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Aaliyah is the third and final studio album by American R&B recording artist Aaliyah, released on July 7, 2001, by Blackground Records and Virgin Records. After raising her profile with hit soundtrack singles during the late 1990s, Aaliyah started working on the album in 1998, but rescheduled its recording around her developing film career. She resumed its recording in 2000 at Sing Sing Studios in Australia, where she shot her role for the 2002 film Queen of the Damned during the day and recorded songs at night. Aaliyah worked primarily with Blackground's in-house crew of writers and producers, including Bud'da, J. Dub, Rapture, and Eric Seats, as well as longtime collaborator Timbaland.

Aaliyah is an R&B and neo soul album with a diverse musical style that incorporates funk, hip hop, soul, and elements of electronica. Its songs feature synthesizer melodies, fragmented beats, distorted guitar, eccentricly manipulated vocals and song structures, and lyrics about the complexities and stages of romantic relationships. Most of the album was written by lyricist Static Major, who shared a close friendship and strong rapport with Aaliyah. She viewed the album as a reflection of herself as both a young adult and a matured vocalist.

Aaliyah received highly positive reviews from critics and debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, but sold diminishingly afterwards. Since Blackground and Virgin wanted a high charting single to increase sales, Aaliyah shot a music video for the song "Rock the Boat" in the Bahamas, but died in a plane crash on a return flight to the United States on August 25, 2001. After her death, the album's sales skyrocketed and propelled it to number one on the Billboard 200. Aaliyah was released during a period of peak activity in contemporary R&B and, since its initial reception, has been cited by critics as one of the best R&B albums of its time.

Background

Aaliyah released her album One in a Million in 1996, and graduated from high school the following year. She gained further exposure with radio hits from film soundtracks, including her 1998 single "Are You That Somebody?". After it became the biggest hit of her career at that point, Aaliyah wanted to keep a lower profile and avoid overexposure. A follow-up album was planned for February 1999, but she postponed its recording to develop an acting career, which led to a starring role in the 2000 film Romeo Must Die. The film heightened her profile significantly, while the soundtrack's single "Try Again" became her first number-one pop hit. Her label Blackground Records used the film and its soundtrack album to set up a distribution deal with Virgin Records America, which would distribute Blackground's subsequent releases globally, including her third album.

Recording and production

Aaliyah began recording the album in 1998. She recorded a few songs, including two with longtime collaborator Timbaland, before working on Romeo Must Die. In 1999, while working on the album in New York City, Aaliyah called and asked Trent Reznor, one of her musical idols, to produce a song, but they could not coordinate their schedules. She intended to finish the album by the end of 2000 and resumed its recording while filming in Australia for Queen of the Damned (2002), as she shot her part for the film during the day and recorded songs at night. She said in an interview for Billboard, "there were nights when I didn't go into the studio—I was too tired. On the weekends, I always made it." Jomo Hankerson, Blackground president and Aaliyah's cousin, said that he had to "bribe the producers", who did not want to "go halfway around the world!", but ultimately had "a beautiful time ... making hot music."

Most of the album's songs were recorded at either Sony Studios in New York City or Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne, including "Loose Rap", which was done at both studios. Aaliyah recorded "More Than a Woman" at Manhattan Center Studios, "U Got Nerve" at Soundtracks Studios in New York City, "We Need a Resolution" at Westlake Studios, and "I Care 4 U" at Magic Mix Studios and Music Grinder Studios in Los Angeles. She had first recorded "I Care 4 U", written by past collaborator Missy Elliott, in 1996 for One in a Million, but scrapped it after that album's completion. Aaliyah worked with Blackground Records' in-house crew of musicians, songwriters, and producers, including novice producers Bud'da, J. Dub, Rapture, and Eric Seats. Music manager Jimmy Henchman, a friend of Aaliyah's manager Barry Hankerson, helped coordinate the album and arranged for the producers and writers to work with Aaliyah.

