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SWV VibeZ

Twenty-three tracks from three women from the Bronx who could out-sing almost anyone and chose to do it over hip-hop beats. Sisters With Voices earned the name.

SWV

Cheryl "Coko" Gamble, Tamara "Taj" Johnson and Leanne "Lelee" Lyons came out of the Bronx with gospel backgrounds and a producer, Brian Alexander Morgan, who understood exactly what to do with them. It's About Time arrived in 1992 into the same moment as Mary J. Blige's debut, and the two records between them established hip-hop soul as the dominant mode.

Coko's lead vocal is the group's defining asset — a bright, agile, heavily ornamented instrument with a distinctive break in it, and one of the most imitated voices of the decade. But the group's real strength is the blend: three voices that were recorded close and stacked, giving even their up-tempo records an unusual warmth.

What to listen for

"Weak" is the number one and the standard — written and produced by Brian Alexander Morgan, and one of the most perfectly constructed R&B ballads of the 1990s.

"Right Here" appears twice, and the Human Nature Radio Mix is the important one: Teddy Riley built it on Michael Jackson's "Human Nature," and that version is what made them stars.

"I'm So Into You" and "You're Always On My Mind" are the other early essentials. "Rain" is the ballad their fans hold closest.

The collaborations map the era: Foxy Brown on "Release Some Tension," Snoop Dogg on "Gettin' Funky," Puff Daddy on "Someone," Redman on "Lose My Cool" and Missy Elliott on "Can We." Very few groups worked with that spread of rappers.

"Use Your Heart" is the connoisseur's pick — produced by The Neptunes in 1996, before almost anyone knew who they were, and it sounds like a preview of the following decade.

"Ain't No Man" and "What We Gon' Do" are the later reunion material.

Go deeper

It's About Time (1992) is the album, and New Beginning (1996) is the underrated follow-up.

Coko's solo gospel records are worth finding — she returned to the church and has made several, and the voice is undiminished.

For the wave they belonged to: Mary J. Blige, Jodeci, Total, Xscape and 702. And Brian Alexander Morgan is the producer to follow — he also wrote for Tyrese and En Vogue.

A last note on the blend. Coko gets the attention and deserves it, but the thing that dates SWV records least is the group vocal — three women recorded close, harmonising in a way that sounds like people rather than stacks. Very little contemporary R&B is made that way now, and playing a record like "Rain" next to anything current makes the difference obvious within a bar.

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