I think I'm in Love again ...

... WITH R&B! Ha ha gottcha! Sorry no juicy goss of that sort today.

My music taste is pretty eclectic, I love everything from pure unadulterated Pop (Especially boy bands - The Backstreet boys, N Sync, Blue) to Hip-Hop (I'm a huge Eminem fan). If you asked me if I liked Country, my first instinct would be to say no and yet I love Keith Urban. I like some dance, especially the stuff that reworks classic songs like Bryan Adam's 'Heaven' and I love, love, love alternative/rock/indie music; Linkin Park, Michelle Branch, Lifehouse, Evanescence, Snow Patrol, Keane, Damien Rice ... I could go on forever. But my R&B was my first music love and good R&B will usually trump the others.

All of my favourite teen memories were played out against a backdrop of my favourite R&B songs. I think the first tape of my own I ever owned (that wasn't stolen from my father's extensive but somewhat outdated music collection) was the Boyz II Men album that some friends of mine in Lagos copied for me. I loved four songs on that album; 'I'll Make Love to You', 'On Bended Knee’ and 'Yesterday'. I still love every single one of those songs but my favourite then and now has to be 'Water Runs Dry'.

Toni Braxton and Tevin Campbell were favourites while I was in boarding school in JSS 2 and 3, and I thought all the older girls were so cool when they tied bandanas round their heads back to front the way Aaliyah did. I loved Shai and 3T, Michael Jackson and Jodeici, Montell Jordan and After 7. When we moved to Lagos and I started going to ISL, I remember getting ready for school every morning to Mariah Carey's 'Daydreams' album. Wow, there were so many amazing songs on that album - Underneath the stars, Melt away, Always be my baby, Open arms and One sweet day with Boyz II Men. I had one of those 'I'm really getting old' moments when I was in a car with my younger cousins and this album came on and they had never heard any of the songs. Cue a really long rant (by me) about ‘how they totally missed out on Mariah's best stuff and how they don't make R&B like they used to’ and two very bored cousins.

You know what? I really do believe that though. I think all the best stuff has already been done. Don't get me wrong, there are some good songs around these days but not many AMAZING songs. You know, the kind of songs that you love from the very first time you hear them, the kind that you don't have to let grow on you because they almost jump out of the album at you. The kind of song that against all self restraint, you put on repeat till you're absolutely sick of it. The kind of song that had you sitting in front of MTV for hours on end (back in the day when we didn't have youtube) so that you could watch the video which you always hated because it was never what you imagined it to be, and didn’t do the song any justice in your opinion. The kind of song that literally gives you goose bumps from listening to it. The kind of song that brings the memories flooding back with every note and lyric. Songs like Allure's 'All cried out' and more or less everything on the 'Enter the Dru' and '8701' albums, Nelly & Kelly's 'Dilemma' and Neyo's 'Sexy Love'. In the last few years, these songs have been few and far between.

A few weeks ago, a friend who has taken it upon himself to keep me updated as to what's going on in the world of music and truly believes that if it weren't for him, I'd still be listening to the golden oldies, made me a CD and for the first time in a while ... I found myself listening to a few songs over and over again. I'm loving Joe's 'Life of the Party' and 'It's me' and I hear the rest of his recent album is pretty good too. I also love Neyo's 'Make it work', 'Go on girl' and 'Do you'.

I'm remembering what I loved so much about R&B, and I'm loving the process!