Res - How I Do (2001)

Res - How I Do (2001)

I vaguely remembered Res (pronounced "reese"), though admittedly more for the short boyhood crush I developed for her after seeing the video for "They Say Vision", where hips and cleavage made more of an impression on my teenage mind at the time than the music did. But when I found myself wondering why she seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth, it was the music that was playing in my mind. That song and it's airy, infectious chorus. Thinking back on it, it was pretty different compared to her peers at the time. As my research found, that was part of the problem.

How I Do was released on a major label but suffered from poor marketing and an odd choice of singles, and as a result was forgotten in the highly competitive realm of mainstream music. They didn't know what audience to market her to. It's neo-soul, but not fully. It's kinda rock but not really. The aforementioned "They Say Vision" broke onto the dance charts for a short time, but I wouldn't say that that was a good place for her either. Strange, because it's easy to fathom that this would've been a pretty huge hit if it were released today in a climate where, even if the music is quite terrible, at least the lines that separate genres are a little more blurred, making it easier for acts to cross over and appeal to multiple audiences.

Listening to the first four tracks especially, it's hard to imagine how How I Do managed to fly under the radar. The arrangements are memorable and Res sings confidently over them with decent range. From there, the album does begin to suffer from a couple of throwaway tracks, like "Sittin' Back", that trip up the momentum and make it difficult to recapture the flow of the album's first third. But for the most part it's solid. Take almost any of these tracks, add a guest verse by (insert popular rapper at the time) between the second chorus and hook and you'd have heard a lot more about this.


Score: 7/10


"They Say Vision"


"Let Love"