Dru Hill 'These Are The Times'

Chart Peak: 4

YouTube

The multi-talented quartet Dru Hill are no stranger to success - they have racked up six No.1 singles in the States within just two years... 'These Are The Times' was co-written and co-produced by the legendary "hitmaker" Babyface.

Sadly the note doesn't elaborate on what the multiple talents of the members of Dru Hill might have been. This is one of the very few songs on Now 42 I don't really remember, and by far the biggest hit on here I could say that of. I do remember their previous hit 'How Deep Is Your Love' (not the Bee Gees song) but apart from that they were just background most of the time to me, their run of US hits not being fully replicated over here though this was their fifth Top 40 hit, not counting collaborations. They were a big RnB act just as that sort of music was starting to become mainstream here, and as I'd left school by this point I was rarely in touch with genre fans. I recall them more as a launchpad for lead singer Sisqo's solo career, and would not be able to name any other band members without looking it up - in fact I would have struggled to remember how many of them there were without that sleevenote.

As to the song itself, the fact that Babyface was involved really tells you all you need to know. It's the sort of bland, syrupy ballad that gives blandness a bad name, the sort of things Barry Manilow would reject as lacking grit. The closest we get to an exception is the rather odd lyric where they offer to "swallow you like Reese's Pieces", an analogy which may not have made sense to all the British audience. Their career faltered after this point on both sides of the Atlantic, though they released a comeback album in 2010 and according to their Wikipedia entry they also had their own reality TV show called Keith Sweat's Platinum House. You know your career's passed its prime when your TV show is named after somebody else.

Available on: Anthems R&B [Explicit]