ALEXANDER O'NEAL - THE BEST OF ALEXANDER O'NEAL

Alexander O'Neal comes from that whole Minneapolis sound movement back in the 80's. He was floating around that whole group of people who eventually made up the bulk of Prince's satellite groups and his own band. Originally, Alexander was slated to be the lead singer of Prince's side group, The Time; but was replaced for some reason. Who knows what happened there. But one fact is true... Alexander knew those guys and his association with them led to his career later on. When Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis became a popular production team, they got with him and propelled him to the top of the R&B charts by producing hit after hit.

Of course their association with him started way back when they were first coming into their own and developing their own sound. They have a distinct sound that even though it's based on the Minneapolis sound, it still has features distinctly its own. At the beginning though, the sound was more grounded in 70's funk rather than the new material they later worked on.

Much of the material on this record falls into this category. You can hear Jam & Lewis searching for something to define themselves with. You get a couple tracks that are more polished and showed up later when they'd found a way to be distinctive, but the majority are somewhere between that original more traditional R&B sound and that new spark. Obviously some tracks showcase this more readily than others. The two songs that really step up and say, "Hey I'm here!" are the first track, 'Fake' and 'Criticize'. Both tracks are from the "Hearsay" CD. There are a couple other from that record on here too, but those are the two that really define Jam & Lewis at the time. I think they intentionally tried to keep O'Neal sounding different from other acts they were producing at the time like Janet Jackson. O'Neal's voice is a more traditional and legitimate sound for R&B as well.

Many of the other songs from this CD were also hits on the charts. For example, 'A Broken Heart Can Mend' was a big chart topper. I love the song and I seem to remember it showing up on a couple soundtracks, but I may be wrong on that. Other truly standout tracks include 'Never Knew Love Like This', 'Crying Overtime' and 'Innocent'. The version of 'Innocent' on this record is an extended version that breaks into a funky bridge towards the end of the song. It's really exciting and quite exhilarating to hear.

Ultimately, I think Jam & Lewis could have done much more with Alexander if they'd have taken their signature sound and really dumped it into this guy. He's got a great strong voice and he works well with the Jam & Lewis sound. I don't know if they've worked with him in some time, but I certainly would be interested in future collaborations. Unless Jam & Lewis have completely changed their signature sound; which I'm thinking they have based on the last few Janet CDs they worked on. But we'll see. My final words: NIFTY LITTLE COLLECTION.

ALEXANDER O'NEAL - THE BEST OF ALEXANDER O'NEAL
01. Fake
02. A Broken Heart Can Mend
03. Sunshine
04. Criticize
05. You Were Meant To Be My Lady (Not My Girl)
06. Never Knew Love Like This
07. All True Man
08. If You Were Here Tonight
09. Crying Overtime
10. Innocent/Alex 9000/Innocent II