Review Summary: I'm gettin' little tired of your broken promithes promithes
3LW, or Three Little Women, were a girl group trio from New Jersey who saw moderate success in the early 2000's. The original lineup consisted of Kiely Williams, Adrienne Bailon (both of whom would later join The Cheetah Girls), and Naturi Naughton (who would later quit the group and pursue acting and a solo career). Kiely was the "frontwoman" of the group, and is given the most solo verses in their songs, although Adrienne often sings the second verse and sometimes the bridge. As far as I can perceive (unfortunately there's no info on who sings what on each track, and I have to play it by ear), Naturi only sings harmonies with the other girls on choruses and certain verses, which I could imagine to be one of the reasons why she later left the group. 3LW's debut self-titled album was their only release with the original trio still completely intact, and despite girl groups primarily being a marketing trend of mainstream music at the turn of the millennium, I would argue that this album has legitimate merit as far as the conception and execution of pop albums goes.
3LW begins with
No More (Baby I'ma Do Right), which was the group's biggest hit, and is the one song that most people who have heard of 3LW are familiar with. The track follows the songwriting pattern that is to be found on nearly every track of the album: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge that occasionally contains a rap verse, and then repetition of chorus into a fadeout. I want to emphasize that last aspect, because it is one of my favorite things about
3LW. There are no weak choruses on the album; each one is sung in a well-constructed harmony that matches the intensity of the beat, and the repetition at each track's end with an occasional lead over top gives these outros an almost hypnotic feel.
There were several different writers and beat producers on
3LW, and as a result the album isn't as sonically cohesive as it could have been. However, this is not to imply that the beat for each given track doesn't serve its purpose. The upbeat dance tracks have loud but unobtrusive bass as well as some catchy samples and audible hooks, and the slower R&B-style ballads always have quieter but groovy percussion-driven beats. The emphasis is always on the crystalline vocals, and the beats do a stellar job of supporting them.
Thematically, the album is mostly about the struggles of romantic (and sometimes sexual) love from the perception of teenage girls. Kiely, Adrienne and Naturi were fourteen, seventeen and sixteen respectively when
3LW dropped, and the individuals who wrote the lyrics for these young girls should be probably be serving a jail sentence. Although I'm not personally bothered by the lyrics, and tend to focus more on the vocal delivery when I listen to the album, I want to shed light on the interesting way 3LW and the producers behind the scenes decided to conclude the album. The last two tracks,
Crush on You and
Ocean, are about as different lyrically (and sonically) as you could possibly get. The former is a fast-paced song about sneaking around and having sex in the house and elsewhere, despite the (girls') fathers' best wishes ("My dad would kill me if he only knew / babygirl's been puttin' it down / when he ain't around").
Ocean, the album's closer, is a soaring ballad about the girls' faith in God, through trying times and otherwise ("Your love is an ocean / wide as the skies / a comfort to me").
To conclude, I want to give praise to these three clearly talented little women, for with all the help of their songwriters and producers, 3LW, the group and the album, would not have existed or succeeded if they weren't such excellent singers. Unlike a lot of modern pop music, this album is strongly carried by the vocals; and unlike many of 3LW's girl group contemporaries at the time, they were able to create an album with consistently enjoyable tracks through and through, instead of just having a few singles and the rest throwaways. To anyone who has nostalgia for the early 2000's girl group era, if you haven't checked out this album, I strongly recommend you do so.
