Faith Evans – Faith (1995) Album Review

Music Review • Faith Evans aka The First Lady of Bad Boy, stepped into the 90’s originally as a protégé of Al B. Sure being one of his background singers. Once she started consulting with Puffy you could catch her working on vocal production for Usher’s debut album & vocals & writing for Mary J. Blige’s “My Life” album. Puffy knew he had something special with Faith & that’s when her debut album “Faith” hit the 90’s streets in 1995.

The first single “You Used to Love Me” gave us a hip hop sound with Faith’s smoky R&B tone over that hard bass. It’s one of those heartbreak cuts that you don’t know if you should get in your feelings or hit a Diddy bop when you hear it. One thing’s for sure, it gave Faith her place in the 90’s as an one of the best female R&B artist. It was when the second single “Soon as I Get Home” dropped when Faith shook the R&B table. It was one of the few songs where a woman apologized. “I’ll get down on my knees begging you please…I’m so sorry!” Alright now….calm down sis, you’re going too far! If this song was about Biggie, he must have put something on her. 

“Ain’t Nobody” the third single released from the album is a real BOP! Puffy for sure had a certain sound in the 90’s, especially with up-tempo cuts. I feel like most of his songs had that Diddy bop sound. Once that beat drop all you can do is turn into Diddy. The fourth & final single “Come Over” which is sampled by Van Jess on their song “Come Over Again”, didn’t do that great on the charts compared to the first three but it was still a great song. The stamp of approval of how great a song is, is when it’s sampled by other artist. 

Although it wasn’t a single, “Don’t Be Afraid” is my favorite non single record. What caught my ear is the background vocal arrangements. I understand why Faith was doing background vocals for some of the greats in the 90’s, her background vocal arrangement is perfection. The vocal stacks is why she’s a legend in the game & this debut album showcased that. When people mention Faith in the great vocalist category I know it all started with this album.