We’re skipping ahead a little in Jon B.’s discography (for the record, our favorite track on Stronger Every Day is Through The Fire) to Helpless Romantic.

The nineties boon has long been over and, unfortunately, a fire in the singer’s home studio destroyed a lot of his in-process work (and some of his masters, I believe, although the article that referenced it has long since disappeared from the internet).  It was a time that he, no doubt, though about leaving R&B behind and doing some pop music to pay the bills and get his profile back up.  That’s why we really love the fact that he stayed true to what he wanted to do and released this album anyway.  It didn’t sound dated, but it also didn’t sound like everything else out there and was a real respite from the sameness of radio.

Our favorite track, Drops Of Rain, is so because it’s that classic Jon B. babymaker that would have had no shot of being popular in the landscape of music at the time but is just good because of how authentic if feels to the singer.  His vocals are now absolutely distinguishable from Babyface, his production style is more rooted in piano than guitar, and his ability to weave a metaphor and keep it going throughout an entire song without getting explicit is expert.