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List Price: $30.99 | | Label: Virgin Records Us
Salesrank: 2027
Released: July 17, 2001 |
| Our Price: $2.80 |
| Used Price: $0.90 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Aaliyah Track Listing:
1. We Need A Resolution (featuring Timbaland)
2. Loose Rap (featuring Static from Playa)
3. Rock The Boat
4. More Than A Woman
5. Never No More
6. I Care 4 U
7. Extra Smooth
8. Read Between The Lines
9. U Got Nerve
10. I Refuse
11. It's Whatever
12. I Can Be
13. Those Were The Days
14. What If
Editorial Review:
Seven years after her debut at just 15 years old, Aaliyah assembled a third studio album that was astonishingly mature. Sadly, her death just a little over a month after its release stilled a promising voice in R&B. At 22, when most artists would just be getting started, Aaliyah had already progressed from pop to street to an unconventional retro-modern, risk-taking version of R&B. While lead track "We Need a Resolution" is as mainstream as it gets, there are fewer hits on this album than on previous efforts. Instead, this collection is an extraordinary romantic exposition of passion and pain. While Missy Elliott is cranking out jams for all her "club freaks," Aaliyah is like a modern-day (if less vocally gifted) Minnie Riperton, exploring the pains of moving from child star to adult sex symbol. Tracks such as "Never No More" and "I Care 4 U" (featuring Missy) are slinky, twisted ballads imbued with film-noir sultriness, as diva Aaliyah steps catlike away from the bubblegum R&B of her contemporaries. There's also the obligatory rock track tacked on near the end ("I Can Be"), but even this excels above the standard hip-hop/rock/R&B crossover fare with its Prince-like influences coupled with Aaliyah's own instinct for seduction. Aaliyah also signaled a move away from her long-standing musical relationship with producer Timbaland, who contributes just three cuts. Having started out heavily supported by R. Kelly, it appeared that Aaliyah was more than able to go it alone. --Jake Barnes
Aaliyah Reviews:
very precise 
2009-12-19 - i would like to say that it is a good cd well conditioned cd. It is well quality for sure.
Aaliyah
2009-12-10 - It became relevant, that this album set the standards for later RnB music. Aaliyah was brave enough to experiment with all new sounds. There are a lot of different instruments on this album, and she kept her ability to sing really smoothly over the hard bass. This became her signature style. This album is the total opposite of One in a Million, however both are classic albums. No wonder, she was the queen of RnB.
She didn't really care about the charts, I'm sure she could've made a lame but good-selling album, like Beyoncé does, but she chose to be unique. This album got really good reviews from critics and if you don't like it, then you should stick to Beyoncé, Amerie, Ciara, Ashanti, whatever. Aaliyah's style wasn't typical RnB, it's rather neo-soul and alternative. She really loved rock music and she was drawn to the dark side of things. You can clearly hear this on the album.
When she was recording this album, she was really happy in her life, she found love. But she chose not to sing cheesy love songs about it. This album contains rather darker songs. Abusive relationship, breaking ups, being the other woman, etc. And it took me years to realize, that Rock The Boat is about sex, however it's really nicely served. On the Limited Edition version, you can find Messed Up, which is an amazing track.
You can find Try Again as a bonus track on the European version, however that song doesn't really fit the album. Try Again is a defining song in RnB history, it brought all those electronic beats, that many RnB artists uses today, however in a cheap, clubby way.
As for me, I'm glad, that not Timbaland produced all of the songs, this is how it become so unique, cuz she worked with a bunch of producers, and she took the lead. Overall, this album is simply amazing, it shows where she was heading in her career. She was just getting better with every album.
We Need a Resolution (feat. Timbaland) - Amazing song and video, however it had to grow on me. My boyfriend doesn't even like this type of music, but it's her favourite Aaliyah song. :) A+
Loose Rap (feat. Static from Playa) - This song tells 3 different stories, amazingly produced. A+
Rock The Boat - This song spent an amazingly long time on the charts. Awesome single, really smooth. A+
More Than a Woman - One of her best-known songs, that topped the charts one year after her death. A+
Never No More - Abusive relationship. Amazing how she sang about this. A
I Care 4 U - Timeless classic. She recorded it in 1996. her favourite song. A
Extra Smooth - Extra cool song with extra cool beats and extra smooth vocals. A
Read Between The Lines - This song has latino beats, totally different. A
U Got Nerve - My favourite song by her ever. A+
I Refuse - Very beautiful song about refusing to be in a dysfunctional relationship anymore. A
It's Whatever - Wonderful song, really nice and smooth. A
I Can Be - One of the darkest song on the album, however starts really nicely, then BANG. :D A+
Those Were The Days - Maybe it's the weekest song on the album, but it's still really good. A-
What If - A lot of people don't like this, but it's one of the most experimentative song she's ever done. It's really LOUD. :) A+
Messed Up (Hidden Track on Limited Edition) - I don't know why it didn't make it to the tracklist. It's amazing. A+
It's the best album ever. It's just perfect.
