy, I'm 'bout to go insane. GROSS. I'll say something positive though... It's catchy in that annoying way that you'll find yourself screeching singing it later.

3. "My Foolish Heart"
My guess is this is filler. It's forgettable in every way. Matter of fact, I had to start it over because I didn't realize it had come on while I was editing the intro of this review.

4. "Lions, Tigers, & Bears"
I'll admit... I love this song. I love it so much that it got the repeat treatment weeks ago. I love the orchestral arrangement in the background - Salaam Remi does it again! The lyrics really talk to that young and girlish side of me. I'm not scared of lions and tigers and bears (oh my!)/But I'm scared of loving you.... Why do we love love when love seems to hate us? She got me on this one, I won't lie. Her voice still sounds nasally and whiny but I ignore it.

5. "Call Me Guilty"
The song opens with a phone call between JaZmine and her mom where she tells her mom, "Mom, he did it again... He hit me." The song goes on a hypothetical journey where she wonders if she should kill her abusive boyfriend. I almost want to give her props for boldly taking on a subject usually ignored in mainstream R&B and not trying to cover it up in metaphors. You know exactly what she's saying. The lyrics are straight forward: 'Cause if you knew what he did to me/I know I would get your sympathy/So if they catch me/I still ain't sorry/Just lock me up and/Call me guilty. The song itself, however, isn't all that interesting. It's actually quite boring.

6. "One Night Stand"
Hmm... I'm on the fence about this song. The chorus is pretty catchy. It starts off slow and forgettable but when it picks up it's almost infectious. Her voice is also less annoying on it. Content wise, she sings of a hook-up that went further than she intended. He was supposed to be a one night stand.

7. "After the Hurricane"
Predictable and boring. The way you broke my heart/and now I'm left with the pain/After the hurricane... Yawn.

8. "Dream Big"
More Missy Elliott... Yay! (/sarcasm) The song is about exactly what the title makes you think it's about... having big dreams! She's going to take that big journey to the magical land of Los Angeles and give it her best shot! The song sounds like something scrapped from a Disney Channel original movie starring one of the Mowry siblings or Raven-Symoné or one of the other ethnic people they allow into their programming. Maybe it'd fit in nicely in another Cheeetah Girls sequel.

9. "Live a Lie"
I had to listen to this song like 20x (exaggeration) to make sure I understood what was going on. She mumbles/whines through the whole song and it's boring so I kept getting confused. Here's what I got: She got drunk one night and went to her boo's house (I think?) and caught him with some chick and she wish she hadn't. She'd rather live a lie. I guess she's operating on ignorance is bliss... Fuck living a lie. I'd rather be heartbroken than played, BUT THAT'S JUST ME.

10. "Fear"
The song contradicts my personal jam, "Lions, Tigers & Bears" because in that song she runs through how she's not scared of much except loving her boo but this song says she's scared of basically everything. Which is it? At first listen, the song probably seems familiar to most because she samples a Stevie Wonder song: I Was Made To Love Her. As much as Stevie samples touch my heart, I couldn't get into this song.

11. "In Love With Another Man"
This is the other song that everyone else seems to like... Everyone but me. It seems she's going for more a bluesy feel as she (again) whines over the track and tells her poor lover that she is sorry but she is in love with someone else. I guess I can see why people would like this song but it just doesn't work for me. It mainly comes down to the fact that her voice couldn't pull off that bluesy agony she was going for. As much as I hate to say it - Fantasia Barrino probably would have killed this song (and I swear, I can't STAND Fantasia Barrino.)

12. "Switch!"
The most playful of the tracks. It has an old school feel to it and it's pretty cute. It's about how she thinks her and her man should SWITCH! She likes his best friend and is offering up her female friend. Like I said, the song is cute.... But not cute enough to keep when you hate the rest of the album (save for one song.)

In case you didn't notice, I did not like the album. It seems that most other reviewers loved it but I am not on that train. It's not because I'm not her target audience - I'm her age, I'm a black woman, I'm a man-hater/lover, I dig R&B, I hate Rihanna, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill changed my life... I'm supposed to like this shit but I DON'T. Plus, it's lacking in depth. Pretty much every song is about some dude or at least references lurve. I swear people are so thirsty for someone with a shred of talent that they give credit where it is not due. Like my friend Lenoir Tyrannical says, "she sounds like she's got a chest cold." ...And if I hear/read one more person comparing her to Lauryn Hill I will bust some heads till the white meat shows! I even heard Phyllis Hyman comparisons... LIKE, SERIOUSLY? WTF? I give her MAD PROPS though for being a songwriter. But if you don't like my review, read Allmusic's - they gave her 4.5 stars... I'd give the ONE SONG I'll keep 4 stars.

