My Top 5 Faith Evans Songs:
1. “Love Like This”
2. “You Used To Love Me”
3. “Fallin’ In Love”
4. “Reasons”
5. “Heaven Only Knows”
R&B has a sound that lets you just relax. It has the head-nodding boom bap beat found in hip hop, and its singers are incredibly talented vocalists. One of the artists that most consistently makes chill R&B is Faith Evans. Though she was raised in New Jersey, she moved out to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a rapper. While she was working as a backup singer for R&B artist Al. B Sure!, Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, who founded Bad Boy Records, noticed Evans’ talents and signed her to the label as its first female artist.
She’s been active since 1994, and has released six albums: “Faith” (1995), “Keep The Faith” (1998), “Faithfully” (2001), “The First Lady” (2005), “Something About Faith” (2010) and “Incomparable” (2014). She has a new album in the works called “The King & I,” in which she will release duets with recordings by Notorious B.I.G., who died in 1997. The album has no official release date yet.
Evans’ first three albums were released under Bad Boy Entertainment, the same record label as Notorious B.I.G., with whom she had had a brief marriage. These were easily her more commercially successful albums, and after Notorious B.I.G.’s death, Puff Daddy and Evans recorded “I’ll be Missing You” in his honor.
Evans’ voice has been described as an “angelic, yet hearty soprano,” by Washington Post writer Craig Seymour, which gives her music a different sound from many others. She can evoke several different emotions simply with the different ranges in her voice. The overwhelming central themes in Evans’ music are relationships. Whether it’s expressing love for someone, or talking about struggles, relationships are always in her lyrics.
Another staple in Evans’ music is a group of background singers that sing the refrains together as a whole, instead of Evans singing it by herself. The beats and overall vibes of Evans’ music are always soothing. It’s music that always can help people relax. I’ve found this to be especially true in her first three albums. One of those is her first album “Faith.” Songs like “Fallin’ In Love,” “No Other Love” and “Reasons” have a great, chill sound, and yes, are all about relationships.
Another album I think especially embodies the chillness is “Keep The Faith.” Some of the most chill songs on the album are “Sunny Days,” “My First Love” and “Never Gonna Let You Go.” Yes, these are all about love and relationships too.
Finally, “Faithfully” is another album that consistently evokes a chill vibe. With songs like, “I Love You”, “Love Can’t Hide” and “Heaven Only Knows,” people can sit back and chill. Though all three of these albums are great, the one that I have found to be the best is “Faith.” More songs on her later albums have a faster tempo, but one of her best songs, “Love Like This,” has a faster tempo, and was on her earlier “Keep The Faith” album.
Though Evans isn’t in the commercial spotlight anymore, she still makes great music that lets you relax. If you ever need time to veg out and you are a big fan of R&B, Evans is one of the best R&B artists out there. She’s a great artist to listen to when you’re just chilling.
