Album: Set It Off: Music From The New Line Cinema Motion Picture (EastWest)
Songwriters: Marqueze Etheridge, Andrea Martin, Ivan Matias and Organized Noise
Hit #1: January 25th, 1997 (1 Week)
En Vogue achieved something two times in the 90's that only a handful of R&B artists had convincingly accomplished before: blend the worlds of rock and soul in a way that didn't feel tongue-in-cheek campy or "this is our rock song" hokey.
Aware that there was nothing more stimulating than the marriage of squealing electric guitars and supple, Black church-y vocals, producers/ En Vogue creators Thomas McElroy and Denzil Foster first pulled off this risky feat on the storming "Free Your Mind". It's intense musical makeup (thunderous fretwork, steely harmonies, COWBELLL!!) and frustrated spit in the face of racial stereotypes ("I can't look without being watched/ You rang my buy before I made up my mind") stretched a classic George Clinton hook into an impressive genre-meld that to this day remains a relevant, dazzling masterwork in sound.
DL: "Free Your Mind" (YFH)
The 1996-97 Winter found Atlanta hitmaking team Organized Noise (Outkast, Goodie Mob, TLC) honing in on this style yet again, but instead of using the raging rawk furor as support for conscious musings, they attached it to a woman's vehement plea to take a casual fling to the next level. "Don't Let Go (Love)" (featured in the female bank robber flick "Set It Off" with Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox and Jada Pinkett) was the perfect vehicle for group rebel Dawn Robinson's starring turn, who delves deep into the ultimatum-dishing role, pulling off the performance's required hair-pulling angst ("I live in misery when you're not around/ And I won't be satisfied 'til we're taking those vows") and making lyrics about dressing up in dude's clothes and stewing in his essence sound as deranged as they should.
The final third gives each member a chance to pull out their inner Tina Turner with killer vocal runs that pit them in competition with eachother. Sadly, it would be the last major release to feature all four original vocalists. Robinson left the group soon after "Don't Let Go" had become a radio mainstay to pursue what would become a flaccid solo career. Reduced to a trio, Cindy, Maxine and Terry strengthened their now-three-part harmonic attack and dropped EV3, but without Dawn (and fewer collaborations with McElroy/ Foster), the group just didn't have that same magic and album sales suffered because of it.
Though not the trend-setting commercial dynamos they once were, En Vogue continued to drop material through indie labels with members coming and going ("New Mickey Mouse Club" alum Rhona Bennett eventually joined the group for an off-and-on run). The original four came back together for a couple of shows here and there, but an oft-promised reunion album has yet to emerge.
Best Moment: The "Fatal Attraction" line: "If I could wear your clothes/ I'd pretend I was you/ And lose control" (2:06)
DL: "Don't Let Go (Love)" (YFH)
2 comments:
It's such a phenomenal, odd, song, and it really tops the EV legacy (though I think 'Whatever' was vastly underrated).
Funny. A friend and I were talking last night about her crazy relationship woes and I busted out with this very song. I told her she needed to call him and play this: "What's it gonna beeeee!" I just love how you can find a song for any situation.
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