Aaliyah cd purchase
2009-11-16 - I purchased a used cd and the process was wonderful. I recommend it to everyone. There were no glitches or problems. I received the cd much faster than I expected. It arrived about 3 days later.
Beautiful album!!!
2009-10-15 - Aaliyah, baby girl rest in peace!!! You were truly a one in a million. Aaliyah this cd is truly wonderful. Aaliyah you were truly an angel on earth.
Aaliyah:A Revelation Almost Eight Years Later
2009-03-01 - Hard to believe this album is as old as it is,and it's not that old.So much changed after Aaliyah's sad passing;it seems to me as if after that and 9/11 three months later that everything was just so...different. Well either way you look at it Aaliyah was on the cusp of something very special here.It may take a couple listens to understand why but,when you do hear it it smacks you right over the head. Put simply at the turn of the millenium R&B artists such as Destiny's Child,starting with their hit Jumpin' Jumpin' began using certain microtonal Arabic/Middle Eastern phrasing in their digitized melodies,something actually pioneered 30 years before in "real" music by Motown bassist James Jamerson. By this time computer softwere such as Pro Tools were making not only that type of melody but instrumentation available to music producers,seeing as it was all there on a computer.So....after a six year absense from the recording studio Aaliyah returned here with a CD that both shocked and impressed the music world. In this artists world of hip-hop/R&B it was usually about working in a singles medium;albums tended to be longwinded "mix tapes" with the hits lodged between and some decent tunes mixed in.In this case the brilliant writing of Static and Missy Elliot (as well as Aaliyah's own personal production touches) make this one of the few contemporary R&B recordings that is actually close to being a genuine album rather then a format to showcase singles,which meant Aaliyah was now doing for her genre what people like Sam Cooke,Curtis Mayfield,Stevie Wonder,Patrice Rushen and Prince had done in past decades. While she very much enjoys her music being totally up to the minute,Aaliyah's strong sense of past/futurism is very strong so along with the modern touches there is elements of old style R&B now called "neo soul" and...a sound totally unknown on top of that.Along the way she also turns in some superb songs such as "We Need A Resolution",a perfect example of her new musical approch."Rock The Boat" of course is the most obvious single;it's catchy,modern but something about it is also timelessly dancable."More Then A Woman" finds a very funky mode where you'll here Missy and Statics "sonic soundscapes" melding to create coherant grooves as opposed to just noise-something the rest of the album follows through with.On "I Care For You" well,the sound is as deep classic soul as you can get and Missy is FULLY in charge production wise. "Extra Smooth" is yet another curious one;a clever song that,somewhere in the melody actually owes as much to swinging jazz as modern R&B (by the way it's more in the sound presentation then the instrumental style:thank you very much!) and really kicks up a storm!.It is on "I Can Be" that this album really achieves it's fullest flower.This epic ballad has everything that makes this album great;the Eastern tonal qualities,an excellent composition and a soulful intensity where Aaliyah declares herself to be an adult on a mission in every possible way.Not only that but the well done use of cinematic orchestration on this song,certain death for other tunes of this type just brings it further to life. Anyone cautious about modern R&B albums would be well advised to seek this CD out.As with much of my favorite music in any genre this represents a sadly untaken musical direction for the modern "hip/R&B" sound that's only been made to sound even better as the genre since this time has continues to go somewhat astray. We can only speculate how different things would've been if she'd lived but since we can't this is more then a worthy epitaph,more then just an okay recording viewed as a masterpiece because of the performers passing.THIS is the REAL THING and if someone today could get R&B back flying in this general direction everyone involved in the genre would likely have far more rewarding careers ahead of them!
