The veteran New York-based foursome Cooly's Hot Box, which has released a handful of dance singles, liberally dips into the same musical trick bag as early '90s acid-jazz acts the Young Disciples and the Brand New Heavies. Combining jazzy vamps, R&B vocal flourishes, funk bass, and discofied bounce into a mélange that works on and off the dance floor, Cooly's Hot Box unfortunately never achieves club-land nirvana. The group's anthems are filled with lyrical clichés about all-night loving and that one true soul mate, and while the percolating single "Make Me Happy" has an airy charm, the majority of the album has little depth. The same could be said for lead singer Angela Johnson. Her persuasive voice works well on the sparse "I'm in Love with You," for example, but like her band mates, Johnson just gets the job done and doesn't reach for anything more transcendent than pleasing-but-innocuous grooves. --Amy Linden
Take It,Cooly's Hot Box,Higher Octave,Acid Jazz,Pop,R&B,Soul/R & B
Christian Music:
- Talk About Our Love [CD-single] [Import]
- Tasty [Clean]
- The Isaac Hayes Movement [Hybrid SACD]
- The Universal Masters Collection: Classic Martha Reeves & the Vandellas [Original recording remastered] [Import]
- Thelma's Detroit Collection [Import]
- This Wheel's on Fire: Best Of [Import]
- Three Degrees - Greatest Hits [Import]
- Throwback Funk
- Tonight I'm Gonna Let You Go [CD-single] [Enhanced] [Import]
- Touchin'... The Soul [Import]
Christian Music
Music Review: American Music for Cello
Country Hits, Vol. 91 [Karaoke]
Music Review: 10 Yrs of Dance [Import]
Kismet (1991 Studio Cast) [Cast Recording] [Cast Recording]
Here I Go Impossible Again/All This Time Pt.1 [CD-single] [Import]