Floetry | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Marsha Ambrosius and Natalie Stewart are the funky divas behind the neo-soul duo Floetry. Ambrosius and Stewart emerged in the mid-90s as songwriters in demand. Theyre behind some of the new millenniums biggest hits, too. The pair has written tracks for Michael Jackson, Jill Scott, Glenn Lewis, and Bilal. While theyre highly respected behind the scenes, Floetry is their way of moving up front. Ambrosius is the songstress to Stewarts spoken word impresario or "floacist" role. The two met due to their love of basketball. Stewart, who hails from London, was a superstar on her court, while Ambrosius wowed fans in her local English neighborhood. They were competitive, but not rivals, so a friendship was formed. Music was also a passion. Ambrosius relished in her reggae roots while Stewart found herself grooving to funk and soul. While attending Brits Performing Arts School, Ambrosius studied business and finance, but made room for courses in voice, performance technique, and recording. Stewart split her time between acting and directing. Later, Ambrosius and Stewart headed to college. Ambrosius planned to attend Georgia Tech University on a basketball scholarship, but injury forced her to bow out. Stewart headed for Middlesex University, eventually transferring to North London University. Still, they two kept in touch and raved about music. It wouldnt be until Stewarts girl group, 3 Plus 1, disbanded that Floetry would actually give music a serious shot. In 1997, Ambrosius and Stewart began writing songs and playing shows in and around London. Three years later, they moved to America in search of something bigger. A brief stint in Atlanta didnt pan out, but their time spent in Philadelphia proved golden. Ambrosius and Stewart befriended Julius Erving III, basketball great Julius Ervings son, in mid-2000. Floetry and Erving clicked instantly. Erving signed on as their manager and hooked the ladies up with Jeff Townes, aka DJ Jazzy Jeff, for some recording. Thats when the deals started trickling in -- Floetry were official and living out a dream. In 2002, they inked a deal with DreamWorks and touched up their own work for a debut album. Floetic appeared in October 2002, and its follow-up, FloOlogy, reached the Top Ten upon release three years later. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 3 Title: Floetic Released: 2002-11-25 Tracks: 16 Duration: 1:09:12 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Big Ben (01:54) 2 Floetic (04:06) 3 Ms. Stress (03:52) 4 Sunshine (04:15) 5 Getting Late (06:46) 6 Fun (04:14) 7 Mr. Messed Up (04:20) 8 Say Yes (04:28) 9 Hello (04:09) 10 Headache (04:03) 11 Hey You (05:04) 12 If I Was A Bird (05:02) 13 Opera (04:00) 14 Subliminal (03:57) 15 Butterflies (demo version) (04:03) 16 Now You’re Gone (More Than I Can Feel) (04:52) |
| Floetic : Allmusic album Review : Singing "songstress" Marsha Ambrosius and spoken-word "floacist" Natalie Stewart have concocted a smooth, sultry, and soulful album with the help of producers Darren "Limitless" Henson, Keith "Keshon" Pelzer, Vidal Davis, Ivan "Orthodox" Barias, and Andre "Dirty" Harris, whose combined credentials include Bilal and Jill Scott. The album includes some faster hip-hop tracks such as "Opera," but it tends toward mid-tempo grooves and slow jams with an warm, after-dark chill-out feel. The music is classy and sleek, not raucous or abrasive, and Stewart even says to "turn the music down" during "Headache." The duo may sing about bringing the vibe "from SC5 to Phillys Westside" ("Floetic"), but they also dwell a lot on personal heartache; sample lyrics include "I cry oceans" ("Headache") and "so much pain and misery" ("If I Were a Bird"), and even "Fun" is hooked around the phrase "this isnt my idea of fun." Ambrosius and Stewart are both adept at their respective vocal techniques, but their main strength is the interplay between their two voices; this interplay, like the album in general, is a good demonstration of how contrasting styles can be brought together to form an appealing whole. This CD includes two bonus tracks: the demo version of "Butterflies" (which was a hit when performed by Michael Jackson) and a collaboration with Sebastian Rogers on "Now Youre Gone (More Than I Can Feel)." | ||
