Joe Thomas, New Man

by

Joe

Edit

Joe's new album "Joe Thomas New Man" came completely unexpected for me. I hadn't even heard of it until a few days before it's release and the first two singles from the album must've been released in obscurity since I hadn't heard about them either. This is strange cause Joe's last album "Ain't Nothin' Like Me" from last year (his first in 4 years) was one of the best R&B albums of 2007 and was an updated version of Joe's repertoire combining Joe's amazing tender R&B with slick modern production from the likes of Stargate, Sean Garrett and Tim & Bob. It even welcomed guest performences from rapper like Papoose, Nas and Fabolous and eventually peaked at #2 on the album charts. The only album being more successful then that was his 2000 release "My Name Is Joe". So why, "New Man" got so little promotion and attention is a mystery. Is the album really that bad is is it because the record company didn't do their best to promote it?.

One of the reasons is probably that Joe recently signed for the new started record company Kedar Entertainment (under Atlantic) and they're also scheduling another album coming up in mid 2009. "New Man" defenitely feel rushed, like an obligatory album released in-between. But it doesn't mean it's a bad album. However, there is no duets or guest rappers here and all of the top producers that made his last album great are gone, apart from Bryan Michael Cox who seem to appear on every R&B album anyway. The best songs here are the one's that are more upbeat like the title track produced by the Stereotypes. He sings that "she makes me feel like a convict, fresh out of jail" and the first single "E.R (Emergency Room)" where Joe is portraited as a patient that need TLC from a female doctor, a little simular to Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing", full of methaphors and playfulness like "You don't need no notice from the doctor, your fingers my thermometer" or "I need mouth to mouth, you feel me/You got a lot to check out, get busy", This midtempo is undoubtly one of the best songs of this year. "By Any Means" with a good beat and the classic slow jam "Why Just Be Friends" in Robin Thicke territory are also decent aswell as "We Need To Roll" (which comes off as a little clumsy), "I won't Let Him Hurt You" and the Polow Da Don produced "Man in Your Life" that uses the same beat as Nas's "Hero". Halfway there are some quite sappy ballads that goes into one ear and out of the other and towards then end comes a few snippets of songs that will appear on his next album. Why they decided to release sneak peaks of future material is beyond me though.

Overall, A quite misleading title of the album since nothing is really new when Joe sings his smooth standard R&B with his typical good guy peronality, infact it would've been a better title for his last album. However, there is alot of good material here especially "New Man" and "E.R" but there is also alot of filler which leaves me with an ambivalent feeling at the end. The 5 snippets of songs that will appear on his 2009 are fine but instead of releasing 2 albums in such a short time he could've combined the best cuts from the two to make one more memorable album instead. If you're a Joe fan and like his usual stuff, check it out but don't expect him to sound like a new born man. 3 stars.