Avant

I am not really a fan of Avant's music but I must say that this album is pretty good. It is a huge improvement from his other CD "Private Room" which sucked. I enjoyed every song from beginning to end. Tracks "So Many Ways", "This is Your Night", "4 Minutes", and "Stickwitu" are towards the beginning of the CD and the best songs. But throughout the entire CD, it's listenable and doesn't disappoint. Whoever produced this did a good job. Hardly no fillers and I enjoyed every track. If you're a fan of Avant get this.

This has to be considered Avant's best release to date! There's a nice mixture of ballads and up-tempo tracks to keep things interesting, and he even adds a nice group of guest performers to attract listeners from different genres. I can't help but fall for the smooth ballad, "Stickwitu", especially since the hot Nicole Scherzinger from the Pussycat Dolls lends her sultry voice to the track. She also lends her voice (sans her backups) to another smooth track, "Lie About Us", which discrete lovers can use as their understood anthem. "Director" is also another smooth track that speaks to Avant's ability to use his R&B voice in a crooning manner. The cut definitely has the sound of a track that you'd play while chillin' out at home, or just kickin' back w/ friends and mellowin' out. Lil' Wayne also lends his voice to add some flavor to "You Know What", but doesn't over-dominate the track. If Lil' Wayne isn't enough to attract the more hip-hop oriented listeners, Lloyd Banks also joins Avant in "Exclusive", which should fill the needs of the more "hard" fans. "Right Place, Wrong Time" is a nice piece that blends balladry and soul, resulting in a harmonious tune. If you're searching for a nice album to relax, chill, and occasionally add flavor... this is a nice one to have. Avant is known more for his ballads, but his attempts at attracting the more hip-hop fans doesn't seem too bad. Add this to your R&B/Hip-hop/Soul collection, since it fits all three genres.

All you need to do is, get this cd. It is GREAT. To everybody who didn't like it and had so many bad things to say.. You must don't know real music.When I got this cd I listened to is all night. Matter of fact it was the only cd I listened to for atleast two weeks. I can let it play all the way through with out skipping one song.Its not too SLEAZY for mature adults. Go GET It You will love it

Ok,I have loved this mans' music since his very first cd,in my opinion his third cd was his best,and his latest one is the bomb also,alot of people say he talks about sex too much,I beg to differ,he doesn't talk about sex in every one of his songs,I went out and bought "Director" after hearing "Lie about us","Right place,wrong time" and "4 minutes",three of the best songs on the cd,unlike other cds' where I heard one song (A perfect example is Omarions'new cd,21),ran out and bought the whole cd,found that there's only one good song on the whole cd and was GROSSLY dissappointed,Avants' cd has the perfect combination of up tempo songs and slow ballads,I would most definitely recommend it to any and everyone,especially all of you big Avant fans out there.

This album is seriously one of most solid albums that have came out. this album is soothing and easily enjoyable. I am a big R&B fan and I definately recommend this album to anyone. "Lie About Us" is a very good track featuring Nicole from the PussyCat Dolls.

Damn, After the mediocre but promising My Thoughts, i felt like AV would produce a much better sophmore effort than this. I am the first to say, Avant is the man. But i am also the first to say that this album is absolutely garbage. It is so bland and boring, i litterally almost fell asleep during this album. That is until "No Limit" and "Six In Da Morining" came on, and at that point my ears were bleeding. It has nothing to do with Avants talent, cuz hes got plenty of that, he has silky smooth vocals and a decent hand for songwriting. But on this album he failed to produce anything worth really listening to besides a few decent tracks. Like "Suicide" is a good song that tells the tale of heartbreak, its just got a good dark mood to it that fits the story of the song. And of course the baby making hit single "Makin' Good Love" is a classic, but other than those two songs, theres nothing worth listening to on this album. I know Avants got the talent to be big one day, but he was way off on this album. To much trying to be hard and hip hop. Focus on more smoothed out r&b next time, and hopefully you will have better luck. Not a good album by any means, sorry AV your a cool cat, but this album was really that bad.


