TLC - Crazysexycool [2LP]

TLC: Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas (vocals). Additional personnel includes: Sean "Puffy" Combs (spoken vocals); Chucky Thompson, Dallas Austin (various instruments); Shorty B, Craig Love (guitar); Martin Terry (acoustic & electric guitar); Jerry Lloyd, Charles Nix (horns); Arnold Hennings (keyboards, drums); Sir Dean Gant, Tim Kelley (keyboards); Kenneth Wright (Wurlitzer keyboard); Jon-John (synthesizer, drum programming); Carlos Glover, LaMarquis "Marq" Jefferson (bass); Organized Noize (programming); Sol Messiah (DJ); Bebe, Thomas "Cee-Lo" Burton, Jermaine Dupree (background vocals). Producers include: Dallas Austin, Jermaine Dupri, Babyface, Chucky Thompson, Organized Noize. Engineers include: Jermaine Dupri, Alvin Speights, Leslie Brathwaite. CRAZYSEXYCOOL won a 1996 Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, and "Creep" won a 1996 Grammy for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal. "Creep" and "Red Light Special" were both nominated for Best R&B Song; "Waterfalls" was nominated for Record Of The Year and for Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal. The elements that had this precocious trio's debut album blasting out of playgrounds, top 40 radio stations and even rock critics' Walkmans are still here--infectious dance grooves, pop melodies and sassy raps that put '90s feminism into action. But CRAZYSEXYCOOL also launches TLC from girlhood into youngwomanhood, with, on one hand, Janet Jackson-esque paens to sex ("Let's Do It Again") and, on the other, melodically downbeat ghetto ballads ("Waterfalls") that recall Stevie Wonder as a young man. The scratchy world-weariness of the lead vocal in "Waterfalls" is one of several nods to classic soul singing. "Case Of The Fake People," written by Dallas Austin, alludes to the O'Jays' "Backstabbers," and "If I Was Your Girlfriend" is a cover of Prince at his most sincere (oddly unreversing his role reversal). And the single "Creep" is a "Dark End Of The Street" for the '90s, a cheating song that walks a tightrope between young love and revenge.