63. Carl Thomas has a New Record

Stardust from your favourite stan in Lagos

It has been 14 years since his fourth album, Conquer. And if the wait for Conquer after the release of his third album, So Much Better, was long (a mere three years), CT has outdone himself with a career-defining (or defeating) hiatus. Fourteen years is an awful long time to be quiet as a singer.

Such statements can be quickly taken out of context and repurposed as unfair criticism, so let us contextualise a few things. To do this appropriately, we must tell a few stories. Or, more fittingly, rejig some memories, like, who is Carl Thomas?

Chief Crooner of Bad Boy Records?

Perhaps. Listen to Puff Daddy and Mase’s 1998 Been Around the World remix. Carl Thomas was that guy crooning his existence away and seriously grabbing air in the music video. The internet is littered with his big break story. Puff Daddy discovered him doing an open mic in New York in 1997. It was a long way to his chart-topping single ‘I Wish’, his eternal baby maker ‘Summer Rain’ and the iconic cool cover of his appropriately titled debut album, Emotional.

We won't go into those music videos where CT was directed to sing in the rain or divest his shirt as some visceral response to unrequited love. I hope you get my point, though, that Carl Thomas belongs with that cohort of male R&B stars who came of age when Rap and R&B blurred boundaries. I am talking about when crooners like rappers wore white sleeveless vests, cornrows, matching do-rags, conspicuous jewellery, and butter-coloured Timbs. The difference was that these crooners assume uncomfortable postures to adlib from their core. You see a chiselled man, you hear a falsetto.

You must agree with me that their time has passed. These men who ruled the 90s are now in their 50s, and R&B, arguably, is the stomping yard of youth. Ginuwine has not released a solo album since Elgin (2011). Case has not released a new record in a while (I don’t mind continuing to rinse ‘Missing You’). Or Avant (Carl Thomas’s lookalike), Joe Thomas (his cousin), etc. These men run legacy tours now, taking money from their fan base, who are probably middle-aged and prosperous enough to pay a premium for tickets and still buy some merch. Unicorn Usher completed a Las Vegas residency and played the Superbowl half-time last year.

Perhaps Explosive is Carl Thomas’ residency. The 21-minute-long seven-track EP feels that way in concept, theme, and delivery.

Could we talk a bit about the timing of the album release? Releasing an album when his former record boss Puff Daddy, Diddy, or Brother Love is facing serious legal troubles says something. The avid CT fan knows that Brother Love and his establishment should have given his sophomore album, Let’s Talk About It, a bigger chance. It was an upbeat, lively, and mature album full of relatable long songs but did not go anywhere commercially.

Still, on album release timing, this album was released lemonade-style around Grammys weekend. Google Explosive and you will not find any press release pieces or reviews. Not even an acknowledgement from AllMusic or Genius. Not even Rated R&B has said anything about Explosive, and it breaks my heart a little that one of the greatest R&B singers of his generation can release new material, and not even Spotify, where Carl Thomas averages at least 500,000 listeners monthly, rings some air sirens.

Well, Carl Thomas, here is your stardust. It is your favourite stan from Lagos.

I have enjoyed listening to this album. It has a live feel with horns, and that funk feel. It is soulful and retro without sounding dated. It is vintage Carl Thomas.

I fell for his smooth vocals and approach to song so long ago and am not disappointed. Thomas sings with a loose, limber touch that feels improvisational, but he lets the song take him there. Some of his most memorable songs are pretty unusual. Take Round 2, Thought You Should Know, or Rebound. What yokes all these songs together beyond his silky tenor, “so much soul,” to borrow his description on that thoughtful tune, ‘Thought You Should Know’.

Explosive is less soul and more funk. It is lively. Lyrically improvisational. Think Carl Thomas travelling back to the '70s. Think neon lights, dance, and up-tempo tunes bracketed with horns. Think fireworks, not ballads. Think Las Vegas residency. Think explosive nights, the exact kind he sang about on ‘Dreamer’ on his sophomore album.