Music: No Longer Your Average Joe, He is “A New Man”
This past week, I was invited to the new-ish SoHo restaurant Lola for a record release party for R&B artist Joe. Joe is probably best known for crooning sensual hits that include, “I Wanna Know,” “More and More,” “If I was Your Man,” and “All the Things (Your Man Won’t Do.)” Fifteen years and several record labels later Joe has released his 7th CD, “Joe Thomas New Man
Along with the new label Joe has decided to use his last name, Thomas. While Joe is busy getting brand new, he is also trying something new with his music. Songs like “E.R.,” “By Any Means,” and ”Why Just Be Friends” take a turn from his signature “smooth as melted chocolate” flow and offer upbeat options in the vein of the younger R&B singers now on the music scene. As a matter of fact, Joe collaborated with Mario and Trey Songz on “We Need to Roll.”
While he retains his smooth and sexy style, Joe gets a bit bolder in his approach to the ladies. In “We Need to Roll,” he apologizes to his potential lady love by saying that he is usually a gentleman, then he asks her to show him what’s under her skirt. On his title track, “New Man,” he sings about catching feelings for a lady that was supposed to be “a jump off, not a lover.” That is definitely a different Joe than the nice guy we are used to listening to on his previous CDs.
We do get a little taste of the old Joe in “I Won’t Let Him Hurt You,” “Sorry,” and “Start Over Again.” The new CD has 11 full songs and 5 snippets from a forthcoming CD, “Signature,” that is to be released next year.
In all fairness, let’s go back to Joe’s first CD, “My name is Joe.” Remember the club banger “Stutter,” and “Get Crunk,” were squeezed in between those sexy ballads. And that was our sweet average Joe alongside Big Pun in “Still Not a Player,” who also demanded to know “Where You At” in his Papoose collaboration. As a matter of fact, all of Joe’s previous CDs have had a sprinkling of spicy dance tracks blended in with the sugary sweet ballads. As with any artist, it is necessary to experiment and grow in order to get better. As for his critics, after 7 successful CDs Joe is entitled to veer off-track with “New Man” in the name of progress.
I’ve always enjoyed Joe’s smooth as silk, good guy, style of music and I find that his slow jams are effortless and timeless. The music offered on “New Man” is a balanced mix of upbeat radio friendly head-nodders and quiet storm, after dark, slow jams. While Joe Thomas is a “new man” on a new label, I hope that he maintains his core style that we’ve come to appreciate on the previous 7 multi-platinum, Grammy nominated CDs.
Listen: I Wont Let Him Hurt You – Joe
Joe was scheduled to perform at 8:00 p.m. He arrived after 9:00 p.m. and took the stage around 10:00 p.m. He performed a medley of his classic hits, then snippets from his upcoming CD, “New Man.” The set was about 20 minutes long. More pictures posted later.
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