Published on Dec 19, 2000
The boy-band revolution of the late ’90s might be seeing its
first casualty.
98º built up a name for themselves with their first two
releases, not to mention a solid Christmas album (which we took a
look at last year) and being paired with Stevie Wonder for a song
in Disney’s film
Mulan. While they didn’t hit the mega-star level as their
closest competitors Backstreet Boys and N’Sync did, Nick Lachey and
crew seemed to find their niche, and settled in to third place with
very respectable sales.
Revelation, the fourth release (including
This Christmas) from the group – brothers Nick and Drew
Lachey, Justin Jeffre and Jeff Timmons – finds the group settling
into an album of incomplete song ideas which fail to break any new
ground for the foursome. The end result, while having some good
moments, suggests that the band might be creatively running out of
steam.
I’m not the only one thinking about this. Sales for
Revelation have been less than an eye-opener (or is it too
early to make puns about the album title?), while the first single
“Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche)” hasn’t been the firecracker
people expected. (The song itself isn’t bad, though I would have
preferred a little more instrumentation.)
The problem with
Revelation lies in the first half of the disc. It’s almost
as if 98º has difficulty getting their creative engine to
start right out of the gate. Tracks like “The Way You Want Me To,”
“Yesterday’s Letter” and “He’ll Never Be… (What I Used To Be To
You)” all have the air like we’ve been there, heard that, read the
book. There isn’t enough new ground being plowed on this part of
Revelation, and it often sounds like they’re trying to make
old melodies sound new.
Things pick up a bit mid-disc, and tracks like “My Everything,”
“Dizzy” and “The Way You Do” seem to inject more life into
Revelation. But the brothers Lachey and crew seem to be
unable to keep this momentum going, and by the end of
Revelation, we’re back where we started from.
Believe it or not, I don’t have anything against the crop of
boy-bands that emerged. I happen to like Backstreet Boys, and the
other work of 98º I’ve heard I also liked. (My experience with
N’Sync has been minimal, so I’ll withhold any judgment.) But
listening to
Revelation made me think that this band is capable of so
much better. And I really wanted to like this disc, but the
material just wouldn’t let me.
98º can recover from this and could possibly be even a
stronger band, but
Revelation, as it sits now, is a pretty significant hit
against one of the three main boy bands, even with the strong
moments.