Word: vocally
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...true that discontent is more widespread and vocal than ever before. The refugee crisis came in the wake of a melee on Aug. 5, when hundreds of young Cubans, watched by thousands of amazed onlookers, rioted over the suspension of a Havana bay ferry that had been hijacked three times to Florida. As some of the rioters dared to shout, "Down with Fidel!" the demonstration was quickly halted. But the message was not lost on Castro. Unleashing refugees has proved an effective attention getter for him in the past, and he has been disappointed that a Democratic Administration in Washington...
Fortunately, the situation is not quite so dire. The vocal quartet Boyz II Men is living, singing proof that the love song -- like love itself -- will never really disappear. Other performers may grab the headlines and spark debates on the op-ed pages, but by going against the critical tide and recording harmonious ballads, Boyz II Men has won an enormous following. Its 1991 debut album, Cooleyhighharmony, sold 7 million copies, and in 1992 its mournful, melodic single End of the Road stayed at No. 1 on Billboard's charts for 13 weeks, breaking a record set by Elvis Presley...
What's remarkable about Boyz II Men is that its unabashed romanticism never bogs down the members' considerable musical skill. Motown is their label, and with their harmonies and look-alike outfits, they hark back to the classic Motown vocal groups like the Temptations. The Boyz released their debut CD just after the Milli Vanilli lip-synching scandal. It was a cynical time for pop music. Vanilla Ice had a best-selling pseudo-rap album; New Kids on the Block had gone multiplatinum. Were there any real singers left? Was everyone as fake as Rob and Fab's hair extensions...
...have become just another bland-as-the-Weather-Channel collection of precision- crafted pop songs. It didn't. Each of the Boyz has a robust, nimble voice -- "There's not a weak link in the bunch," says Jam -- and the group turns almost every song on II into a vocal workout. Water Runs Dry, with its plaintive singing backed by a spare acoustic guitar, creates a mood of sublime melancholy. An a cappella cover of the Beatles' Yesterday is movingly inflected with gospel-inspired harmonies...
...advent of synthesized sounds have made it possible for him to produce a record almost single-handedly. "I'm a control freak," he admits. Sometimes he cuts demos in which he plays everything from "drums" to "cellos" on his computerized keyboards, hires a studio singer to lay down the vocal and then presents the polished product to a recording artist, saying, "Here's what your song could sound like." In fact, he did that with I Will Always Love You for Houston...