Grade:
D

I'm not actually sure when I bought this cd - I was going through my collection and it was there so I took it to work and listened to it. I have to preface my review by stating that I'm not an Avant fan having only really listened to his duet with KeKe Wyatt a few years ago.

My first impression when I heard the cd was "why is this dude imitating R. Kelly?" because on more than a few tracks either his vocal styling and/or the musical arrangements sound exactly like Kells-lite. Avant is not as strong a singer as R. Kelly (at least R. Kelly of a few years ago) so on a couple of the tracks I noted that had R. Kelly sung them, I probably would've like them better because as it was I was way too conscious of comparing the two singers rather than just enjoying the artist & music for what they are.

Overall I did enjoy more tracks than not and ended up putting the disc in rotation and might consider getting another of his albums just to see if his vocal styling became more of his own voice rather than what I hear on this one.

The tracks that I do enjoy are:

WHAT DO YOU WANT - although it vaguely reminds me of FIESTA I still enjoy the beats & musical arrangement

DON'T SAY NO, JUST SAY YES - although his upper register (borderline falsetto) is not strong, it actually works on this track

YOU AIN'T RIGHT - I like the thematic storytelling lyrics of the song and the fact that it's told from a male perspective of a cheating partner

ONE WAY STREET - although Charlie Wilson definitely displays the stronger vocals, I think their voices mesh well as a rare male duet

CALL ON ME & LOVE SCHOOL - I really like the musical production of both of these tracks although COM exposes Avant's average vocals

SUICIDE & JACK AND JILL - these are the two tracks that although I liked them I kept imagining how they'd sound if R Kelly had sung them so I found myself picking at Avant's vocals on both initially

After a few listens I grew to like this cd and like I said earlier am intrigued enough to sample another of Avant's more recent albums to see if he's grown vocally.

The cd was delievered very fast and it was of the highest quality. I have no complaints what so ever, i will shop again. Excellent condition and excellent service.

After his amazing My Thoughts debut, Avant returned with his medicore Ectasy CD. Avant comes off like a weak R.Kelly clone in many of the songs, and in all honesty Avant is a much stronger singer than Kells. The only songs where Avant showed the promise that we saw in his first album are the songs Thinkin About You, Don't Say No Just Say Yes and Makin Good Love.

im really feelin this cd n avant "extasy" is da bomb. n he knows all bout love n i love his new 1 dats out n i cant stop playen da whole album n i just LOVEit!!

loveeeeeeeeee avant so much his music is the real deal i love him so much this album is real tight i have aall of avant albums

This CD sucks! The melodies are alright but the lyrics are so stupid I can't even fake it

Well this is Avants best work yet. Anything could have beaten Ecstasy. Thank god he at least brought his game back up to at least a passing level. This album is pretty much like his previous two albums in that, its not stellar, but in My Thoughts case, it gets the job done. If nothing else this album will at least satisfy die hard Avant fans such as me lol. The problem with AV is that he always has a tendency to play it safe. Which can be good and bad. I can definetly say this is his strongest album to date, with out a doubt in my mind. Because with this album, compared to Ecstasy anyways, the production is way fresher. With Ecstasy, you felt like throwing the album out the window because every song he tried to do the banging hip hop/R&B tracks, and it just did not work. With this album, he stays on the R&B side for the most part. The production just sounds so much better. With Ecstasy it felt like he was suffocating the listener with HARD hip hop/R&B tracks, and with Private Room it feels more like a breath of fresh air. And another thing that helps this album is his vocals are on point almost all the way through the album. Like on the more up beat feel good track with great songwriting "Heaven". After one listen to that song, you feel like you just got back from a warm day at the beach. And then the song "Everything About U" is one of those songs that would make a girl say "Thats so Sweet!". Overall, yes Avant definetly stepped it up on this album. And he had his biggest hit single to date with the mellow but sexy "Read Your Mind". But even though this is a improvement, he still has a long way to go, he just needs to step outside the box and be a little more racy. But he had the right idea this time around, next album will be a smash!


