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The Music of Joe

Thirty-eight tracks from a singer who has quietly released more consistently good R&B albums than almost anyone of his generation.

joeR&b

Joe

Joe Thomas has one of the more underrated careers in modern R&B, largely because he has never done anything to draw attention to it. He came from a church background in Georgia, writes and produces much of his own material, and has released album after album of well-made, adult, unfashionable soul music since the early nineties.

The voice is a light tenor with real agility, and he is one of the few male singers of his era who never traded technique for style. He also writes well about a specific subject the genre mostly avoids — the mechanics of a relationship that is already established, with its compromises and negotiations intact.

He has since become a substantially independent artist, which suits the catalogue.

What to listen for

"I Wanna Know" is the biggest record and remains one of the most-played R&B ballads of the 2000s.

"All The Things (Your Man Won't Do)" is the earlier hit and the one that established the persona.

"Still Not a Player" with Big Pun is the crossover, and the contrast between Pun's technical density and Joe's smoothness is what makes it work.

"Love & Sex Pt. 2" with Kelly Rowland is the best duet, and "Get To Know Me" with Nas is the most unexpected pairing.

"Isn't This The World" is the political record and the most serious thing here, and it appears on the Conscious Soul playlist elsewhere on this blog for good reason.

"If I Was Your Man", "More & More" and "The Love Scene" are where the singing is most exposed.

"Come Get To This" is the Marvin Gaye reading, and "Better Days" and "Till the Rope Gives Way" are the deep album cuts the devoted listeners name.

Go deeper

All That I Am (1997) and My Name Is Joe (2000) are the two commercial peaks; the later independent albums are more consistent than the chart positions suggest.

For the wider field of nineties male R&B singers who prioritised craft over image: Kenny Lattimore, Eric Benét, Carl Thomas and Dave Hollister — a generation whose albums have aged considerably better than their sales.

What he writes about: not seduction or heartbreak at their peaks but the negotiation in between — the compromises inside a relationship that is already established. It is a less glamorous subject and a much harder one to sustain across thirty-eight tracks, and it is why the catalogue reads as adult rather than merely smooth.

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