Jennifer Lopez - This Is Me...Then
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CD Details
Artist: Jennifer LopezBrand: Columbia
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2002-11-26
Music Label: Sony
Soundtracks:
- Still
- Loving You
- I'm Glad
- The One
- Dear Ben
- All I Have
- Jenny From The Block
- Again
- You Belong To Me
- I've Been Thinkin'
- Baby I Love U
- The One (Version 2) (Bonus Track)
Music reviews of This Is Me...Then
Music Review: Not Great...But She's Slowly Improving
Rating: 3 Stars
Approximately one year after her hip-hop styled sophomore album, Jennifer Lopez reverts back to the more ballad-heavy style of her debut however she pulls it off far better. Though "This Is Me...Then" is far from a perfect album, Jennifer's voice has noticeably improved and she seems to have abandoned the street name "J Lo" in favour of the more playful-sounding Jenny. The album is much more RnB-influenced than straight dance-pop or latin-infused music that most people are used to from Jenny. However the album suffers due to absolutely no variety in theme barring the first two singles. "This Is Me...Then" simply seems like a tribute to then-fiancé, Ben Affleck and though Jenny's voice has improved, she is still far from a strong singer.
The album starts off with quite a strong track, "Still". This song really shows Jenny's improved vocals however she still relies too much on background singers (mostly in the chorus). The bridge is particularly strong vocally and the lyrics are fairly typical and talk about still having love for someone after you break up. ("I've still got love for you, after all we've been through, I gave my heart to you and baby you're the only one"). The run off the mill "Loving You" follows and it basically talks about the same thing as the previous track, ("after all that we've been through, I find myself still loving you") however "Still" was much better. The upbeat single, "I'm Glad" comes next which is a decent song but stands out solely because it is a change of pace from other tracks. The song has nothing new to say ("I'm gald when I'm making love to you, I'm glad for the way you make me feel") but is a good enough track.
"The One" follows and would be entirely mediocre if it weren't for the sample of Rod Stewart's "You Are Everything" and the strength of the chorus. The verses of the song are actually quite weak. The incredibly sappy "Dear Ben" comes after and it is a short song that basically talks about how much Jenny loves Ben Affleck (her fiancé at the time). Jenny's vocals are extremely sweet in this song and, as sappy as the song is ("I love you, you're perfect, a manifestation of my dreams"), it is actually quite pleasant. "All I Have", the second single from the album, and one of the few songs that changes the pace, is up next. This duet with LL Cool J is actually one of the better (or at least more memorable and individual) songs on the album and Jenny and LL actually sound pretty good together. The bridge in particular sounds great. ("There's nothing you can say to me that can change my mind, I gotta let you go now...").
"Jenny From The Block" follows and, as with Justin Timberlake's "Senorita', I honestly cannot see the appeal in this song. It has got to be one of the most irritating singles I have ever heard, not only because it seems insincere but because it is highly repetitive and vocally irritating. I say it seems insincere because Jenny's singing about how her fame hasn't changed how she acts though it seems just as contrived as Jenny claiming to be "real". The average "Again" comes afterwards and were it not for Jenny's improved vocals, this song probably would have been extremely weak. My personal favourite, "You Belong To Me" follows and is actually one of the more unique tracks on the album (even though it is a remake of the Carly Simon song). This song has more of a jazzy style that Jenny pulls off surprisingly well. Her vocals are actually quite strong in this song.
"I've Been Thinking", a positively grating song, comes next which may not have been so bad if it hadn't been placed after the strongest song on the album. The song is far too monotonous and there is absolutely no vocal variation in it at all besides slight changes in volume. This song is pretty much forgotten as soon as it's over, which is not really a bad thing in this case. I have heard several good songs that just lack something really memorable about them so they end up forgotten. This song also seems to drag on far too long though it is only four and a half minutes long. The next track, "Baby I Love You", is mediocre at best although upon first listen I thought it was downright irritating. It seems to be a sort of slower version of "You Belong To Me" though much, much weaker. The lyrics are extremely repetitive which also takes away from the quality. Lastly comes an even better version of "The One". This version actually contains the famous lines "you are everything and everything is you" from the song that it samples. These lines are used in place of the original chorus. The original chorus is used as the bridge instead.
Overall Mark: 3/5
While Jenny's vocals have definitely improved (and she is much more convincing with this image than with her previous two images), she has still failed to provide an album that is consistently good. While it does have its highlights ("Still", "You Belong To Me", "All I Have", "The One"), the album lacks anything truly memorable. Even those four songs are forgotten fairly easily. Jenny also needs to stop attempting the "I'm Real" style songs since they are just not convincing (plus they are getting progressively worse). Whereas this album has some of Jenny's best work (with the notable exceptions of "Ain't It Funny" and "That's Not Me" from her sophomore album), it severely lacks consistency. Because of this, half the songs sound great while the other half is quite boring. The album also lacks any strong single-potential songs. "I'm Glad" and "All I Have" are decent but not nearly up to the standards of (most of) Jenny's other singles. Jenny's slowly improving but still has a long way to go.
Description of This Is Me...Then
Limited edition reissue of 2002 album includes a bonus disc with six tracks, 'Jenny From The Block' (Seismic Crew's Latin Disco Trip), 'All I Have' feat. LL Cool J (Ignorant's Mix), I'm Glad' feat. LL Cool J (Paul Oakenfold's Perfecto Remix), 'One' feat. LL Cool J (Bastone & Burnz Club Mix), & 'Baby I Love U' feat. LL Cool J (R Kelly Remix), that were previously only available as part of 'The Reel Me' DVD. Epic. 2004.Between her first and second albums, Jennifer Lopez moved from sharp hip-hop to a slicker sound that captured the sass and heat of the streets, thanks mainly to the production acumen of her erstwhile boyfriend Sean "Puffy" Combs. On her third album, This Is Me ... Then, Lopez shows she's just as facile as her ex in changing names as well as musical personas. She abandons the impish J-Lo moniker for a more benign, and less interesting, Jenny, who makes an appearance on "Jenny from the Block." Here, Lopez insists she is still the same down-to-earth girl who emerged from the Bronx a decade before mega-stardom hit: "I used to have a little/ Now I have a lot," she chirps before cautioning, "Don't be fooled by the rocks that I got/ I'm still Jenny from the block." The claim stretches credibility given her well-documented status as a diva, but "Jenny" shows more pizzazz and humor on the album than anything else, except for her saucy duet with LL Cool J on "All I Have." Elsewhere, the album--which includes nine songs cowritten by Lopez--serves up a recycled paean to '70s soul, an anemic cover of Carly Simon's vituperative "You Belong to Me," and cloying ballads inspired by her new fiancé, actor Ben Affleck. Lopez dedicated the disc to the actor and includes a far-too-personal and gooey love song to him titled "Dear Ben." In it, she declares: "You'll always be my lust, my love, my man, my child, my friend and my king." There's plenty of love here, but what's missing is the verve and crackle of Lopez's earlier stuff. --Jaan Uhelszki
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