Dru Hill

11/19/1996 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Amy Linden

If you were to take all of the male vocal groups currently recording and lay them end to end, you could surround the planet two times over with crooning, yearning, down-on-bended-knee-for-your-sweet-love men. There are so many vocal groups out there right now that only their mamas (and possibly their accountants) can tell them apart. The reason, of course, is that vocal acts are very popular--and with imitation being the easiest form of A&R, record labels scramble to put out something that will duplicate whatever came (and sold) before.

Enter into this profitable, but utterly predictable, fray Dru Hill (the name derives from Baltimore's Druid Hill Park), who are enjoying their moment of fame courtesy of the solid singles "Tell Me" and "In My Bed." What is Dru Hill's contribution to this already over-populated genre? Well, to be perfectly honest, not a whole hell of a lot. That's not to say they aren't talented. I mean, in what qualifies as the most back-ass compliment known to man, Dru Hill can sing, OK? On the dramatic "Nothing To Hide," they give it their all, piling muscular four-part harmonies on top of a taut rhythm track, while "Tell Me" all but vibrates with neediness. It's all good, but like so many groups that have come and gone before them, Dru Hill does little to distinguish themselves from the pack. They sound like Jodeci without the leering, dangerous horniness, or Blackstreet sans the production genius of Teddy Riley. In other words, Dru Hill are everything you've come to love and expect from big bucks, hugely commercial black music. Which, depending on your tolerance for formula, may or may not be a good thing.