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After 7 VibeZ

Sixteen tracks from a Cincinnati vocal trio who made some of the most beautifully arranged R&B of the early 1990s and are barely remembered.

After 7

After 7 were Kevon Edmonds, Melvin Edmonds and Keith Mitchell — and the family tree is the story. Kevon and Melvin are the older brothers of Babyface; Keith Mitchell is a cousin of L.A. Reid. The group was therefore signed to Virgin with the two most successful writer-producers in R&B working on their behalf.

What they brought was harmony. Where most of their contemporaries were built around a single lead, After 7 were a genuine three-part group in the older tradition, and the arrangements — largely by Babyface and L.A. Reid — are unusually sophisticated.

Melvin Edmonds died in 2019. The group has continued in various forms.

What to listen for

"Ready Or Not" and "Can't Stop" are the two that made them — both from the 1989 debut, and both perfectly constructed.

"'Til You Do Me Right" is their biggest and best: a Babyface and L.A. Reid production with a horn arrangement and a vocal blend that almost nobody was attempting by 1995.

"Heat Of The Moment" and "Nights Like This" — the latter from the Five Heartbeats soundtrack — are the deep cuts their audience holds closest.

The covers are excellent. "Sara Smile" is the Hall & Oates song, and taking it on as a vocal group makes explicit what that record always was. "Baby I'm For Real (Natural High)" combines the Originals and Bloodstone into one medley.

"One Night" and "How Do You Tell the One" are the ballads, and "Sprung On It" and "Gonna Love You Right" the up-tempo ones.

"Not Enough Hours In The Night" is the one to play last.

Go deeper

After 7 (1989) and Reflections (1995) are the two albums.

Kevon Edmonds' solo record 24/7 is worth finding — its title track was a genuine hit and he is a superb singer.

For the Cincinnati connection: the Deele, where Babyface and L.A. Reid met, and the whole Midwestern soul scene that produced them.

And for the male vocal group tradition generally: The Whispers, The Manhattans, Boyz II Men and Jodeci — four very different answers to the same question about what three or four voices can do together.

One last point about the family advantage. Having Babyface and L.A. Reid writing for you is an enormous head start, and it is also a trap — After 7 were never entirely allowed to be their own group rather than a vehicle for other people's songs. The blend was genuinely theirs, though, and on the tracks where it is foregrounded you can hear a group who deserved a longer run.

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