Worst of all though, I HATE THE WAY SHE SPELLS HER NAME. IT'S J-A-S-M-I-N-E. Damnit.

(There's a bonus track but I didn't care enough about it to look for it. Also, if you want to hear something good - Check this out.)

Thinking Out Loud (So To Speak...)

In just two years
A baby goes from just being able to move its head
To walking, talking, feeding itself
Communicating how it thinks and feels
So many little milestones on the path to becoming a toddler

In the last two years
I've been to two different schools
Lived in two different states
Almost lost you in a car accident
Only to lose you to somebody else a month later
I've broken your heart
You've broken mine
My mom survived breast cancer
I've made friends and lost friends
We've broken up and always made up
So many good times but many more bad times
And through it all I've kept my strength

But you question my strength
You question the strength of my love for you
You don't see how in "such a short time"
I can feel so strongly
You do not trust my word
You do not believe that I love you

The lover in me wants to prove myself to you
Pull out all the stops
Paint the story of my love over melodies
And sing them to you

The rest of me wonders
Why I should have to prove my love
To someone who has not proven their love to me

You hold the past over my head
And I can admit that the way I was acting
I did not have OUR best interest at heart
But I'm not that girl anymore
And I'm not trying to hurt you anymore

BUT THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU
You insist that I am dramatizing my feelings
And I just think that I love you
And you're not going to let me break your heart -- again
And you're not going to let me play these games

WHAT GAMES?
It seems to me you're the only one playing games these days
I don't get it
I thought maybe it was about sex
So I stopped giving it to you
And you stick around
And pick fights with me
And tell me you love me
And then take it back
And tell me that I don't love you
I just don't get it

I don't like who we're becoming
You said you want it to be how it used to be
But I don't think it can
Why can't we just find a new way to be
Or not be at all?

It scares me that we're turning into a Lauryn Hill song
It could all be so simple, but you'd rather make it hard
When all you have to do is say what you mean and mean what you say
Everything else will work itself out

----------------
Now playing: Lauryn Hill - Ex-Factor
via FoxyTunes

"Why are you the way you are?"

That's the subtitle of my friend Cara's danish. It made me start thinking about myself... About why I am the way I am. I think I will try to make a list now. Try to follow, I tend to ramble.

• "Jasmine is such a snob" -Selected Family Members
  
• "She think she better than everybody because she live in Baltimore." -Selected Family Members (And I don't fucking live in Baltimore)
• "This my cousin from Baltimore." -Cousins
• "Girl, you think you from Baltimore and you not. YOU FROM HAMMOND, LA." -Selected Family Members
  
