Hard

10/13/2003 8:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Dan Leroy

There's nothing remotely jagged, edgy or hard about the fourth album from this Atlanta R&B quartet, and more's the pity. One long wash of harmony vocals and narcoleptic beats, Hard will blend into the bedroom wallpaper before you've had time to do the deed the tunes are meant to accompany. Svengali Jermaine Dupri and the group are evidently out of ideas: even supposedly provocative titles like "Girls Gone Wild" yield more mid-tempo pleasantry too drowsy to be erotic, while the few attempts at raising a pulse find the foursome now chasing the success of younger peers, as the Spanish guitar licks of "Tryna Be Your Man" and "They Ain't JE" mimic B2K's big hit "Bump, Bump, Bump," sounding as stale as a year-old knockoff should. How OutKast's Big Boi got dragged into this muddle (on the lone noteworthy offering, the stop-start bounce blast "Car Show") is hard to figure, but he certainly can't save it. "Can you resist my heart and my soul?" the boys ask plaintively on the title track. These songs will make it easy.