Static from the R&B band Playa wrote most of the album's lyrics. While his band was growing apart, he was invited by Blackground to be a lead writer for the album after writing "Are You That Somebody?" and "Try Again". Static was a part of Aaliyah's close group of friends, which included Missy Elliott and Timbaland, and shared an infatuation with her. He found Aaliyah to be ideal for his songwriting style, while she believed that he could accurately portray her feelings. A subtly sexual lyricist, he wrote "Rock the Boat" for her in 1999, but Blackground felt she was not ready for the song. Barry Hankerson said of his songwriting, "We always were protective over every lyric ... But he did things where you never felt offended. You just felt like you overheard someone thinking ... he was clever ... Aaliyah depended on him he depended on her." Elliott said that he was "a part of that bridge of Aaliyah growing up lyrically." While she discussed the lyrics with Static, Aaliyah consulted Bud'da about the sound and musical direction of the album. She was interested in learning about the UK garage scene at the time.

Post-production

In March 2001, Aaliyah finished recording the album after having filmed her part in Queen of the Damned for four months, which ultimately delayed the album's release. In Australia, she also did a photo shoot for the album, with photographers Jeff Dunas, Jonathan Mannion, David LaChapelle, and Albert Watson. Aaliyah handled five pythons at the shoot and developed an affinity for snakes, finding them "dangerous, but quite beautiful" and representative of her on the album. She revisited the snake theme in her music video for "We Need a Resolution" in April and told MTV, "They live in solitude, there are times in my life I just want to be by myself. There are times I can't even figure myself out. I feel they are very complex creatures, at the same time, they're sexy, too. That's why they represent Aaliyah pretty well." She described the album as "a good reflection of and the person today", saying in an interview for Jet magazine, "I am a young adult now, and I think this album shows my growth vocally." Aaliyah was mastered by Bernie Grundman at his studio in Los Angeles.

Music and lyrics

Pop songs are struggles, conscious or not, between the artist's urge to do her own thing and the audience's desire for familiar satisfactions. How many stylistic tics before the big chorus? How much individual versus how much mass appeal? It's magnetic when you can hear the struggle—the drama of seduction, of whether you give yourself to the listener, and what happens then. That's the drama Aaliyah plays nonstop on her third album.

An R&B and neo soul album, Aaliyah features midtempo funk songs, hip hop-textured uptempo tracks, and slow jams that draw on older soul influences. Along with contemporary urban sounds, its music incorporates Middle-Eastern influences, muted alternative rock, and, particularly on Timbaland's songs for the album, Latin timbres. Music journalist Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that the album is distinct from the classic soul leanings of Macy Gray and Jill Scott, and characterized it as "unfamiliar", yet "contemporary", "turning out a pan-cultural array of sounds, styles, and emotions." John Mulvey of NME found the music subtle and lacking "bombast and histrionics."

The album's production is characterized by synthesizer melodies, vintage syndrums, distorted guitar, staccato arrangements, and layered, eccentricly manipulated vocals. NME's Alex Needham likened its "otherworldly", high frequency production to dub reggae and the dark, spacious dance music of Dr. Dre and Massive Attack. Songs such as "Loose Rap", "Extra Smooth", and "What If" have odd structures that experiment with resolution. Ernest Hardy of Rolling Stone compared the album's experimentation to OutKast's Stankonia (2000), Sade's Lovers Rock (2000), and Missy Elliott's Miss E... So Addictive (2001). Aaliyah's beats are fragmented, and exhibit techno and electro textures. Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani wrote that "like Elliott's genre-bending So Addictive, Aaliyah provides a missing link between hip-hop and electronica."

Thematically, the album explores the intricacies of romantic love and phases in a relationship such as heartache, frivolous infatuation, and issues near the end of a relationship. The lyrics express passion and melancholic, occasionally ominous feelings about love. Subtle, lighthearted humor and witty sound effects such as comical vocal manipulation intersperse the themes of heartbreak and eroticism. Citysearch's Justin Hartung wrote that the album "transforms the confusion of young adulthood into exhilarating freedom." Aaliyah sings from perspectives of a spurned girlfriend or an enticing flirt, and exhibits a determined, sexy persona. Bob Waliszewski of Plugged In observed female empowerment-themed songs that show a "healthy self-respect" by Aaliyah, who "doesn't put up with unfaithful cads ('You Got Nerve'), mind games ('I Refuse'), self-impressed hunks ('Extra Smooth'), gossip and envy ('Loose Rap'), or physical abuse ('Never No More')."

