From the moment New Edition debuted with the Jackson Five-inspired CANDY GIRL, primary lead singer Ralph Tresvant was being compared to Michael Jackson. I think many expected him to eventually be the solo star of that group. Ironically, he ended up being the last to release a solo album, which he finally did with this self-titled album from MCA Records in 1990. Enlisting producers like Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis to give him a collection of songs written perfectly for his unique falsetto, it also provided just the right mix of dance tracks, ballads, and mid-tempo songs.
Three singles were released. SENSITIVITY and DO WHAT I GOTTA DO are two mellow tracks, while STONE COLD GENTLEMAN is a dance track featuring Bobby Brown doing a rap. I love all 3, but many of the album cuts are just as good, or even better, and could have singles too. SHE’S MY LOVE THANG, PUBLIC FIGURE (ORDINARY GUY), LOVE TAKES TIME and GIRL I CAN’T CONTROL IT are all good fast, dance songs. LAST NIGHT, I LOVE YOU (JUST FOR YOU) and ALRIGHT NOW (which is written by Michael Jackson) are romantic slow jams. And there’s the rap song RATED R. There’s also a rap version of Sensitivity to close out the album, which is pretty cool. All in all, an excellent album.
GRADE: A+
iBLOGalot 
Speaking of NE, I saw Michael Bivins on a TV program a couple of weeks ago and he said he was working on bring the NE story to the big screen. I would love to see that.
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Me too. I recall seeing one of those “Life After” episodes about BBD, where they talked about how they tried to get everyone back together for a tour and movie back in 2009, which was New Edition’s 25th anniversary, but couldn’t work it out. 2014 will be their 30th anniversary, so maybe they can make it happen this time.
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