Album Review: Jagged Edge, All Original Parts, Vol. 1

Jagged Edge

All Original Parts, Vol. 1 (released January 31, 2025)

If you’ve been following the action over at The Soul In Stereo Sessions on YouTube (and if you haven’t, correct that horrible oversight immediately), you know we’ve spent the last few months reminiscing about R&B groups. There’s just something about a collection of harmonizing guys and girls that makes R&B feel so much sweeter. That’s why I hate that the majority of R&B groups have gone the way of the iPod nano and Ecto Cooler, forever confined to the dustbin of music history.

But in the year our lord 2025, there are a scan few groups that have survived the R&B apocalypse.

While their peers like 112 and Dru Hill have shattered into unrecognizable splinter cells and others like Jodeci and Boyz II Men are totally MIA, Jagged Edge continues to be the last R&B men standing. Err, singing.

I’ll certainly give JE props for longevity, but y’all come here for that real and we have to be honest with ourselves – it’s been a long time since the JE boys gave us a truly great project. Eleven years in fact, thanks to 2014’s JE Heartbreak 2.

All Original Parts, Vol. 1, album No. 11 for the R&B stalwarts, is a different type of release. Though it will be available everywhere Feb. 14, it was released early on even.biz, where fans could “pay whatever they’d like” to get early access.

Now, “pay whatever you want” actually means “at least 10 bucks or no songs for you,” so props to JE for forcing superfans to spend real money for music. It’s like 1999 all over again!

Speaking of the 90s, the vision for All Original Parts is pretty clear – it attempts to find a balance between the classic JE era of aching ballads and modern day moody production.

It’s a balance they’ve been trying to achieve since post-JE Heartbreak 2. And they still haven’t figured it out.

The album intro is kinda fun, essentially an interlude that incorporates several of the project’s track titles. It’s nice little sonic icebreaker before diving into the true opener and first single, “Just Might Get It.” Like pretty much everything on this project, it’s a mixed bag: the peppy production is relatively catchy – it won’t move you at first, but as the song finds its groove, that ear worm begins to burrow into your brain. However, all the goodwill is tainted by the unnecessary vocal effects that saturate the track. It’s like a kid who drowns his fries in ketchup – a little is fine, a river is gross. It’s far from the biggest offender on the album (Example: the preceding track, “She Said What She Said,” is way more obnoxious with it) but let’s focus on the positives first.

“Season, Reason Or Lifetime” is the type of maturity we need in R&B right now. The moody trap production actually works to the song’s benefit as JE reminds us that the game of love is filled with risk and reward: “people come into your life for a season/a reason, or maybe a lifetime/only thing you can control – how to keep them/master all your fear inside.” The concept of “Without Love” is in the vein of past forlorn bangers like “True Man” or “Goodbye” – nowhere near the quality of those but with enough nostalgia to keep your ears hooked (despite the auto-tunin’ croonin’). And there are definitely fun production moments – that weird “shooby-ooh” on “No Other Words” was stuck in my head long after I finished this album and I can see the midtempo groove of “Ciao” growing on me in time. But what won’t grow on me is its eye-rolling lyrics, like “Let her off the hook like OJ.” Ugh.

There’s a lot of ham-fisted writing on this album that turns way too many songs into self parody. “Love on Credit” goes way too hard on the debit card metaphors, along with the mush-mouthed auto-tune turning it into a knockoff Future track. “A Real One” has the guys proclaiming that they’re “just like Candyman, I’m hungry for you girl/say my name five times and I’ll pop out for you, girl.” Sir, that sounds like harassment. And you can probably guess what “Automatic Weapon” is supposed to be about. It reminds me of that anime with the lady with the rocket breasts.

That one.

That’s what makes All Original Parts so frustrating. You can tell JE has the tools in place to create a solid project. But between the unnecessary Future cosplay and cringy writing, a lot of the goodwill is lost.

I give JE props for being the last group standing in R&B, but that’s also why I’m so tough on them – we know how great they can be when they’re focused. In this era of scant few R&B groups, there’s so much more these veterans should be bringing to the table.

But hey, at least they got at least 10 bucks out of me for this project, so you can’t knock the hustle.

Best tracks: “Season, Reason or Lifetime,” “Ciao,” “Without Love”

2.5 stars out of 5