Aaliyah sings with restrained, soprano vocals throughout the album. Vibe magazine's Hyun Kim argued that Aaliyah drew focus to her singing more than her previous albums, "bringing it to the forefront as opposed to hiding it behind the layered production." Ballads such as "I Care 4 U", "Never No More", and "I Refuse" are sung emotionally, and express melancholy qualities and hurt. Music journalist Christopher John Farley viewed that she "emotionally detail a song" unlike on her previous albums and that "her gentle voice now seemed like something elemental, a kindly wind blowing through the branches of a big tree." According to Joshua Clover, Aaliyah pushes "notes into strange corners of syncopation's shifty architecture" on the more "shape-defying" tracks. He wrote that "she makes the sonics tell the story, creating meaning outside the lyrics, pleasure beyond the hooks."

Songs

"We Need a Resolution" depicts a dilemma between discordant lovers over push-pull rhythms. It leaves its hook unresolved, plays backwards after Timbaland's rap, and concludes with a reversed loop of the vocal "where were you last night", which echoes the female protagonist's sentiment. "Loose Rap", which is titled after the slang phrase of the same name, dismisses romantic admirers who use corny pick-up lines. It features underwater noises, low-key electronica reminiscent of the Neptunes, and harmonically soft vocals by Aaliyah, who declares, "it ain't just rhythm and blues." Static mumbles the song's hook. "Rock the Boat" has a slick R&B production, sexual and nautical imagery, and breathless vocals by Aaliyah, who instructs her lover on how to please her sexually and equates her erotic high to a drug high.

On the club-influenced "More Than a Woman", Aaliyah sings over harsh-sounding synthesizer and guitar sounds. "Never No More" mixes classic soul with contemporary hip hop, and live strings by producer Bud'da. It is about a defiant woman who decides to leave a physically abusive relationship. On "I Care 4 U", the narrator tries to console a friend who is heartbroken, but finds herself distressed by the unrequited feelings she has for him. The song features sibilant wind chimes, reverberating synth chords, and vocal percussion. The key-shifting "Extra Smooth" addresses an enthusiastic courtship, and incorporates hip hop, funk, and drum and bass. It was inspired by a conversation between Aaliyah and Static about how men try to act suave. "Read Between the Lines", which deals with infidelity, is a rhythmic digital samba, with Latin percussion.

The funky "U Got Nerve" features multi-layered, staccato vocals, and electronic blips. A baroque romantic concerto, "I Refuse" incorporates audio recordings of faraway horse hooves and a rainstorm in its opening. Its music also features melancholy keyboard sounds and ornamental elements, including string instruments, guitars, and minimalist percussion, all of which lead to culminate dramatically during the song. "I Can Be" is about an adulterous man's mistress who wants to be his foremost girlfriend. Alex Macpherson of The Guardian wrote that "Aaliyah's blank, numbed delivery" on the song "makes being the other woman seem like an emotionally masochistic form of self-medication." "Those Were the Days" dispassionately dismisses a male lover, and "What If" angrily threatens an unfaithful lover and by extension similar men. Both "I Can Be" and "What If" have 2-step and rock elements. The latter song draws particularly on Detroit techno and industrial rock.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Robert Christgau
Entertainment Weekly	B+
The Guardian
NME	7/10
Q
Rolling Stone
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Slant Magazine
Spin	8/10

Upon its release in July 2001, Aaliyah received highly positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 76, indicating "generally favorable reviews", based on 14 reviews. Michael Odell of The Guardian felt that it is "as much a brochure for the current state of R&B production facilities" as it is about Aaliyah's singing. He found the music's textures "scintillating" and felt that its distinguishing characteristic is "a playful and confident reworking of the canon." In his review for the Chicago Tribune, Brad Cawn viewed that Aaliyah demonstrates Sade's grace and Missy Elliott's daring, and called its music "cool and glittery neo-soul ... equal parts attitude and harmony, and all urban music perfection." Simon Price, writing for The Independent, cited the album as "further evidence that black pop is the avant garde."

