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 TLCFanMail [Japan] Release Date: 1999 02 23 Label: BMG International Rating:  |
Crazysexycool was one of those records that defined an era and set standards. Few records before it combined hip-hop and classic soul songwriting quite as intoxicatingly or gracefully -- the performances and productions were utterly seamless, especially on the series of hit singles. It would have been difficult to top an album as strong and successful as Crazysexycool, but TLC had it doubly bad, since a number of behind-the-scenes problems delayed a sequel for nearly five years. As with any eagerly anticipated record, that follow-up, titled Fan Mail, arrived with too many expectations. And initially, it may be disappointing to realize TLC doesn't forge new ground with Fan Mail, but after a few spins, it settles in that nobody else makes urban soul quite as engaging as this. Not that it was easy to make this record, as the head-spinning list of collaborators indicates. Almost ten producers -- including L.A. Reid & Babyface, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Jermaine Dupri, Daryl Simmons and Dallas Austin -- worked on the record, all trying to replicate the easy, appealing sound of Crazy.... And "replicate" is the right word, since there are no new innovations on Fan Mail apart from a few lifts from the Timbaland book of tricks. Nevertheless, that may be for the best, since TLC and their army of producers have spent time crafting the songs and productions, turning Fan Mail into a record that almost reaches the peaks of its predecessor. By the end of the record, it appears that they can do it all -- funky, hip-hop-fueled dance-pop ("Silly Ho," "I'm Good at Being Bad"), seductive ballads ("I Miss You So Much," "Don't Pull Out on Me Yet," "Come on Down") and mid-tempo jams ("No Scrubs," "My Life," "Unpretty," "Fanmail") -- and they can do it all well. Other groups try to reach these heights, but they don't have the skills or the material to pull it off quite so well. True, the five-year wait felt interminable and they're now standard-bearers instead of pioneers, but if takes TLC as long to make a sequel to Fan Mail, so be it -- they have one of the best track records in '90s urban soul. [Fanmail is also available in an import release.] Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
Tracks:
| Title | Composer | Time | |
| 1 | Fanmail | Austin | 4:00 |
| 2 | Vic-E Interpretation (Interlude) | Austin | :18 |
| 3 | Silly Ho | Austin | 4:15 |
| 4 | Whispering Playa | Austin, Martin | :52 |
| 5 | No Scrubs | Cottle, Burruss, Briggs | 3:34 |
| 6 | I'm Good at Being Bad | Martin, Tolbert, Jordan, Harris, Dick, Lewis, Lopes, Watkins, Sscott, Oskar | 4:37 |
| 7 | If They Knew | Austin, Lopes, Watkins, Martin, Lumpkins | 4:04 |
| 8 | I Miss You So Much | Simmons, Babyface [1] | 4:56 |
| 9 | Unpretty | Watkins, Austin | 4:38 |
| 10 | My Life | Savage, Martin, Lopes, Dupri | 4:01 |
| 11 | Shout | Austin, Watkins, Martin, Lopes | 3:57 |
| 12 | Come on Down | Warren | 4:17 |
| 13 | Dear Lie | Babyface [1], Watkins | 5:10 |
| 14 | Communicate (Interlude) | Austin | :51 |
| 15 | Love Sick | Thomas, Austin | 3:52 |
| 16 | Automatic | Austin | 4:31 |
| 17 | Don't Pull Out on Me Yet | Austin | 4:34 |
| 18 | U in Me [*] | Austin | 3:50 |
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