 | Album: 2 of 3 Title: Floacism "Live" Released: 2003-11-18 Tracks: 14 Duration: 56:07 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Wanna B Where U R (Thisizzaluvsong) (04:02) 2 Have Faith (04:12) 3 Tell Me When (04:15) 4 Big Ben (live) (01:37) 5 Opera (live) (04:29) 6 Sunshine (intro) (live) (01:15) 7 Sunshine (live) (04:38) 8 If I Was a Bird (live) (05:09) 9 Say Yes (intro) (live) (01:04) 10 Say Yes (live) (05:56) 11 Getting Late (live) (04:46) 12 Butterflies (live) (04:29) 13 Floetic (live) (04:19) 14 Hey You (live) (05:51) |
| Floacism "Live" : Allmusic album Review : On the strength of 2002s Floetic, Floetry became the Bush of neo-soul -- an English act with most of its commercial success in the States. Though the critical reception was equally warm in both territories, Floetic hit the Top 20 of the Billboard album chart in the U.S., while it didnt perform nearly as well in the U.K. With the two-disc Floacism "Live", Floetry give their U.S. fans a gift of sorts, with a performance -- recorded at New Orleans House of Blues -- that is provided in both CD and DVD format. The show has a lot of energy, but its best experienced visually, since the audio element can be a terror to listen to without the added dimension of the visuals. By watching the performance, your concentration can be diverted somewhat from the fact that Floetry sound a lot better in studio form. The live arrangements are competent enough, but theyre not all that exceptional, and they often seem to be present only for the sake of musicality (as in, "See -- we write songs; we dont make tracks"). Most importantly, Marsha Ambrosius is all over the place vocally, taking every possible opportunity to let some screeching, cracking melisma run wild. This takes away from the song in every case. And if it werent for the track indexes on the CD, it would often be a challenge to determine where one song ends and where the next begins, given all the interludes, outerludes, redundant chit-chatter, and general noodling around. More discerning fans will be satiated somewhat by the three new studio recordings that open the set, including a fiery "Microphone Fiend"- sampling tune that features Mos Def. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 3 Title: FloOlogy Released: 2005-11-08 Tracks: 13 Duration: 1:02:34 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Blessed 2 Have (03:57) 2 SupaStar (04:12) 3 Closer (04:03) 4 My Apology (04:06) 5 Let Me In (04:25) 6 Lay Down (05:00) 7 Feelings (05:02) 8 Sometimes U Make Me Smile (06:38) 9 Ill Die (04:41) 10 Imagination (06:34) 11 I Want U (05:47) 12 In Your Eyes (04:20) 13 Waiting in Vain (03:46) |
| Flo'Ology : Allmusic album Review : Following their successful live album, Floetry returned to the studio after some much needed rest from constant touring and album-making. Relaxed and very much reenergized, Floetry then issued FloOlogy, which rises to the top of the list as one of the best things the group has ever released. The blueprint pretty much stays the same: tasteful, funky neo-soul grooves blended with emotive R&B; crooning and spoken word poetry. But theres a much-needed sense of refinement to their style and vocal delivery this time around, a hint of maturity that was lost on their debut and subsequent releases. The ferocity that made Floetic the album of the neo-soul jet set has been replaced by a calmer, more introspective duo confident of their abilities and -- most importantly -- understanding when to restrain themselves from becoming just another cookie-cutter R&B; group (check out "Lay Down" for the best example of this discipline). The one thing detracting from FloOlogy is the length of the songs, with many of them bordering on or exceeding the five-minute mark; combined with the repetition of themes, this length tends to drag down and unnecessarily carry songs on longer than they should, but thats a trivial complaint considering all of the fine-tuning, general improvement, and overall quality boost that FloOlogy delivers from start to finish. | ||