98 Degrees - Collection (CD)

They've dug themselves into a hole..

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Jan 3, 2004

Pros: passable vocals

Cons: bad material and an identity crisis

I'll make this an overall commentary on 98 Degrees and it's not too far left of the field since this album serves as a summary of what they've done with their career so far...

What good can be said about them? They started out as a good harmony quartet and on their first singles, they showed a lot of promise. Unfortunately, the good things stopped there. I borrowed their debut album from a friend and it was a mediocre effort. The material was bad and it showed none of the promise I was expecting. The same goes with their 2nd album and their sorry attempt to stretch their repertoire on Revelation. They started out aspiring to be the "white Boyz II Men". Ironically, they did just that. They're both known for their ballads and regrettably can't sing anything else. No one can accuse them for not trying, they've tried everything from latin and hiphop beats to liven things up but the output is just laughable. Both groups' material proved to be more & more generic and formulaic as time goes by, even the ballads don't hack it anymore. Their voices are nice but you don't feel a thing when you hear it. 98 Degrees tried to go pop (complete with dance moves) to get the boyband audience while Boyz II Men tried to get the 112/Jagged Edge crowd. Both failed and both looks to be nowhere near a solution.

It's a sad end to a group who had the tools but didn't know how to use it and finally squandered it away.