Which of these LP's did you like better. Rank them from favorite to leasr favorite.





Keith Sweat: Make It Last Forever - November 24, 1987




Al B. Sure: In Effect Mode - May 3, 1988




Guy: Guy - June 13, 1988




Bobby Brown: Don't Be Cruel - June 20, 1988




New Edition: Heart Break - June 20, 1988

Of those, New Edition. I like them all, but as a whole album I think the NE album is strongest.

I always thought that was a wall made of acid-washed jeans behind Keith Sweat.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

this one.. cause Bobby kicked ass back then.. he blew the rest of his group out

This is easy.

1. Guy - The best NJS album beyond a shadow of a doubt.
2. Make It Last Forever - A complete album with no filler
3. Don't Be Cruel - A few lackluster songs, but the rest more than make up for them. This would be a classic for "Don't Be Cruel" and "My Prerogative" alone.
4. In Effect Mode - Very consistent with a (Sony) innovative cover of "Killing Me Softly"
5. Heart Break - A great album, but a little too long, too many interludes, and a few of the songs were much better after being remixed ("N.E. Heartbreak," "Crucial"). And it has "That's the Way We're Livin'"

RipHer2Shreds said:

What do you know? We disagree.

I could see the New Edition album being above Al B. Sure!, but that's as far as I could go. I consider the three at the top of my list the 3 very best New Jack Swing albums.

AlexdeParis said:

RipHer2Shreds said:

Is that for all of them or one in particular? You said you liked them all. I'd consider them at least no-brainers for top 5. Besides Heart Break, what else do you prefer?

AlexdeParis said:

I just wanted to use the disbelief on you for once.

RipHer2Shreds said:

NE had one song.. 'Can You Stand the Rain'.. that was it from that album.. whereas .. Bobby, Teddy, K.Sweat (who was under Teddy) were putting hits out.. everything Teddy put out was a success.. Bobby had "Dont Be Cruel","Every Little Step" "Tenderoni""My Prerogative" .. Bobby was kickin' ass back then.. and he put on nice shows (much better than NE).. i didnt like Al B.Sure.. but he was doing something..

Flowerz said:

Yeah but NE had If It Isn't Love, Boys To Men, Not My Kind of Girl along with Can You Stand The Rain. They were much more solid songs than Bobby's to me.

NE

sosgemini said:

GUy's First Album had the best jams on it:
Teddy's Jam
Groove me
I Like
You can call me crazy

It defined the sound of the era better than NE Heartbreak did to me.

RipHer2Shreds said:

You got me.

My favorite 4 tracks from each album:

Make It Last Forever: Make It Last Forever, I Want Her, How Deep Is Your Love, Right and a Wrong Way
In Effect Mode: Nite and Day, Ooh, This Love Is So, Killing Me Softly, Off On Your Own Girl
Guy: I Like, Spend the Night, Groove Me, Teddy's Jam
Don't Be Cruel: Don't Be Cruel, My Prerogative, Roni, I'll Be Good to You
Heart Break: If It Isn't Love, You're Not My Kind of Girl, Can You Stand the Rain, Crucial

Not surprisingly, I had the hardest time picking favorites from the Guy and Keith Sweat albums. I didn't pick "Goodbye Love," "Piece of My Love," "'Round and 'Round," "Something Just Ain't Right," "In the Rain," "Tell Me It's Me You Want"...

My order would be:


1 Guy: The leaders of the "New Jack Swing"
2 Make It Last Forever: The first "New Jack Swing" LP
3 Don't Be Cruel:Most popular NJS artist
4 Heart Break:
5 In Effect Mode:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

1.New Edition-Heartbreak--That album is a R&B classic and has stood its own over the past 19 years.

2.Bobby Brown-Don't Be Cruel-This was Bobby at his peak. Why did he have to marry Whitney and start doing crack?! HE COULDA BEEN A CONTENDA!!!

3.Al B Sure-Great album. I'm still trying to figure out how he managed to have nicely done eyebrows and STILL have a unibrow!

4.Guy-I still gotta listen to this album in entirety. I'm gonna buy the special edition

5.Keith Sweat-Make It Last Forever--I'm sorry, but I've NEVER been able to stand Keith's cryin' ass
[Edited 7/19/07 1:22am]

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Holla!

