Pictures

Tony Rich | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 2, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: I.M. Records
• ASIN: B000BRP49E
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,353 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Starts slow, finishes strong, June 8, 2006

By 

M. Fyffe "of rnbhaven.com" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pictures (Audio CD)

When I first saw that Tony Rich was putting out a new album, I was hyped. I loved his albums Words and Birdseye and believed them to be two of the best albums EVER in R&B. His creativity and songwriting are outstanding as seen by Nobody Knows it but Me, Grass is Green, My Stomach Hurts and Blue Butterfly. His third album Ressurected was an interesting twist on the R&B genre, oftentimes blending with soft rock. Yet the album was impressive and reaped of his creative skills with tracks like Mental Purgatory, Free, and Red Wine.

My love for Tony Rich was running high and so when Pictures came out, I bought it right away. Yet playing through the tracks, I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, the album is very well designed, with each track acting as a Picture in the photo album of a relationship. In this sense, it is very much like Babyface's unreleased album Love Story. The set up is clever and some tracks really shine but unfortunately, the album seems to take some time to get into the groove and escape bland mainstream tracks.

The early tracks Gone Girl and Somethin About You sounded like regurgitated tracks from other artists, not Tony Rich. R U Breathin begins to hint at the old Tony Rich lying out somewhere in the songs. That One, while a good song, again sounds nothing like Tony Rich and is very mainstream R&B music. Quiet doesn't carry much emotion in it, and is really something I tend to just skip over.

Would U Lie has a strong resemblance to tracks on Ressurected and is nice and catchy. Besides R U Breathin and That One, this is one of the first solid tracks to listen to. Moving On (has anyone else noticed the return of a similarly named song on every album of his? Leavin from Words, Thoughts of Leavin from Birdseye, Travelin Alone from Ressurected and now Moving On) is a solid track, showing the album to finally be turning around. It has that soothing buzz on your mind that many of Tony Rich's earlier albums invoked and has a nice beat to it as well.

From here out, Tony Rich really starts to get in his groove. Sponge is a thoughtful song that fits right in on Birdseye. It's strong and the chorus is simple and catchy. U My Girl is uptempo and lets Tony really ring out his sound. It's not a unique song but the rest of the closers more than make up for that. She Loves Me has a nice catchy guitar sound in the background and the lyrics are soft but a neat soft rock sound that works well. Don't Be Worried is a tear jerker but is incredibly well done. The track is very soft but it fits well with the song's message. The album closes with Beautiful, a strong track that gives Tony Rich an almost gospel sound.

Overall, the album is worth picking up for any fan of R&B music. It's far from Tony Rich's best work (Birdseye will always hold that honor) and it starts off weak but around track 8 or so, Tony really gets into feeling it and starts to let it out.

Hopefully the album will do well enough that we can continue to hear more from the great Tony Rich

UPDATE: Every time I listen to this album, it gets better and better. In my opinion, it is better than Words and close to the same level as Birdseye. Tony Rich has a clever way of making songs sound like the emotions they convey. While early tracks like Gone Girl, Somethin About U and That One seem more mainstream R&B, they fit perfect with the message the album is trying to convey. The feelings are high and the songs work wonders in making you feel the same way as the relationship being described. While there are still several weak tracks on the album, I feel even more confident now to fully recommend it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars takes time to understand it, August 6, 2006

By 

R. Zammit - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pictures (Audio CD)

When I first heard the album I was a little unsure about how i would rank it amongst Birdseye, Words and Resurrected. Because althogh the tracks were arranged, written and delivered well, everything just seemed a bit too "happy" and a bit too commercial for me. Words was a beautiful album yet u could really feel his depression (Nobody Knows is a perfect example. And if you like Words you will like Mario Winans - Story of My Heart). Admittedly Birdseye (his best album by far) was much happier although the songs were still so deep. In Ressurection you could see the journey he was going on, from losing love, to meeting someone and then wondering if they are the one. And finally drawing close to God. However Pictures seemed a little too mainstream for me to relate to the man who is Tony Rich whatsoever. And the songs that would normally make you stop and think (eg Dont Be Worried) just seemed out of place.

Once again its obvious how much influence Prince had on him [and this is no bad thing..to be influenced by one of the greatest artists ever]. Tony Rich knows it too. I mean, the first thing Tony Rich said on his first album was "lemme get a bowl of fruit cocktail". Dorothy Parker anyone?? Do U Feel Me reminds me of a typical Prince song although much less explicit lol.

So for the first few weeks I was a bit disappointed in Tony Rich and Pictures. I mean one of my favourite artist of all time, an artist whose every other album i fell in love with because it was so different to everything else and so damn amazing. And his latest album just felt as if there was no particular message he wanted to convey, no way to understand what he is feeling.

However over the past month or two of listening to the album, I find myself at home or out somewhere and out of the blue I begin to sing one of the songs on this album. And I have to switch my ipod on and find that song just to sing along to it or to think WOW those lyrics ARE deep, i never realised! This is the effect this album has had on me. Alot of The melodies and guitar riffs really paint a picture (no pun intended), and the lyrics are typical Tony Rich..Simple yet exciting and extremely effective. And I begun to realise that Tony Rich doesn't want you to compare this album to any of his other albums. It's obvious over the years that he is an experimental artist. Words was different to anything else at that time. Birdseye was different to Words. Resurrection was different to Birdseye. And now Pictures: completely different yet again. Im sure he could make another Birdseye (i hope he does eventually!), but who are we to stop him from doing what HE wants.

And when you understand this, then you understand the album and can realise that in no way has he gone mainstream. Going mainstream usually means conforming to what the public want in order to sell albums. And the unfortunate reality is that Tony Rich wont sell the number of albums trash artists like 50 Cent, Missy Eliott etc sell. He hasnt conformed to anything, he has just made an album with some songs you can dance to, and some you can read the lyrics to (Sponge, Beautiful) and really appreciate what he is saying.

Pictures is the perfect name for the album. He explains the name in one of the tracks, telling us Pictures are moments in time. And that's just what the album is. We go through thousands of feelings and emotions during even just one day, and this album is a set of freeze-frames of many of his emotions.

In finishing, this isn't another Birdseye, it isnt another Words, it isn't another Resurrected. If you own one of those and think this will be the same, I'm afraid you will be slightly disappointed. However it's a Tony Rich album, and if you like the ARTIST Tony Rich, you will love this album.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Musical Wake-up Call!!!, May 3, 2006

By 

K. Smith "QuietSoul" (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pictures (Audio CD)

Well to be honest my review is gonna be somewhat biased because I know Tony and his brother Joe Rich personally and I gotta support my fam. Album #4! I'm proud of you boy!!! Now being that I'm a musician who happens to have discriminating musical taste I'll say that the album truly deserves 5 stars. My favorites so far are "Gone Girl", "Somethin' About U", "Moving On" and "Sponge"(deep lyrics). Overall, it's a very nice CD and I really hope that it's promoted properly. I won't even try to compare this album with the others. I like them all for different reasons. Believe me, you won't be disappointed. Sit back, relax and enjoy the musical journey.

**QuietSoul**