By shelz

Boy bands have always had their place in the musical landscape.  From New Edition to Pretty Ricky, groups of harmonizing young men have always caught the eyes and ears of adoring girl followers and provided material to woo those same young women for their male fans.  As the groups came and went, they borrowed styles and concepts from their predecessors adding updated elements. However, the early ‘90’s introduced both Jodeci and Boyz II Men who brought enough of themselves to the table to create a new design for the boy band. And they brought the greatest of their unique talents to the masses via two of the best R&B offerings of the decade, Diary of a Mad Band and Cooleyhighharmony. But one of them has to be better.

Jodeci’s sophomore effort came almost three years after their debut, Forever My Lady.  The production was a dreamy mix of synths, horns and bottom heavy base courtesy of their two in-house beat makers, Mr. Dalvin and Devante Swing. Diary of a Mad Band’s musical foundations ran the spectrum from open and minimalist to lush and epic which lent itself well to the frenetic and layered vocals of K-Ci and Jo Jo. There was the beautifully constructed and perfectly delivered “Cry for You” and “My Heart Belongs to You” juxtaposed against the lust-filled “Sweaty” and downright filthy “Alone” and the group went from claiming love so addictive it was drug-like to a frenzied collective declaration that female journalists get no love until they stop asking questions and get naked. Features were limited to Missy Elliot, Redman and Timbaland to drive home the Hip-Hop component.

Diary of a Mad Band was just that, mad.  It was a bi-polar frolic through the amorous intentions of four young men.  They begged for love to almost uncomfortable heights.  They sang about both devotion and casual sex and even inserted bars explicit enough to make rappers of the day blush.  Women were put on far reaching pedestals on one song just to be ripped down on the next.  The album broke almost every rule musicians are taught about LP construction, but all of that craziness worked and its one of the pillars of the R&B new jack sound.  That other pillar would be Boyz II Men’s Cooleyhighharmony.

The blueprint for this album is strikingly similar to that of Jodeci’s sophomore effort.  The band featured four members.  They worked with the new jack sound while incorporating hefty doses of Hip-Hop and old school soul and they dealt with the same overbearing yearning for love that Jodeci did.  Yet, the sum of all those analogous parts could not have been any more different. The Philadelphia quartets sound was smoother.  They ditched the frenetic vocal runs K-CI and Jo Jo were making popular for tighter harmonies and more gentlemanly approach.  The love was more mournful and the sex less vulgar.

Cooleyhighharmony was compact with a run time less than 45 minutes.  Since there was no filler though, the album had more enjoyable material than your average album.  There was a back in the day sound to the group’s harmonies layered over Dallas Austin’s sample heavy tracks that made a perfect connection between past and present.  The Boyz vocals were strong enough to break through the upbeat tracks but restrained enough not to inundate the slower, calmer music. They went a capella on “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday,” harmonized moans and groans on “Uhh Ahh” and worked the new jack swing boogie on album cuts like “Sympin” and “Under Pressure” that were good enough to be singles. The album was tight in structure, wonderfully melodic even when uptempo and has remained relevant even though new jack swing has not.

Even though the boy band never quite disappears, the players and their significance change from year to year.  However, each generation has a couple that manage to stand the test of time through their groundbreaking sounds and presentations.  Jodeci and Boyz II Men upped the creative ante in the genre with their albums Diary of a Mad Band and Cooleyhighharmony.  But which one is the quintessential 90’s group release?  Let us know what you think.

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