Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #206396 in Music
• Released on: 1998-04-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Customer Reviews

Fantastic voice and one of the best Quiet Storm albums ever
This album was released in 1998 to a fairly unreceptive audience. The single "Imagination" (Produced by Jermaine Dupri) got some airplay on Urban Radio but soon disappeared along with any hope that this album would achieve the sales and recognition it deserved, along with Tamia being noticed as the credible artist she is. I write this review as in the current state of so-called R&B and Soul music it is extrememly difficult for us real listeners to find anything decent and this album is a must-have gem.

This - the debut-self-titled album from the fantastic artist that is Tamia is one of the best I heard in the 90s and there was a lot of fantastic R&B and Soul out at that time. (Aaliyah, R. Kelly, D'Angelo, Maxwell need I say more?) It combines upbeat stomping numbers like the JD and Manuel Seal-produced "Imagination" and "Is That You?" with mid-tempo, classy R&B ballads like the Mario Winans-produced "Rain On Me" and Darryl Simmon's gorgeous vocal-driven "Loving You Still". The songs are perfectly crafted by the producers working on them to fit in with Tamia's soft but extremely powerful voice and you fall in love with it instantly.

Indeed this album being on Qwest Records (Quincy Jones' record label) along with Tamia's fantastic breakthrough "You Put a Move On My Heart" (included as bonus here) attracted some of the biggest and best names in R&B. There is input from Tim and Bob on "So Into You" (criminally sampled by the talentless rapper Fabolous), Keith Crouch, C. "Tricky" Stewart and as previously mentioned Mario Winans, Jermaine Dupri and Manuel Seal and Babyface's long time collaborator Daryl Simmons.

This album does have something for all followers of R&B -ballads, mid-tempo jams and upbeat numbers but both the perfectly crafted music and Tamia's faultless voice make it pure ecstacy to listen to anyway. The best songs would be "Imagination", "Show Me Love" and "Loving You Still" but for once this is an ALBUM you can listen to all the way through, not just a few singles and all filler. It is complete enjoyment to listen to and I can't stress enough that you need to buy it and hear this gorgeous voice and music for yourself.

OTHER NOTABLE FROM TAMIA:
SLOW JAMS [WITH BABYFACE]
DON'T BE LATE... [WITH LL COOL J]
MY FIRST LOVE [WITH AVANT]
SPEND MY LIFE WITH YOU [WITH ERIC BENET]
MISSING YOU [WITH BRANDY, CHAKA KHAN, GLADYS KNIGHT]
THE ALBUM "A NU DAY"