Before this album is even popped into the CD player, one can tell there is something special about Arkansas sweetheart Jennifer Lang.  Her bright eyes and smiling face exude pure joy and happiness, qualities not seen that often anymore on the album covers of current female R&B songstresses.  Additionally, her liner notes are playfully amusing.  All fourteen tracks on 3 O’Clock Saturday were written by Lang and Cloyd R. Willis Jr.  Willis plays all the instruments and Lang is the lyricist/vocalist or in some cases, such as “Hi” she embellishes upon this title and credits herself with “Insightful lyrics, playful delivery and sweet phrasing.”

This delightful, unassuming personality Lang embodies carries throughout the album – with the added bonus that she is indeed a formidable singer.  3 O’Clock Saturday is her sophomore album and it seems that Lang is contentedly finding her niche.  She is at her best when singing in a lower register and maintains exquisite vocal control through ornamental twists and turns.  However, when this New York City transplant attempts to get too jazzy or rhythmically clever, the result is not always as pleasing.  Lang both benefits and falters with her orchestration choices.

“Fairy Tales” is well-written with tasteful mordents and smooth jazz delivery.  The dramatic chord progression with a cool R&B backbeat slowly climbs in pitch as the song progresses.  While the choice of instrumentation aided in the melodic interpretation of this modern fairy tale, in the more chic “Ya Keep Saying” Lang’s voice is left overly exposed.  This is unfortunate given the edgy, driven mode of the song.  The bass is too weak and there are annoying Atari-like synthesized blips that do nothing to support the vocals.  Similar issues occur in “I Don’t Understand” where Lang’s voice thins out as she sings in the upper register and the instrumentation fails to support her leaving the track way too trebly.  The synthesizers do a better job in this song with attention grabbing strings and low brass, giving a spy-thriller type feeling to Lang’s formidable vocals.  But, despite her graceful pitch control in the coda the song ends abruptly.

“Gangsta Jennie” (per liner notes) continues to shine in “You Said” where she is fully-accompanied with a well-blended wall of sound with a nice touch of sleigh bells.  However, this track also ends abruptly.  It would be nice if more of these songs employed smoother fade-outs as in “Don’t Think On It.” 

Lang seems to comfortably groove best in slow to medium tempos with more traditional R&B beats.  When she tries to sing along with synthesized brass in “Betcha Thought” or deliberately sing overemphasized triplets in “I Don’t Know When It’s Coming” it detracts from her true core of talent as both a singer and lyricist.  Lang has tremendous room to blossom and grow as she continues to do what she loves.  The more she dabbles with different approaches to songwriting, the further along she will travel on her musical journey to find her unique niche where her talent will be truly and beautifully showcased.

Reviewed By Kelly O’Neil

admin Kelly O'Neil, Reviews 3 O'Clock Saturday, Jennifer Lang