Amerie - Gotta Work

this album is really likeable!

On Saturday it took me the best part of an hour to get past "Gotta Work" on the album because I played it 16 times in a row. MY GOD it's brilliant - the most inspired use of a seemingly hackneyed sample ever! The way she sings "damn!" as though gleefully shaking off a feather brushing against her right cheek! "1 Thing" in Technicolor! A destination reached! And she sounds so happy and forceful at the same time! IT'S THE GREATEST POP RECORD EVER!!!!!!!!!

But the album is all great. The track which samples Duck Rock makes me swim. "Take Control" is awesome (hey, Tom Ze)! Even when we get into the slow jams there's always imagination at work ("Crush" is nearly Cabaret Voltaire) and the songs themselves are very strong ("All Roads").

I have to sit down and write it up properly, but for now it's the best pop R&B album - certainly, the only one to have reached that close to me, and possibly into me - since Brooke Valentine's Chain Letter.

In places it's like Michael Jackson AND Madonna born again. Or at least how they would have sounded with Jam and Lewis at the controls.

duck rock? which track is that? and which duck rock track?

"Some Like It," "World's Famous."

'hate2loveu' is the highlight for me.

it must be a great album if there's been all this talk and no mention of Make Me Believe. Some Like It is great too, with the spoken/sung parts and the "...make it take it easy, won't be sorry boy believe me..." where it matches the melody.

The horns on "Make Me Believe" are great but my favourite is "Crazy Wonderful". Laidback Amerie is just as good or maybe even better than 1Thing Amerie, which explains why Siik Remix was so sick. But it seems everyone has a different favourite on this album.

Not out until August 21 in the US? Jeezum crow.

By far the best song on this is the accusatory ballad "Paint Me Over".

I like the rest of it but I share some of rtc's renovations.

Nice to see Marcello giddy.

Also "All Roads" is much better than you probably think it is.

"Crazy Wonderful" is so great

why did i ignore this thread till now?

this is so good.

Some Like It is the one I feel most inclined to skip, apart from Somebody Up There and whatever the slow jam is called, as both of those are outright terrible.

Paint Me Over took a while to click with me but it's great.

Also worst sequenced album of the year - mix the ballads and bangers up, don't cynically front-load everything uptempo.

"Some Like It" is pretty dire, actually. I casts quite a shadow over the rest of the hyper-eighties tracks.

renovations! ur too kind old boy.

at least no one really reps for 'some like it'... i could take a cricket bat to 'gotta work' and its fans quite frankly

that 'streets alone' is probly the track i still listen to most after 'take control' is probably a measure of how far i've copped out of thinking about this album since.

Ha ha did I write "renovations". of course I meant "reservations". Weird.

Yeah I'm not really into "Gotta Work" either. Its hyper-ecstatic desire to impress is perversely boring.

the Sam & Dave lift is boring and i don't think it's a patch on '1 Thing' but it's OK.

So does this actually come out today, or has it been delayed again?

I thought it did (and posted so on the rolling R&B thread), but I guess Wikipedia faked me out as no other websites are confirming it. I went to pick up some new releases yesterday (at a store that puts out the Tuesday releases on the shelves on Monday) and it was nowhere to be found. Damn! Even if the album is as flawed as people here are saying, I could really use a halfway decent female R&B album this year.

Good Girl Gone Bad is halfway decent, but not R&B enough I guess.

Yeah, I think Rihanna officially turned in her R&B card when she got an Aeon Flux haircut and recorded the Republica b-side that is "Shut Up And Drive."

Album of the year.

I love "Crush" and "Take Control" but I just can't get into the "1 More Thing"s, at least when she's chirping those high notes. Not sure why I find it so grating when it defines the pleasure principle for some many others.

Tim F OTM re: "Some Like It"