Grade:
B-

After the weak, Ecasty CD Avant returned with a venagance with his Private Room CD.Avant is a man with one thing on his mind, and it's the sort of thing that's best appreciated in a Privtae Room. On the lead single "Read Your Mind," for instance, at a key point in the song, everything stops while Avant lets out one of the loudest, lustiest sighs in the history of recorded music. The follow up single Don't Take Your Love Away was just as strong. Most of the tracks on PRIVATE ROOM are in the time-tested slow-jam vein, giving Avant plenty of room for whispering, cajoling, cooing, and otherwise working his musical wiles. Nevertheless, "Heaven" has an almost 1970s-sounding melodic pop flavor, and "You" is carried along by a driving hip-hop beat. Things get pretty hot in Avant's PRIVATE ROOM, but his simmering, romantic style makes sure that they never overheat like that damn R.Kelly

I can't really explain the title of my review without giving you our history. I won't do that, but I will say we're engaged now. Avant's lyrics helped us realize what we wanted. This will forever go down in history as one of my favorite albums of all time. I can't listen to Don't take your love away and You got me without getting all sentimental. If you knew what we've been through, you'd know why, just take my word. It's special to us. LOVE YOU AVANT.

Definetly not bad. Avants debut album definetly wont leave you breathless by anymeans, but its a solid debut from a sure to be star in the music business. The little sticker that came on the album packaging said it best... "The New Voice Of Ghetto R&B featuring the smash hits Separated & My First Love". That pretty much tells you what to expect from this album. It's not phenominal, but it shows promise. And when they say "Ghetto R&B" they dont mean, a singer doing hip hop tracks. THey mean a singer with a more ghetto vibe. Its the type of album you can listen to during day driving and just relax to. Or this album could even be played at barbeques. It's got a really laid back feel to it. There isnt a whole lot a matierial that will catch you off guard. He plays it real cool. The only song that i really classify as being up beat or really catchy is "Reaction" which is just a mid tempo party song. Other than that expect songs mor along the lines of "Separated" and "My First Love", just real mellow love songs. But that is good and bad. While My Thoughts is a strong debut, its almost to mellow at times and thats what keeps it from truly being something speacial. He doesnt push it to the limit at all on this album. It starts to sound like you are listening to one very long love song because they all have the same laid back, chill mid tempo feeling. But overall if this album did anything, it proved that Avant has a very promising career a head of him. Next one will be a smash.


Grade:
C+

Great Cd. Music very soothing and lyrics are great. i throughoughly am enjoying this Cd as I drive.

Avant is an underrated artist in the game, but i think he rushes his albums and they aren't as good as "My Thoughts". This album had very good songs as well as inspirational like "Why". This album touched a few topics and the songs seemed liked they were well written by Avant and Steve Huff but they lost some steam along the way. The rest of his albums suffered since but this one definitely is worth a listen.

This album is fantastic, i love it, every song you can isten to over and over again if you are a fan of avant.

I actually bought this cd the week it came out a couple of years ago. But for some reason I felt the need to rate it. Now let me just say that I love love R&B. I love albums that I can put into my cd player and basically walk away from it. This is one of those cds that you can do that with. The lyrics range from diffrent outlooks and everyone can relate to at least 2. I would go on track by track but I cant say enough about it. This cd is a must for every R&B colection......GET THE ALBUM IF YOU DON"T HAVE IT AND IF YOU ALREADY HAVE IT Y NOT PLAY IT. IT'LL MAKE YOU FEEL AS GOOD AS I FEEL WHEN I LISTEN TO IT

