Blackstreet: Level II : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

For the past few years, R&B has been on the job, but distracted -- by the world domination of hip-hop, by the memory of R&B past, by the often weak embraces of teen pop. Teddy Riley sees things clearly, though: As the inventor of New Jack Swing, he's one of the few people around who both acknowledges R&B's past and moves it, strongly and sweetly, into the future.

Level II, BlackStreet's new album, continues the Riley vision. Without fuss, the songs operate in R&B's timeless romantic-sexual universe of men who long to play important roles in the lives of the women who love, mistrust, leave and puzzle over them. In "Don't Touch," the women say, "Dance with me, talk with me, don't touch my ass" -- as the guys try to finesse these mighty difficult instructions. "She's Hot," BlackStreet declare in another song; but, no, they contend in another, that girl's just "A Friend of Mine." The music that contains all this back-and-forth is state-of-the-art R&B -- angular and weird in the skanked-up "Friend of Mine";close to the vest and melodic in the insinuating "Brown Eyes." Like most of Riley's music, it's full of gorgeous air, exposed emotions and rhythms that have a mathematical integrity. BlackStreet's singing rarely falls below the spectacular -- it's both intricate and instant. Listen to "Look in the Water": With its Philly-like harmonics, it's as vivid an R&B song as anyone has done in a long while, music utterly unclouded by issues outside itself. That goes double for Level II.

JAMES HUNTER
(From RS 916 – February 20, 2003)