Regular Columnists

Artist: Tunji
Album: One & Only Me
CD Review: Tunji’s 1st album, One & Only Me, is a quiet dose of r&b, basically a ballad-dominated, easy beat intro to relationship songs that will effortlessly find its way on radio playlists before you can say ‘hey, baby.’

Influenced by Prince, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, there’s surprisingly not much of those superstars coming out in Tunji’s own special blend of hip pop. Well, there’s definitely a Prince influence, especially the current Artist with his New Power Soul stuff. And Tunji’s many vocals give every song a distinctly Boyz II Men sound.

In fact, Tunji was originally in an r&b group called Promise, writing many of the lyrics. When they broke up in 1995, he began teaching himself the biz of producing. Son of a former Nigerian ambassador, his name actually means ‘joy comes again,’ and this computer science graduate makes a mean first album.

‘Bad Girl’ has a synth beat that cracks the ballad load, though it is still of that ilk. But it does break up the formula of vocals that grafts the 1st half a dozen songs together. ‘Bad Girl’ is simple, with some pretty moments and a very fine production, clean and concise.

‘After Midnight’ gets a little funky, a little looser with bass and throat both, a happy surprise. The backing vocals, though usual for the album, are quite effective in their appraisal of ‘after midnight, the moon is so right.’

A proficient debut album. There’s much room for improvement and extra sounds of course, but as far as a start, it is soft, sweet and made for romance.

www.tunjicentral.com