ALLLLL of them

my fave yahoo music station is the New jack swing station...i lose my damn mind

bboy87 said:

Also, what are you waiting for? Buy it now!

(Sorry, RipHer. You know I had to do it. )

AlexdeParis said:

Oops. I didn't see that the Guy album was an option (since there was no picture and I cannot read apparently). I assumed you added it in there on your own. I like all those albums and would put that one near the NE album. Not sure if tied, above or what, but I like it a lot. I won it in a white elephant gift exchange several years back. The chick who thought it was a "joke" gift used to love it in highschool, but then she went all hippy, Grateful Dead and disowned it. I, of course, loved getting it as a gift.

AlexdeParis said:

I've only heard a couple of songs. I was never a big fan of Teddy Riley or Aaron Hall

bboy87 said:

That's because you haven't heard the album.
[Edited 7/19/07 9:21am]

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Damn, what planet is this cat from?

1 - Guy - Guy: The greatest NJS album ever. You can play it all the way through.

2 - Al B. Sure! - In Effect Mode: The most ingenius of the NJS because he made a slow side and a fast side, and that shit came in handy on dates. Plus Kyle West made Al B. sound damn good.

3 - Bobby Brown - Don't Be Cruel: That shit had all the hot dance shit on it and it was a huge album.

4 - NE - NE Heartbreak: Two things saved New Edition from being done: Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and Johnny Gill. Without them, NE would've been finished. They really weren't even New Jack when you think of it. They had a bit of New Jack but it wasn't a full fledge NJS album

5 - Keith Sweat - Make it Last Forever: The original New Jack jam. Had some nice cuts and officially ushered in the New Jack era.

FuNkeNsteiN said:

Perhaps he could team up with Captain Unibrow here

FuNkeNsteiN said:

Singing the hook from his hit "Off On Your Own Girl"

I only got 1 eyebrow/I only got 1 eyebrow/I only got 1 eyebrow-brow-brow-brow

it'd be between Make It Last Forever
and Don't Be Cruel

I had both on cassette when I was a kid
and wouldn't go outside of my house
without my walkman and either of those tapes
(along with Anita Baker's Rapture album)

if I had to pick one it would
probably be Keith Sweat... I have that one on vinyl
and love it to pieces

"Tell Me It's Me You Want" is my everything

LittleBLUECorvette said:

I wouldn't call New Edition's "Heartbreak" a New Jack Swing-inspired album. Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis' percussion- and mechanical drum-laden sound was nothing like the rap beat-oriented music of the aforementioned (ironically, the other four albums were produced and/or performed by Teddy Riley).

The Riley-influenced albums are considered prototypes of the New Jack Swing sound. If I had to rank them, I would go:

1.) Keith Sweat "Make It Last Forever." Of all the albums, this is the album that didn't have -- and most importantly, didn't need -- remixed tracks to sweeten their commercial appeal. The only album where I can listen to the tracks from wire to wire.

2.) "GUY." A strong album, save I did not like the Timmy Gatling songs. The album is stronger if the remixes to "'Round and 'Round (Merry Go 'Round of Love)," "I Like" and the "Do the Right Thing" song "My Fantasy" is added.

3.) Bobby Brown "Don't Be Cruel." Probably a stronger album than "Guy" in one respect in that it didn't rely on remixes as much to make it pop (particularly the title track and "My Prerogative"). What kills the album, IMO, the last three filler tracks -- you know, the ones not produced by Riley and L.A. Reid and Babyface.

4.) Al B. Sure! "In Effect Mode." I just never cared for this album -- all the songs sounded the same to me and I hated Al B.'s falsetto. There are a couple of tracks I did play when it was released (most notably the Riley-produced "If I'm Not Your Lover").
[Edited 7/19/07 17:42pm]

***'Make It Last Forever' is the best of the bunch.Back then,I really enjoyed this record....especially the songs "something Just Ain't Right","How Deep Is Your Love",the title track and "In The Rain".A good,solid debut album at a time when R&B was still alive

***'In Effect Mode' was decent too.I like "Oooh This Love Is So" and "Off On Your Own Girl"."Nite and Day" is a well-produced track.