TLC - TLC

The Quietus

You can never truly replicate or even touch the gold-lacquered past you look back on so fondly, but little hints and throwbacks are often enough to evoke a smile, a sigh, a sated feeling. With certain artists, with acts that have come to represent a specific time or sound, we don’t really care about whether the new stuff is any good. It almost doesn’t matter, given the joy they’ve already brought us.

Which brings us to TLC - whose name sits at the hallowed pinnacle of girl groups. It's 15 years since their last release, and 15 years since the untimely death of the extraordinary Lisa 'Left-Eye' Lopes, and they have just released a final, self-titled, fan-funded album. Their legacy is so great - they’ve already produced some of the most innovative, influential music in the modern canon of R&B and, for women artists especially, they changed the game with their glorious ‘take shit from no one’ attitude - maybe it really doesn't matter what this new record is actually like. Maybe we have trapped them in our own nostalgia.

Of course, being a revered, quintessential 90s group doesn’t stop you making something genuinely great now (last year’s final Tribe album, We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service was testament to that). Indeed, T-Boz refuses to acknowledge the term ‘throwback’: “Our music will always be relevant,” she said in an interview last month, and their UK show at KOKO earlier this year seemed to prove her point. So there’s been a sense of excitement for Chilli and T-Boz’s final outing under the TLC name; and 15 years is a long time to plan a goodbye.

What we find on TLC is really only 'relevant' in that it recognises how influential their sound has been to what is happening in present-day R&B (although a few moments could tenuously be considered trap-lite). There’s a case to be made for timelessness - songs like ‘Scandalous’ cement TLC’s place as the forebears of the exquisite dark, sultry stylings we hear from Kelela and on FKA Twigs’ poppier songs, while the message of ‘Perfect Girls’ is as important in 2017 as ‘Unpretty’ was back in 1999.

But overall what we hear on this record sounds like a slice of late 90s/early 00s street soul: the bouncy woodwind and keys of 'Way Back' deserve a beachside Hype Williams video, and the song even features the languid drawl of Snoop Dogg. 'Way Back' succeeds in being a euphoric slice of nostalgia, and it revels in that very TLC nonchalance: “It’s nothing but a thing to pick up where we left off,” they sing, having opened the album spitting “No we don’t need no introduction"; it’s just that having a whole album that largely emulates a sound from more than 15 years ago feels anachronistic - and a chorus about “James Brown and Michael J” feels much cheesier than anything the TLC ladies used to serve up.

Of course, Left-Eye’s raps would normally cut through moments that risked being too schmaltzy. The touching ‘Interlude’ splices in excerpts from a Left-Eye interview, and - although it’s a predictable take - it really does make you miss her, and her absence is felt throughout the album. “I lost some friends, some friends that I didn’t want to,” they sing later on ‘American Gold’. Although it’s strange and sad to not have her on the record, given TLC’s penultimate album 3D was rushed in the aftermath of Lopes’ death, there’s something fitting about Chilli and T-Boz finishing TLC on their own terms, more than a decade later.

‘It’s Sunny’ is a terrible song: a mash-up Bobby Hebb’s ‘Sunny’ with Earth Wind & Fire’s ‘September’ plus a grating original chorus never needed to happen. The chorus for ‘Haters’ feels a little overzealous too, and ‘Start A Fire’ just floats by forgettably.

“I’mma take you back down memory lane tonight,” they sing on closing track ‘Joy Ride’, which serves as an emotional thanksgiving. In some ways TLC’s trip down memory lane is unnecessary - some memories are better left untouched, and the weaker songs do make you feel sad at those memories being tarnished.

So, this is not an incredible album. But in the context TLC’s legacy - as a goodbye tour to end one of the biggest girl groups of our time - there is still something touching here. For all T-Boz might be unimpressed by the idea of a 'throwback', embracing the nostalgia was probably the only way for such a beloved group to say goodbye.

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The Guardian 80

(Cooking Vinyl)

From the beginning of their self-titled fifth album, it’s clear that TLC are keen to prove that they are, indeed, TLC. Understandably so, for the case against is convincing: this is the first album the band have released without any input from the late Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, generally considered the trio’s creative nerve centre. The opener No Introduction – a hyped-up list of their achievements, ironically enough – might feel forced, but from then on the duo prove themselves more than capable custodians of the TLC brand.