The music on this cd feels like such a futuristic rush in its phasing & tempo & meditative keenness of process, it's great. The first piece, Phase Patterns, is, in my opinion, on of Reich's most monumental compositions. When it ends 15 minutes after it began, like a seed become a coconut-bearing palm tree while you did notice the changes, you might be surprised to discover so much time has passed. The piece weakes you up like a cup of coffee, too. Then, with an effect of keeping your attention on the music, the pendulum music piece that follows is so much slower, with so much less embellishment. Logically the Pendulum Music cuts on the cd are perfect. The music develops minutely not according to a person's understanding of sound but to physics, gravity & weight & inertia pulling microphones back & forth over speakers. & Piano Phase is just brilliant. The music in that piece, for me, summons images of purple lasers in an otherwise darkened room. So beautiful. For the 3 sections of the cd I've written about so far, 5 stars. The only problem I find in the continuity of listening is in Four Organs. It's a piece I have to be in the mood for, & I almost never am. To my understanding, every Reich fan says that most other Reich-listeners swear by the piece, but that they themselves don't like it. Seems like no one likes it. It's interesting in the way the notes fan out over 18 minutes from 2 nude notes to so much more...horizontal area (if that means anything to you), on top of constant maracas, but I don't know. The different tracks & consistencies of organs & maracas do create a very complex sense of time for the duration of the piece, while one stretches out enormously & the other stays the same. It has historical & conceptual value if it's not always enjoyable to listen to. Other than Four Organs, wonderful music! Classic avant-garde Reich for phasing & minimalistic experimentation like nothing else!

I'm a twenty four year-old Reich fan and I'd never heard phase patterns or pendullum music before this. Having enjoyed 'Come out' and 'It's gonna rain', I was curious to hear more early works. At the risk of sounding extreme, pendullum music is a waste. Why anyone enjoys listening to four michrophones swinging over amplifiers creating rythns of feedback is beyond me.
I've always disliked 'Four Organs' even though most Reich fans swear by it. The first half is enjoyable, but how long and loud does a dominant chord have to be? To be fair, this is the best recording of it I've heard and if you're in the right mood, you can tolerate it.
So why three stars? 'Phase patterns is perhaps one of the best (and most inventive) of Reich's works I've heard. I've since heard earlier recordings (including the poorly taped premeir wih Chambers, Gibson, Murphy and Reich). Not only is this the tightest, but the production is great. Just enough reverb to create a warm ambience, but percussive enough to keep the steady paradiddle (LRLLRLRR) rythm. It's obvious the performers were comfortable with phasing.
Which brings me finally to piano phase. This version is paralell to Reich's 'Nonesuch' recording. The only difference is that this one is quite a bit faster leavin two distinct effects. The first is it's undeniable forward motion leaves the listener in forceful suspense, constantly awaiting the next pattern. The second is that the the major second intervals give the effect of trills and serve as satisfying contrast when followed (as they often are) with fourths and fifths.
In short, if you are a Reich fan who is unfamiliar with the earliest works buy this album. You may very well hate the more esoteric stuff, but it is great to hear where he came from to appreciate where he's going.

this guy knows exactly what a woman is thinking i love his style of music it reaches my soul.

This is another great single by R&B performer Avant that was out last year it was a smooth track to listen to last year
Lyrics 9/10 Production 9/10 Overall 9/10

Besides being fine as hell, Avant has really out done himself on this one. The beats are tight and so are the lyrics (the video isn't shabby either!!) I can't wait until the new album drops next month. i'm sure this one will be a success as well. Keep it up Avant!!!

OMG, when i heard this song i almost died i loved it so much, whew, and when it got that part where he took in a deep breath and let it out hooooney, i caught myself breathing with him. VERY GOOD SONG BUY IT NOWWWWWW!!!!!

This song has me on fire, I feel in love all over again. Avant you got it going on and that beat! Well excellent work!

The only reason I bought this CD was for the remix, though the original is OK too. It's a bitter ballad, and Avant sings it well. However, the remix is a totally different, more upbeat spin on the original, and features destiny's Child member Kelly Rowland. Their voices blend perfectly together, making this single a must-have for fans of either artist.

Magic Johnson is really doing it with this record label. Avant is going to blow up with this new CD. the first single separated is truly an original. I hope to hear more from Magics label and from Avant.

Separated is composed of excellent ideas and experiences that people face everyday, right now it relates to me tremendously. I love your song Avant!