11-20-79

the take

According to an R&B page I follow either on Instagram or Facebook, Mona Lisa's only album is an overlooked one, to say the least. After listening, I can kind of agree to that sentiment. "11-20-79" simply represents the singer's birthday, who was seventeen when the album was released in early 1996. If the album's title is a good indicator that it's true to Mona Lisa herself, the accompanied music just further solidifies that. The album isn't bad by any means. Hell, for a standard R&B album of the time, it's actually good. Mona Lisa's presence is clearly evident as she shows the world what vocals she possesses throughout. For me, though, it's not the most distinguishing thing, especially when compared to other solo female R&B artists of the time, but Mona Lisa holds up well on her own. If anything, her presence is actually the main highlight of this project. My slight gripe I had with this is while listening, some tracks on here ("Just Wanna Please U", for example) are really just R&B takes of hip-hop songs that already sampled classic songs. In some cases, the song stands out on their own, but I couldn't help but catch myself singing the rap song with the same sample instead of focusing on what's playing. At times, the production can come off as generic, but also shows how intertwined both R&B and hip-hop was at the time. When it's good, it's good... but dragging it on for a bit too long is a bit self-inflicting. Mona Lisa does (did?) have talent to make an album that resonated with many others, which is surprising that she hasn't released a follow-up and isn't actually likely to do so. It's crazy because she deserved to do so after a good album such as this.