Related: TLC: ‘I will never forget the day we were millionaires for five minutes’

Drowned In Sound 70

This album made good on that promise and uses enough contemporary production techniques to sound viable on any dancefloor. Throughout the album, Tionne ‘T-Boz’ Watkins and Rozanda ‘Chilli’ Thomas work well together, backing each other up and calling in at the right points to create the complimentary layering and harmonies.

First track ‘No Introduction’ is a strong starter. Constant referencing of the past through lyrics and samples and strong statements “we don’t need no introduction” make it clear that TLC are not trying to wipe the slate. Lyrics like “we back, call my lawyer, we back, call my girls up” demonstrate their maturity (and some lessons hard learned) while a more hip-hop section “we don’t need no scrubs just some waterfalls” references their past hits directly. The production is up-to-date, with a kind of Bollywood dance vibe.

Released in April this year ‘Way Back’ features a solo from another one of hip hop’s ageing heavy hitters, Snoop Dogg, a pretty clear communication of their status as musical pioneers. As it is TLC and Snoop both sing a lot about the past, and even joke about how old they are. Snoop sings “I’m just the same old G, giving you a little TLC”.

‘It’s Sunny’ is probably peak nostalgia, and borderline cliché. An uppity brass section samples a variety of funk hits from the Seventies including ‘September’ by Earth, Wind & Fire and of course the original version of ‘Sunny’ by Boney M. It gets meta, a nostalgic song which samples a nostalgic song from almost 40 years ago and yet insists with euphoric vocals that the “dark days have gone and the bright days ahead”. But that level of cultural referencing begs the question - if the future looks so good why are we so obsessed with the past?

The aggressive cheer of ‘It’s Sunny’ finally gives way suddenly to the more serious ‘Haters’, and also into some of the more original tracks of the album. With its empowerment themes, singalong chorus “people gonna say what they say, we don’t care about that anyway”, and a cheerleader cry reminiscent of Toni Basil’s ‘Hey Mickey’, “we don’t care about that anyway”- ‘Haters’ somehow maintains the optimistic tone. The anthemic chorus is reminiscent of early Spice Girls or Gwen Stefani, possibly because it was released first in Japan along with ‘Joy Ride’ in October 2016.

‘Perfect Girls’ maintains the empowerment theme with loops accompanied by acoustic guitar imploring you gently that you “gotta love yourself”. ‘American Gold’, a likely hit gets emotional - “I cry for the ones I lost, I pray for the ones that don’t, I’m bleeding on American soil, I am bleeding American gold” while ‘Aye MuthaFucka’ features deeper harmonies that contrast strongly with the gansta title to make a pretty pop song in an almost playful tone reminiscent of ‘No Scrubbs’ teasing – “I just look at you and say – Aye MuthaFucka”. It sounds like a hefty woman chastising a young hooligan on a street corner, and to lighten the tone the track even features some jazz notes and overlapping rhythms. ‘Start A Fire’ and ‘Joy Ride' are the sweeter and more gentle ballads with the kind of multi-part harmonies that have made TLC a success.

Oddly, the album's deluxe edition then dives headlong into nostalgia with several remastered classic hits, including 'No Scrubs', 'Creep' and 'Unpretty'. It’s enjoyable, but it leaves me wondering if TLC could have pared-back the nostalgia kick to allow their new songs to stand out in their own right. The new songs here may not launch them back out into the commercial music stratosphere, but they definitely deserve to stay in orbit.

The Guardian 60

(Cooking Vinyl)

TLC’s fan-funded fifth album opens in bullish mood, Chilli and T-Boz name-checking their biggest 90s hits over No Introduction’s prowling beats and vintage harmonies. Things droop as they settle into generic, throwback R&B (Way Back, It’s Sunny), and tired self-improvement anthems (Perfect Girls, the limp Haters). Much better is Start a Fire’s odd acoustic experimentations and American Gold’s state-of-the-nation address that undulates over huge head-knocking beats and crunchy guitars. Missing, obviously, is the late Left Eye’s playfulness, legal wrangles meaning that any leftover verses remained locked in the vault. Overall, a solid album, just not quite up to the legacy.