112

the take

I'm old enough to remember the first time I saw my sister put 112's self-titled debut CD in her CD player and letting it play. For toddler me, I simply enjoyed what I heard. Fast forward to about fifteen years later and I rediscovered it and still found joy in the body of work. Today (about ten plus years after that), I find myself still fond of this, but not as I used to. 112 is a group that was played around me quite frequently via my sister for a long period of time. While I had no problem with it (and still kind of don't), I've came to the realization that their debut is only as good as it is due to its singles and maybe a few other amazing deep cuts. Now, each member of the group can sing, there's no denying how talented they are together. The main issue I have is how about half of the songs (which are just good enough, but nothing too spectacular) overstay their welcome longer than they should, which is intensified by how somewhat quickly I lose interest by songs' end. "Call My Name", "In Love with You", and "Throw It All Away" are three examples of such. A part of that I can contribute to the beats on here, which lean a bit more to the hip-hop side of R&B that was kind of popular at the time, and the group was a bit inconsistent on said beats. However, we do have some undeniable classics, such as the two main singles "Cupid" and "Only You - Bad Boy Remix". If anything, those two are unofficial staples in Black households. (The best song is deep cut "Why Does" because it may or may not be a mood.) A few classic singles and one favorite deep cut does not simply make this a classic project or even an amazing project by 112 for me like it used to, but they have the talent and had the backing to at least make the end result a decent debut.