In his review for The A.V. Club, Nathan Rabin asserted that the album establishes Aaliyah as a significant artist unobscured by her collaborators. Rolling Stone magazine's Ernest Hardy called it "a near-flawless declaration of strength and independence", and commended her for exploring her "fantasies and strengths." Craig Seymour, writing for Entertainment Weekly, praised its melodrama and opined that, apart from a few songs that stray from her musical strengths, Aaliyah "skillfully portrays love as part woozy thrill, part pulse-racing terror." Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani found her personality highlighted on every song and compared her to Janet Jackson, but with better and more arousing metaphors. Joshua Clover of Spin viewed it as her most profound work and wrote that she makes "art" out of Timbaland and Static's "formal finesse" by "investing sound schemes with urgency and emotional intricacy".

In a mixed review, Connie Johnson of the Los Angeles Times found Aaliyah musically safe and felt that its lyrics lack the depth and "personal revelation that gives music some immediacy." NME magazine's John Mulvey found it "graceful" and "satisfying rather than extraordinary" and said that, although it is redeemed by Static's consistent songwriting, Timbaland should have contributed more than three songs. Like Mulvey, Q magazine remarked that it is an album of decent rather than innovative music with some filler. Robert Christgau gave the album a three-star honorable mention, indicating "an enjoyable effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well treasure." In his column for The Village Voice, he cited "We Need a Resolution" and "U Got Nerve" as highlights and called Aaliyah "a slave to her beats, but a proud slave".

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 187,000 copies in the week of August 4, 2001. Although it was the highest sales week of Aaliyah's career, it initially sold slower than her previous album One in a Million. Blackground and Virgin, which had invested heavily in the album's performance, wanted a single with a high chart placement to help increase the album's sales. "We Need a Resolution" had been released as the lead single on April 13, but underperformed on radio and only reached number fifty-nine on the Billboard Hot 100. In August, Aaliyah shot a music video for "More Than a Woman" in Los Angeles and then travelled to the Bahamas to shoot a video for "Rock the Boat". But after its completion, she and several crew members who were returning to the United States died in a plane crash on August 25. Blackground executives were uncertain when they would release the album's next single and video.

The album's sales skyrocketed after Aaliyah's death. Before her death, its sales had been diminishing since the album's release in July, and stood at more than 447,000 copies sold. News of her death was reported on the last day of Nielsen SoundScan's sales tracking week, during which Aaliyah sold 62,000 copies, a 41.5% increase from its past week's sales. The following week, it sold 305,500 copies and ascended from number nineteen to number one on the Billboard 200. It was the album's highest sales week, and marked the first time a recording artist climbed to number one posthumously since John Lennon in 1980 with his album Double Fantasy. It was also Aaliyah's only album to top any of Billboard's charts. The album sold more than one million copies by September 19, and 2.06 million copies by February 25, 2002. Aaliyah spent 68 weeks on the Billboard 200 and, by December 2009, had sold 2.6 million copies.

After ending their deal with Virgin in November 2001, Blackground wanted to send the video for "More Than a Woman" to domestic outlets, but it required both labels to work together. Blackground subsequently moved to Universal Records, and the video was first aired in Europe. In the United Kingdom, "More Than a Woman" was released as a single on January 7, 2002, and entered the UK Singles Chart at number one, while Aaliyah re-entered the UK Albums Chart at number sixty-five; it had originally entered the chart at number twenty-five on July 28, 2001. Two weeks after the single reached number one, the album jumped 17 spots to number five on January 27, 2002. It ultimately charted for 31 weeks in the UK. In France, Aaliyah peaked at number nine and charted for 33 weeks. It also reached number nine in both Germany and the Netherlands, where it charted for 41 and 46 weeks, respectively.

Accolades

Aaliyah was named one of the 10 best albums of the year by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Time magazine. The latter publication called Aaliyah "a siren of subtlety, never wailing when a whisper would do", and who "blended genres with alluring ease." NME ranked the album number 39 on their year-end best albums list. Aaliyah was named the best album of 2001 by Slant Magazine. The publication's editor Sal Cinquemani called it "quintessential rhythm and blues, encompassing the boundless energy of Prince and the sexual revelation of a disco-era Diana Ross ... a varied yet seamless R&B masterpiece." The album finished 73rd in the Pazz & Jop, an annual critics' poll run by The Village Voice. Poll creator Robert Christgau wrote that Aaliyah finally "develop material nobody can deny" on "a good album." Aaliyah also finished 37th in the annual poll run by German music magazine Spex.

