Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the rare modern R&B must-have albums., March 27, 2003
I personally have stopped liking most modern R&B because of how cookie-cutter that it has become. Acts like Destiny's Child, post-2000 Janet Jackson, and Olivia have severely degraded a formerly great style of music. However this CD does not fall into that category and in fact is miles and miles above the garbage that makes it to the radio and the charts. This album is intelligent, deep, and soulful even if a bit sappy at times but I don't mind a little sappiness. :) My favorites are "Ordinary Girl", "Paradise", and "Lovers At First Sight". The rest of the album is absolutely amazing as well but the songs I mentioned are the highlights. It's sad that this album was overlooked and will never get the recognition that it deserves. :(( This CD is a definate must-have.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Masterpiece" is the loudest word I can say about this CD!, February 23, 2003
After a turbulent decade long hiatus Lionel Richie returned in 1996 with one of the best R&B albums of all time entitled "Louder Than Words". R&B music still was good during this time and this marvelous and provocative masterpiece is a shining star in the genres last days of being a great genre. This is intelligent, classy, and absolutely emotional music, something that has been completely absent from R&B in the past five years. A great variety of songs and a sense of cloudy day dreaminess propel this album to what I consider masterpiece status. The booklet though, like a previous review said, is ... and somewhat cumbersome with its 'open up into a poster' design but at least the lyrics are present and all is forgiven. Mature, intelligent, dark, yet bright at the same time is how I describe this album. "Piece Of Love" is a beautiful opener. It's a sentimental song with a mid-tempo mood. "Still In Love" is a soulful song with a beautiful blend of R&B, jazz, pop, and some 12 string guitars. Richie sounds incredible on this track, just like the rest of the album. "Wanna Take You Down" is an upbeat song with an old-school hip-hop vibe with production from Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis while they still had the ability to produce good music. This is a fantastic song. "Can't Get Over You" is similar to "Still In Love" but I like this one more. It starts off with gorgeous guitars and builds into a mid-tempo Quiet Storm mood song with a very late 80s or early 90s sound to it. "Change" is the most upbeat song on the entire album. It's a marvelous blend of jazz, R&B, old-school hip-hop and soul. "Change" is a fun, upbeat, and absolutely fantastic upbeat song. This could as well be my favorite song off this album. "Nothing Else Matters" is another gorgeous Quiet Storm-oriented ballad similar to "Still In Love". "Ordinary Girl" is one of my favorite R&B mid-tempo songs of all-time with it's odd chord structure, haunting mood, mixed with a semi-danceable beat, this is one of my favorite R&B songs off all-time and this is coming from someone who has long since turned his back on this formerly wonderful genre of music. "Say I Do" is definitive R&B with the perfect blend between the old-school R&B balladry and modern R&B production and comes off as a wonderful aural pleasure and a haunting mood to it. Fans of classic R&B will likely enjoy this one. I love the eerie somewhat spacey fadeout at the ending. "Paradise" is an astonishing mid-tempo song with a lovely and cloudy evening or misty morning mood and a tapestry of beauty, depth, and melodic punch. The lyrics and the beats are wonderful as well. "Don't Want To Lose You" is a wonderful and upbeat song with a blend of R&B, Jazz, and even a bit of Big Band in some places. This was the only hit off this album as it was the only song that made it to the radio from my knowledge but I have great memories of this song during its heyday. "Lovers At First Sight" was an instant classic the first few seconds after listening to it for the first time. It's a fun, upbeat, yet mature, sophisticated song with a dreamy mix of R&B, jazz, and as the song plays along, it builds up into a Big Band song with a classic jazz mood before it fades down into a dark dreamy song during the last 20 seconds of the song. "Lover's At First Sight" is a work of art and one of the best R&B songs that I've ever heard. My hats off to Richie for this song. :) "Climbing" wraps up this masterpiece. It starts with a haunting mix of echoing voices in the distance and a loud blast of melody comes in and becomes a marvelous tapestry of textural beauty and soul. It's actually hard for me to explain this song in words but it does tend to morph into different moods throughout its 6 minutes and 26 second playing time. I would almost call this progressive R&B. "Climbing" closes out this masterpiece on top. I would say that the music on this album surpasses a lot of pop music from the ten to fifteen years preceding this albums release. The slow songs are gorgeous, lovely, deep, and powerful while the upbeat songs are danceable, upbeat without sounding like computer-generated, DJ oriented dreack and are just plain out fun to dance to even if they aren't like `party music' songs. Not too long after this album was released, R&B would simply go down the toilet. R&B's descent into gender-bashing, sex-drenched, cookie-cutter and mentally insulting garbage is probably the greatest musical tragedy in the history of music. It's so sad that this has happened to such a formerly great genre but Lionel Richies "Louder Than Words" though was one of the best albums in the genre and I would consider it R&B last laugh before it would go down the drain. I haven't heard "Time" or "Renaissance" at the time of writing this review so maybe they're worthy albums too. Buy this because its probably the best modern R&B album ever made and truly holds up after all these years. For me, give me the beauty and sensuality of "Paradise", "Say I Do", and "Ordinary Girl" anyday over "Thong Song" and "Survivor"! I give my hats off to Lionel for creating an R&B masterpiece.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
ballads & much more, January 10, 2005
This is a brilliant collection of songs from Richie, after much time away from recording and performing, and many changes, some of them hard...in his life. The CD has smooth and lovely ballads, with two great jazzy numbers in the beginning and end. The opener, "Piece of Love", is my favorite, with a great lyric and melody, and a superb vocal performance, as well as musicianship from the band; it's the only song on the CD not written or co-written by Richie, but fits in perfectly with his compositions. The other song with a strong jazz influence is "Lovers at First Sight", and "Change" is another strong number. "Climbing" is an interesting song, with its many time shifts, and almost classical feel.
Better late than never, though I had heard him (it was impossible not to in the '80s), this is the first Lionel Richie CD I've repeatedly listened to, and his artistry is impressive, as a writer and vocalist, with fabulous phrasing and musicality.
This CD was certified "Gold", and unfortunately it didn't spawn any hit singles; it should have done much better, considering the excellent quality of each track.
The insert, which folds out like a road map, has all the lyrics and recording info, and a few photos. The sound is terrific and total time is 61'23.
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~ Lionel Richie
~ Lionel Richie
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~ Lionel Richie
~ Lionel Richie
by Lionel Richie 