• I was actually born in Hammond, LA. Not THAT GREAT of a place for black people.
• "Your chink eyes are ugly." -Selected Family Members
• My mom counted less than 20 black people in my 7th grade yearbook (me included) for all the grades (6,7,8).
• I stole my brother's Tupac and Nas CDs when I needed a break from Mariah Carey.
• The whole first 8 years of my life I was only technically allowed to listen to christian/gospel music and country music (with the exception of Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, and Whitney Houston). I cheated in secret, of course.
• Child-molestation.
• Alcoholism... Throughout both sides of my family.
• Being abused daily.
• Getting screamed at for bringing home a "B."
• Being the only black kid in at least one of my classes every year since 4th grade.
• Not realizing there were so many black kids in my graduating class until graduation... They just weren't in my classes.
• Not knowing what "nigger" meant until 6th grade.
• Hating my father until I was 18 for no real reason.
• My favorite book is The Giving Tree because it mirrors many things in the relationship between my mother and my brother.
• Accepting being called "oreo." (Black on the outside, white on the outside).
• Being called "white girl" as early as 4.
• Being forced into attending an all black school because my family thought I needed to learn how to be around black people.
• Being given a natural apprehension to trust any male by the time I was 3.
• Suicide attempts.
• Having my hair straight for the first time in 7th grade and having Kyle Bagbey pull on it because he didn't believe it wasn't a weave.
• Growing up in Crofton, Maryland.
• Giving into Go-Go music at 18.
• Falling in love with poetry at 4.
• Reading Shakepeare's classics in elementary school.
• Wishbone. :)
• Being a scorpio.
• My brother dying before I was born and the effect it had on my mother.
• My other brother dying in 8th grade and me not being able to remember his face.
• Having every hamster I've ever had die in less than a year (though I took good care of them) only to find out after the last one that hamsters just don't have long life spans. :(
• Being complimented on being so "articulate."
• Having good SAT scores that were not good enough for my mother.
• Sexual assault in adulthood.
• Witnessing women I love and respect being beat by men.
• Bad allergies.
• Thyroid conditions.
• Depression.
• Anxiety.
• Arundel Senior High School.
• Four Seasons Elementary.
• Woodmore Elementary.
• Crofton Middle.
• Arundel Middle.
• Clark Atlanta University.
• Woodland Park Elementary School.
• The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill.
• Eating chili and cheese out of a bowl.
• Bonne Belle chapstick.
• MTV rotting my brain.
• Disney channel.
• Nickelodeon.
• The Guiding Light.
• Never feeling quite loved enough.
• The handful of people in this world I think understand me.
• Leke.
• Derek.
• Jeff.
• Broken-hearts.
• Michelle.
• Jinnelle.
• Cara.
• Melody.
• My cousin Kelle.
• Jonathan William (both of them.)
• Hurricane Katrina.
• The internet.
• My grandmother Augustine.
• The rest of my family.
• Music!
• Books!

I could probably go on forever, (and I almost did) but I won't.


----------------
Now playing: N*E*R*D - Maybe
via FoxyTunes

They Don't Make 'Em Like This Anymore

"I don't care how many times it has been done; I am putting my own two cents on the album that carried me from pre-teen to teen to young woman to beginning almost-real adulthood. Everybody can have their opinions but (to me) The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill is the 1990's hip-hop/r&b answer to Songs In The Key Of Life. For the soul purists this may be a big claim but I'm just saying what this album has meant to me. My auntie Lucy bought this CD for my 12th birthday in 1998 and nearly 10 years later I'm catching lines I missed."
-Me

That's what I wrote last night/this morning when I thought to myself that I was going to write about this album that serves as my life soundtrack. Then, like usual, I got distracted and went off elsewhere but today I decided to come back to what I had intended to say. What I intended to say is that maybe I take things differently than other people... Maybe I put to much into music... Maybe it has too big of a presence in my life. If that is true SO BE IT! I am a music lover and though I am (admittedly) not the most fickle of music lovers it is rare that I can listen to an entire album on repeat without skipping and never get bored. This album... *DEEP SIGH* This album is about LOVE in every form.

• Difficult/Painful Love - "Ex-Factor"
• Love Of Your Child - "To Zion"
  
• Love Yourself Young Women and Men - "Doo Wop (That Thing)"
• Love For God (Beautiful song, though I'm not religious) - "Tell Him"

I could actually go on and on but I'm trying not to be TOO long-winded. Lauryn Hill has inspired many. You look on Youtube and there are countless covers of her songs by musicians (both professional and amateur). Sadly, The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill is her only solo studio album. Lauryn Hill has become known for her semi-crazy antics. People have alleged she is a racist based off of quotes that she never said (See: Wikipedia). Do I wish that she could somehow go back to the Lauryn that made this beautiful album? Yes. But Lauryn contends that the Lauryn I (and many like me) long for was not the real Lauryn Hill and that she was not being completely true to herself.

"People need to understand that the Lauryn Hill they were exposed to in the beginning was all that was allowed in that arena at that time. There was much more strength, spirit and passion, desire, curiosity, ambition and opinion that was not allowed in a small space designed for consumer mass appeal and dictated by very limited standards. I had to step away when I realized that for the sake of the machine, I was being way too compromised. I felt uncomfortable about having to smile in someone’s face when I really didn’t like them or even know them well enough to like them."
-Lauryn Hill

So I guess she is never "coming back." That is her right. It will not stop me from enjoying this masterpiece. But I just need someone to tell VIBE MAGAZINE that Amy Winehouse will NEVER be Lauryn Hill, not that I take much credit in Vibe Magazine anyway. "Forgive them father, they know not what they do..."


----------------
Now playing: Lauryn Hill - Every Ghetto, Every City
via FoxyTunes