For the album, Aaliyah was posthumously awarded an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Female Artist. At the 2002 American Music Awards, it won in the category of Favorite R&B/Soul Album. In 2002, Aaliyah received a Grammy Award nomination for Best R&B Album. "Rock the Boat" was nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. "More Than a Woman" was nominated in the same category in 2003.

Aaliyah was ranked number 66 on GQ's 2005 list of the "100 Coolest Albums in the World". Stylus Magazine ranked it number 47 on their list of the "Top 50 Albums of 2000–2005"; the publication's David Drake ranked it number eight on his list. Vibe included the album as one of their "150 Essential Albums of the Vibe Era" in 2007. In 2010, Aaliyah was named the 72nd best album of the 2000s decade by Slant Magazine.

Legacy

Along with her burgeoning film career, the album was a part of Aaliyah's breakout year in 2001. In a retrospective review, Steve Huey of Allmusic cited it as her "most accomplished album" and wrote that it "completed the singer's image overhaul into a sensual yet sensitive adult." Allmusic's senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine called it "a statement of maturity and a stunning artistic leap forward", while BBC Music's Daryl Easlea viewed that it made Aaliyah's two previous accomplished albums "look like exercises in juvenilia". According to Quentin B. Huff of PopMatters, she had never used her singing to complement her music's innovative production before with as much variety, conviction, and success as on Aaliyah, which he said is also known as "The Red Album" because of its red artwork. Huff believed that the album showed the growing rapport between Aaliyah and her collaborators, and disproved questions about how she would continue recording music while broadening her profile. In The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Keith Harris asserted that "Aaliyah had grown from studio puppet to a powerful R&B archetype—a more self-aware Ronnie Spector for a time that requires more self-awareness of its young adults."

Before her death, Aaliyah had planned to embark on the largest concert tour of her career in support of the album. Her recording sessions for Aaliyah produced many leftover tracks that were posthumously archived by Blackground and mostly left unreleased because of internal conflict and legal complications between the label, Aaliyah's family, and producers. The compilation album I Care 4 U was released in 2002 and featured six previously unreleased songs from the sessions.

Aaliyah's re-emergence with the album in mid-2001 had coincided with a period of peak activity in contemporary R&B, as well as the popularity of neo soul. Erlewine called Aaliyah "one of the strongest urban soul records of its time", and The Guardian cited it as the peak of R&B's golden age at the "turn of the century". According to the newspaper's lead critic Alexis Petridis, Aaliyah recorded her most engaging music in a year when R&B and hip hop demonstrated the most creativity in music. The Guardian's Rebecca Nicholson argued that "Timbaland hasn't come close to creating anything as sonically stunning since" and attributed his subsequent commercial success with Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado to the album. Although he believes it "redefines the category", Jon Caramanica of Vibe wrote that Aaliyah "may be the best soul album of the young millenium" and called its music "daring in construction, gorgeous from conception ... damn near post-R&B." Eve Barlow of Q magazine credited the album for "creating a blueprint that can be heard across pop music today" with acts such as Beyoncé Knowles, The Weeknd, and The xx.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.

Charts

Certifications

Release history

See also

Template:Misplaced Pages books

• List of eponymous albums
• List of number-one albums of 2001 (U.S.)

References

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Bibliography

• Farley, Christopher John (November 27, 2001). Aaliyah: More Than a Woman. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7434-5566-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Harris, Keith; et al. (November 2, 2004). Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8. {{cite book}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |first= (help)
• Werner, Craig Hansen (January 9, 2006). A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race & the Soul of America. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-03147-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Aaliyah at Discogs (list of releases)

• Pages with empty short description
• 2001 albums
• Aaliyah albums
• Albums certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association
• Albums certified gold by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie
• Albums certified gold by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry of Switzerland
• Albums certified gold by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique
• Albums certified multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America
• Albums certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry
• Albums certified platinum by the Canadian Recording Industry Association
• Albums produced by Bud'da
• Albums produced by Timbaland
• English-language albums
• Neo soul albums
• Virgin Records albums