Amerie Album : All I Have
Tuesday 30 July 2002
Amerie
Album : All I Have
July 30, 2002
Amerie jumped on the scene with the success of her 1st single and 2002 summer smash, "Why Don’t We Fall In Love". The radio stations have been playing the song constantly and there are also two other versions in heavy rotation as well: A Whodini, "One Love" remix and another remix featuring Ludacris. With the success of the song, I agree with Columbia wanting to release Amerie’s debut CD now.
The production is handled by Rich Harrison, who produced a song on Mary J. Blige’s "Mary" CD entitled "Beautiful Ones". He does a good job allowing the music to flow with Amerie’s voice, in my opinion. After a 2:39 version of "Why Don’t We Fall In Love", (I never heard a song where the version of the song on the video was longer than the version on the actual CD), Amerie keeps things going with "Talkin’ To Me". This nice midtempo jam is just the song that can keep your career going so she doesn’t become a victim of VH1’s one hit wonder segments.
Contrary to what some people may think, Amerie reminds me a lot of Mary J. Blige when Mary first started. This is because of the sound of the music, the fact that Rich Harrison is the producer and Cory Rooney, who wrote and produced songs for "What’s The 411" being one of the executive producers for "All I Have". Songs like "Talkin’ To Me", "Float", and the title track will support my theory. While listening to Amerie’s CD you will also hear a little Aaliyah (RIP), Monica and Ashanti in her as well.
This is no fault of Amerie. This just occurs because of the wide variety of female artists that are in the r&b game today. Amerie proves to be versatile in the fact that she can perform the uptempo, midtempo and slow songs very well. 2 of the best songs on her debut are slow jams, "Nothing Like Loving You" and "Show Me".
Amerie doesn’t have any filler material on her CD but there are songs that are clearly better than the others. Other songs worth checking out are "Need You Tonight", "I Just Died", and "Can’t Let Go". Overall, Amerie has an enourmous amount of potential. "All I Have" will definitely be in your ride until the end of the summer and for the rest of 2002.
With the right single choices, Amerie will definitely be here to stay. She seems to be a very positive and grounded young woman, so I wish her luck. You can also hear her on Nas’ "Rule" and on an upcoming song on LL Cool J’s next CD.
Track Listings
1. Why Don’t We Fall In Love
2. Talkin’ To Me
3. Nothing Like Loving You
4. Can’t Let Go
5. Need You Tonight
6. Got To Be There
7. I Just Died
8. Hatin’ On You
9. Float
10. Show Me
11. All I Have
