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Released: February 23, 1999


Rating: 4.167 (average of 3 ratings)


Genre: R&B


Quotable: --


Album Tracks:

  1. Fanmail
  2. The Vic-E Interpertation (Interlude)
  3. Silly Ho
  4. Whispering Playa (Interlude)
  5. No Scrubs
  6. I’m Good at Being Bad
  7. If They Knew
  8. I Miss You So Much
  9. Unpretty
  10. My Life
  11. Shout
  12. Come on Down
  13. Dear Lie
  14. Communicate (Interlude)
  15. Lovesick
  16. Automatic
  17. Don’t Pull Out on Me Yet


Sales:

sales in U.S. only 6 million
sales in U.K. only - estimated 300,000
sales in all of Europe as determined by IFPI – click here to go to their site. 1 million
sales worldwide - estimated 11.5 million


Peak:

peak on U.S. Billboard album chart 1 5
peak on U.K. album chart 7


Singles/Hit Songs:

  • Silly Ho (1/2/99) #51a US, #18a RB
  • No Scrubs (2/20/99) #1 US, #3 UK, #1 RB. Sales: ˝ million
  • I’m Good at Being Bad (4/24/99) #30a RB
  • Unpretty (6/26/99) #1 US, #6 UK, #4 RB. Sales: ˝ million
  • Dear Lie (12/18/99) #48a US, #32 UK, #64a RB


Notes: --


Awards:

Rated one of the top 1000 albums of all time by Dave’s Music Database. Click to learn more.


FanMail
TLC
Review:
CrazySexyCool was one of those records that defined an era. Few records before it combined hip-hop and classic soul songwriting quite as intoxicatingly or gracefully – the performances and productions were utterly seamless. It would have been difficult to top anyway, but TLC had it doubly bad, since a number of behind-the-scenes problems delayed a sequel for nearly five years. As with any eagerly anticipated record, that follow-up, FanMail, arrived with too many expectations. And initially, it may be disappointing to realize TLC doesn’t forge new ground with FanMail, but after a few spins, it settles in that nobody else makes urban soul quite as engaging as this” (Erlewine).

“Not that it was easy to make this record, as the head-spinning list of collaborators indicates. Almost ten producers worked on the record, all trying to replicate the easy, appealing sound of CrazySexyCool. And ‘replicate’ is the right word, since there are no new innovations on FanMail, apart from a few lifts from the Timbaland book of tricks. Nevertheless, that may be for the best, since TLC and their army of producers have spent time crafting the songs and productions, turning FanMail into a record that almost reaches the peaks of its predecessor. By the end of the record, it appears that they can do it all – funky, hip-hop-fueled dance-pop, seductive ballads, and mid-tempo jams – and they can do it all well. Other groups try to reach these heights, but they don’t have the skills or the material to pull it off quite so well. True, the five-year wait felt interminable, and they’re now standard-bearers instead of pioneers, but if takes TLC as long to make a sequel to FanMail, so be it – they have one of the best track records in ‘90s urban soul” (Erlewine).


Review Source(s):


Last updated April 15, 2008.