Free

I will preface my review by saying that I truly appreciate Chico Debarge's work.Thus, I bought 'Free' on the premisethat I was willing to experience first hand the material that preceded his album 'Addiction.'I absolutelyfeel that Addiction is arguably his best work since 'Long time no see'--or better in some regards.However, I heard some samples from Free and found a good portion of them very solid and rather beautiful in their honesty.After listening to the album about 10 times, I can say I have mixed feelings about some of the songs.Namely: The Unloved,Style, Next Time.I'm highly ambivalent towards them because with the right production and a bit more polish in regards to backing vocalsthey would have been as engaging and poignant as his better material.That notwithstanding, this albums is definitely worth your time.Smile is a true work of art in every facet of songwriting and production.Listening to it you get the impression thatwith the right mixture of these elements this album would've been more successful.Still a worthy effort from a painfully underrated RnB Soul Songwriter.

I am a big fan of Chico Debarge he always delivers that sexy soul sound. He is a great artist that really puts his heart and soul into his music. His music has lots of meaning in it, and so cool to vibe to. I would highly recommend anyone to listen to Chico and the rest of the Debarge family. They have been putting out great music for years and I would consider them one of the best musical families to ever do it. Good music never gets old.

The Free Cd by Chico Debarge was great! Chico has a great urban and bluesy sound and he is his own musician. I recommend anyone to buy this cd. He definitely deserves more recognition in the music industry. Nina

great music his first one was classic grammy worthy .... this is great two....... chico debarge is the real; deal.

Chico Debarge is not your average R&B singer. He's been partnered with powerhouse Joe on this album as well as past cd's. However his style of soul music is more along the lines of Maxwell or D'Angelo. His voice, song-wrtiting and songcraft evoke Marvin Gaye with a modern day swagger. This album is a slow burner, but once the atmosphere of the cd seeps into your ear drums, it takes you to a place few R&B artists today dare to take you. Definitley worth picking up if you appriciate strong artisty in today's R&B.

One of his best cds

Chico Debarge has in the past had his shining moments. Most people fell in love with "Long Time No See", a good album, but in my opinion not my favorite, well at least it didn't keep me rotating the music in my player, aside from the single remix No Guarantee w/Joe Thomas and Iggin Me. Next we have Chico's sophmore album. The first lead single was a bit commercial for what was to follow LTNS, but listening to the album a couple of standout tracks were there, in particular Til Tomorrow which features his brother El and a few other stand out tracks. The third time is a charm in my opinion. Although Chico has more than three albums, this makes his third post his confinement. "Free". Upon purchasing this cd I noticed that Chico wasn't on a major record label, which causes me to wonder. Did Chico Free himself? Whatever the case may be, however you decide to interpret the title (even though the song talks about what free is) one can't help but to notice that Chico put his best and all into this CD. Written and Produced by himself, Chico should have done this long ago. This cd is a slow burner, he croons on the track "Smile" and delivers great lyrics. The music is organic, non-commercial. This is where he shines. Its obvious the talent that Chico really posesses off of this release, major labels should kill to have this album and artist on their roster. But hey, whatever the case may be, it has caused CHico in my opinion to write what I say is his best material to date. I feel it surpasses Long Time No See. I must admit, I was expecting to hear El somewhere or see a producer or writer credit from big bro, but no, Chico proves he can do it all himself. And you know what, it worked. If you like the sound of LTNS, you will like free. Not a replica but really good R&B music.