Normally we don't review rereleases of albums or what have you, but we were put in a difficult situation with this one. "End of the Road," a record setting hit was only on the remastered version of Cooleyhighharmony and the Boomerang soundtrack. Not wanting to overlook one of the group's biggest songs, we decided to review the remastered version of the album as well. However, this review will only cover the tracks that were not featured on the original release.
This version of the album features three new tracks worth mentioning. These three are "The End Of The Road," "Al Final Del Camino (The End Of The Road Spanish)" and "In The Still Of The Night." The rest of the added tracks are remixes of tracks from the first album and are thus, nothing really worth taking note of.
The first track to take note of is "Al Final Del Camino" which is the Spanish version of the hit track "End of the Road." Now I'll have you know, I'm about as up to snuff on my Spanish as I am on philosopher Francis Hutcheson. With that being said, I like the song. It's fun to sing along with, or at least, to spew out sounds that I feel like sound like what's being said. In addition, it's a nice break from the actual song, allowing you to listen and enjoy it twice without having to hear the same things over again. A great track, though Mike's talking sounds redundant.
Having enjoyed The Five Satin's "In The Still Of The Night," I was curious to hear Boyz II Men's rendition. It's an enjoyable number that harkens back to the days of doo wop and the guys are good at it. Their abilities to harmonize were shown with the great "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday" and this number just further affirms it. I could almost imagine the Boyz one day putting out their own doo wop album.
The closing track of the album and the other noteworthy addition on this album is "End of the Road." The song was the group's first mega-hit and was first released on the Boomerang Soundtrack. The song is still a great one with nice vocals and probably the best spoken part by Mike out of any of the songs. Having Shawn sing in the background works wonders on the speaking. The lyrics are well written and overall, just a great track.
The other additions to the album are a decent addition though it can't help but seem like filler. "Uhh Ahh" is a nice "new song." The lyrics are different but the set up for the song is the same as the original number. It has a stronger sexual tone to it and it sounds pretty smooth. I think the delivery was better on the first version but this rendition still has its strengths.
The remix of "Motownphilly" is likely the worst on the album, seeming like a regurgitated addition. It's an overproduced version of the original that doesn't have anywhere near the same magic. On a similar note, the radio version of "It's So Hard..." seems to have lost the feeling and emotion of the original version and seems overdone in comparison. Disappointing.
