After 6 years Ann is finally back with a new album release (that is if you let out her dance album with only a few songs in countless remixes). This time she's on her own label It's Time Child Records that is luckily for us distributed by Universal, so there shouldn't be a problem to get this CD at your local records store.
We all know (or should know) Ann Nesby as the voice of Sounds Of Blackness from their Perspective releases in the 90ies. And of course there was her debut album I'm Here For You also on Perspective Records. Mostly produced by then-label-owners Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis it was and is a great album full of good songs like I'm Still Wearing Your Name, Thrill Me, In The Spirit or Let Old Memories Be. That was 1996 and then happened ... nothing at all... except for some success with some house remixes of Can I Get A Witness or Hold On. Some years ago we saw the release of Love Is What We Need on German's Peppermint Jam Records (included on Put It On Paper) and then came Lovin' Is Really My Game on Silk Records and I was just wondering if Ann will become another of these session singers for various house projects and we will only hear her once or twice a year on some obscure 12" singles.
But then comes Put It On Paper! Which is musicwise a little more diversified than I'm Here For you. There are some great soul songs like her duet with Al Green (the title song), Seasons, She Can't Love You, I Can't Get Over You, the superb Advice (a duet with her daughter Jamecia...if only all parents would put their advices in this form...I would've believed my mother instantly if she could sing like Ann words like "I'm a little bit older/ Believe me I know/ I've already been where you think you can go"), Where Would I Be or I'm Your Friend (this time Ann teams up with Jam & Lewis and Big Jim Wright again and there are also the Sounds Of Blackness added for additional background vocals). And we also get some house songs like the aforementioned Love Is What We Need, Lovin' Is Really My Game and Let Your Will Be Done (the last two were produced by Steve 'Silk' Hurley and Let Your Will features Ricky Dillard & New G). And then there's the more contemporary track that for my taste is too urban/R&B(in the modern meaning)-like Tonight's The Night, although Ann's voice is classes above the usual Destiny's Childs et al.
All in all a fine album that shouldn't be missed just because the cover may remind you of one of the good witches from The Wizard Of Oz.