Aaliyah 'Try Again'

Chart Peak: 5

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Aaliyah first found fame in 1994 when she recorded her million-selling debut album Age Ain't Nothing But A Number - when she was just 14 years old!... Six years later and Aaliyah is back with 'Try Again', a top track taken from the movie Romeo Must Die, a brand new action film which also stars the young R&B singer.

Her only appearance in the Now! series before her untimely death and inevitable elevation to pop sainthood, though the latter was admittedly more the case in the USA where she was always the bigger star (though she may of course have been on her way to becoming equally popular here, had she lived). Over there this was the first airplay-only single to top the Hot 100; something that had admittedly only become possible in 1998. It had the advantage of a big promotional effort thanks to its use in the film as well - that's her co-star Jet Li in the video, and I can only hope that his acting in the film itself is a bit less wooden.

As a piece of music, this is the sort of thing I still wasn't attuned to in 2000, but I don't think I especially disliked it and through repeated hearings it became quite the grower, to the extent that I loaded it straight onto my MP3 player when I acquired this CD. I have to admit, though, that to me Aaliyah is only window-dressing here, the most important contributor being producer and co-writer Timbaland. He also makes a vocal cameo, rapping lyrics which I now know are "borrowed" from Eric B & Rakim's 'I Know You Got Soul', in fairness an homage that would have been recognised by most of the target audience. What they might not have recognised so easily was the complex electronic soundscape he builds under the track, full of shifting rhythms and unexpected squelchy sounds. At the time, this sort of thing was the most radical music making the pop chart, especially on a global level. It's hard to reconcile it with the lazy rubbish that Timbaland deigns to put out these days, but he's hardly the first person in musical history to let fame go to his head.

Also appearing on: Now 51, 52
Available on: R&B Divas