This album title got a double meaning, it stands for their third album but also the group getting reduced to a trio after the departure of Dawn Robinson. After the magnificient Funky Divas that featured the unmistakable hit singles "Free Your Mind" and "My Lovin (You're Never Gonna Get It)" the band took a 5 year hiatus and alot of things happened in the music industry during that time, their brilliant fusion between R&b, Dance, Hip Hop and Rock was no longer that trendy and 5 years is long enough for any group to lose it's popularity, but the three remaining members do the best of the situation and together with trademark producers Foster/mcElroy they're still able to satisfy most listeners. What differs is that they only produce half of the songs here and the rest is giving to in-demand producers/writers like David Foster, Dianne Warren, Organized Noice and Babyface. "Don't Let Go (Love)" ended up being one of their alltime biggest hits, reaching #2 on the charts and still to this day a very enjoyable power-ballad. Babyface's slick contribution "Whatever" is one the other hand one of his alltime weakest and lack a great hook or melody that his songs normally have. "Damn I Wanna Be Your Lover" sounds almost exactly like "Don't Let Go (Love)" and not too surprsingly it comes from the same producers. Dianne Warren's power-ballad "Too Gone, Too Long" on the other hand is a standout and one of her better songs, eventually becoming a top 40 hit. "Let It Flow" with a guest rap and "What A diffrence a Day Made" is perhaps the closest you get to the sound of their past. Other then that most of this album is adult contemporary ballads and from time to time even a edgy power-ballad. However, there are many good numbers, and En Vogue without Dawn Robinson still manages to make a good album.
January 19, 2008I remember this album when I was 10. I love this album. With this album, they have forged new musical terrain both as vocalists and songwriters. EV3 is En Vogue as we have never heard before(in 1997). This album showcases their trademark dynamic, soul-searing lead vocals and warm,ultra-tight backing harmonies. Dawn left for a solo career after doing two songs on this album. This album has been certified Platinum. This was the most forgettable album of 1997. Remember,this was 1997.
November 19, 2005This album get's 3 and a half stars. En Vogue's first attempt at working with new producers is a great idea. The only problem is that they may have chosen the wrong producers to work with (with the exception of Organized Noize.) EV3's standout tracks are "Whatever" produced by Babyface, "Don't Let Go (Love)" by Organized Noize, "Too Gone, Too Long" by David Foster and "Damn I Wanna Be Your Lover" by Ivan Matias. While a good idea to branch out and try working with new producers, some of the producers were unable to capture what En Vogue is capable of and result in producing less than outstanding tracks for the group. Long time producers Foster/McElroy didn't produce as well as they're capable of either.
EV3 - a must have for En Vogue fans. Should En Vogue work with other producers in the future, they should make sure to choose eminent producer's (Organized Noize, DarkChild, P. Diddy, Missy Elliot, David Foster, The Neptunes...)
January 25, 2005I enjoyed this disc and can't say that I noticed a severe drop off in vocal with the loss of Dawn. Although I do agree that her spunk & sassiness balanced the maturity of the other three women. The tracks are a bit different that on their previous albums because Tommy & Denzil only produced/arranged 5 of the 12 tracks & because of their unique understanding of the ladies' voices, the other tracks suffer a bit because they do not sound like the EnVogue sound that I liked but I tried not to compare this disc to their previous ones.
That being said, I still enjoyed 7 out of the 12 tracks which counts as a successful purchase to me. The funkiest cut of them all is "Let It Flow" which gets me up dancing everytime I play it. Other standouts are: Whatever, Don't Let Go, Damn I Wanna Be Your Lover, Too Gone, Too Long, Sittin By Heaven's Door, What a Difference a Day Makes & Does Anybody Hear Me. December 29, 2003
 |  | CLASSINESS AND LONELINESS |  |
EV3 came in a time R&B tunes didn't gave to much space for funkyness, the deaprture of Dawn Robinson to a supposed solo career didn't hurt the group in the vocal aspect, perhaps, what went wrong in EV3 wasn't the lack of another girl to make the quartet, in fact was the quality production that the group lack of. "Whatever" the outstanding track of this album, was a slow funky R&B tune that somehow aimed for better airplay that it ultimate received, and of course was the only saveable track. The hole album is influence in that slow R&B beat, not the funky jams of En Vogue that fans were acostume to. Even the highly anticipated ballad produced by no other than David Foster "Too Gone, Too Long" felt in the space of being pure pop, and pretty close too be another flop, but the voices of each En Vogue member shine, specially Maxine's in the bridge part of the song, something that it's caracteristic of EV3 is that was really crowed by filler cuts and really bad ones. In the name of music the only other joint that can be saved from being lost in creativityless, are "Eyes Of A Child" poppy friendly song. Despite the singles releases, and the later mention this album was such a dissapointment for many fans that expected a little more from the "Funky Divas" because after this they should be call "The Amazing Boring Divas".
October 20, 2003More reviews at Amazon.com ...
(28 reviews)
