Keep the Faith (Faith Evans album)

Keep the Faith
Studio album by Faith Evans
Released October 27, 1998
Recorded 1997–1998
Genre R&B, hip hop soul, soul
Length 57:52
Label Bad Boy
Producer Babyface, Sean Combs(Exec.), Ron Lawrence, Stevie J.
Faith Evans chronology

Faith
(1995)		 Keep the Faith
(1998)		 Faithfully
(2001)
Singles from Keep the Faith
  1. "Love Like This"
    Released: September 15, 1998
  2. "All Night Long"
    Released: March 2, 1999
  3. "Never Gonna Let You Go"
    Released: August 17, 1999
  4. "Lately I"
    Released: November 24, 1999
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]
Columbus Times (favorable)
Entertainment Weekly A− [2]
Los Angeles Times [3]
Q [4]
Rolling Stone [5]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide [6]
Urban Latino [4]
Village Voice (mixed) [7]
Yahoo! Music (favorable) [8]

Keep the Faith is the second album by American singer Faith Evans. It was released on Bad Boy Records and peaked at number 6 on the U.S. Billboard 200. The album has been certified Platinum by the RIAA.

Background

Two years in the making, Evans' second solo effort, Keep the Faith, was released during October 1998. Almost entirely written and produced by her, Evans considered the album difficult to complete as she had initially felt discouraged about the progress at first.[9] Upon its release, however, the album garnered generally positive reviews by music critics, with Allmusic noting it "without a doubt a highlight of 1990s soul-pop music".[10] Also enjoying commercial success, it went platinum and produced the top ten singles "Love Like This" and "All Night Long" (released March 30, 1999) prompting Evans to start an 18-city theater tour with Dru Hill and Total the following year.[9]

Track listing

  1. "Faith (Intro)" (Faith Evans, Jeffrey Walker)
  2. "Love Like This" (Faith Evans, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Ron "Amen-Ra" Lawrence, Schon Crawford, Clarence Emery, Bernard Edwards, Nile Rodgers)
  3. "All Night Long" (featuring Puff Daddy) (Faith Evans, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Ron "Amen-Ra" Lawrence, Schon Crawford, Clarence Emery, Todd Russaw, Todd Gaither, Bertram Reid, Galen Underwood)
  4. "Sunny Days" (Faith Evans, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Jeffrey Walker, Anthony Dent, Lorne B. Rawls, Kenneth Stover)
  5. "Tears Away (Interlude)" (Faith Evans, Jeffrey Walker)
  6. "My First Love" (Faith Evans, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Chucky Thompson, Kelly Price)
  7. "Anything You Need" (Faith Evans, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Jeffrey Walker)
  8. "No Way" (Faith Evans, Jeffrey Walker, Kelly Price)
  9. "Life Will Pass You By" (Faith Evans, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Ron "Amen-Ra" Lawrence, Carlton Thomas, D.J. Rogers Jr., Richard Frierson, Michael Keith, Quinnes Parker, Daron Jones, Marvin Scandrick, Angela Bofill, Jeffrey Cohen, Narada Michael Walden)
  10. "Keep the Faith" (Faith Evans, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Anthony Dent, Jeffrey Walker, Donovan Jackson, Franklin Brown)
  11. "Special Place (Interlude)" (Faith Evans, Steven Jordan)
  12. "Never Gonna Let You Go" (Babyface, Damon Thomas)
  13. "Stay (Interlude)" (Faith Evans, Jeffrey Walker)
  14. "Caramel Kisses" (featuring 112) (Faith Evans, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Chucky Thompson, Marvin Scandrick, Michael Keith, Quinnes Parker)
  15. "Lately I" (Diane Warren, Steven Jordan)

Samples

Charts

Chart (1998) Provider Peak
position
U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 6
U.S. Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums 3

Personnel

Musicians
  • Faith Evans – arranger, vocal arrangement, vocals, vocals (background)
  • Michael Thompson – guitar
  • Michael Hart Thompson – guitar
  • Babyface – drum programming, keyboards, vocals (background)
  • Damon Thomas – drum programming, keyboards
  • Mike Mason – piano, strings
  • Greg Phillinganes – piano
  • Nathan East – bass
  • Ricky Lawson – drums
  • 112 – arranger, performer, vocal arrangement
  • Diddy – performer
  • Kelly Price – arranger, vocal arrangement, vocals (background)
  • Axel Niehaus – arranger, vocal arrangement
  • Carl Thomas – vocal arrangement
  • Kenya Ivey – vocals (background)
  • Tavia Ivey – vocals (background)
  • Lorne Rawls – arranger
  • DJ Rodgers – arranger
  • Mario Winans – overdubs
Production
  • Charles "Prince Charles" Alexander – engineer, mixing
  • Tony Black – engineer, mixing
  • Axel Niehaus – engineer, mixing
  • Paul Boutin – engineer
  • Tom Cassel – engineer
  • Joe "Smilin' Joe" Perrera – engineer
  • Rob Paustian – engineer
  • Thom Russo – engineer
  • Doug Wilson – engineer
  • E'lyk – assistant engineer, mixing
  • Jon Gass – mixing
  • Tony Maserati – mixing
  • Michael Patterson – editing
  • Herb Powers – mastering
  • Gwendolyn Niles – project manager
  • Faith Evans – executive producer, producer
  • Sean "Puffy" Combs – executive producer, producer
  • Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie – associate executive producer
  • Babyface – producer
  • Ron "Amen-Ra" Lawrence – producer
  • Mike Mason – producer
  • Ron Lawrence – producer
  • Carl Thompson – producer
  • David Foster – producer, vocal producer
  • Richard "Younglord" Frierson – producer
  • Todd Russaw – associate executive producer
  • Jesse Rivera – project coordinator
  • Harve Pierre – A&R
  • Albert Watson – photography
  • Gwynnis Mosby – make-up
  • Klya Wright – hair stylist

References

  1. ↑ Promis, Jose F.. Keep the Faith (Faith Evans album) at AllMusic. Retrieved 2011-06-17.
  2. ↑ Matt Diehl (1998-10-30). "Keep the Faith Review | Music Reviews and News". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2011-06-17.
  3. ↑ "Top Pop Albums (Faith Evans: Keep the Faith)". Los Angeles Times. 1998-12-03. Retrieved 2011-06-17.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Faith Evans - Keep the Faith CD Album". CD Universe. Retrieved 2012-12-23.
  5. ↑ Ernest Hardy (1998-11-02). "Faith Evans: Keep The Faith : Music Reviews". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2008-05-15. Retrieved 2012-12-23.
  6. ↑ Brackett, Nathan; Christian Hoard (2004). The Rolling Stone Album Guide. New York City, New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 284. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  7. ↑ Craig Seymour (1998-12-01). "Puffinstuff - Page 1 - Music - New York". The Village Voice. Retrieved 2011-06-17.
  8. ↑ Yahoo! Music review
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Chappell, Kevin (1999-04-01). "After Biggie: Evans Has A New Love, A NEW Baby, A New Career". Ebony. FindArticles.com. Retrieved 2009-03-14.
  10. ↑ Promis, Jose F. (2008-04-30). "Keep the Faith review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2010-01-24.

External links