Friday, August 19, 2022

Phajja - Meeting In The Ladies Room (1999)

Phajja were an all-female contemporary R&B trio that released one album on Warner Bros. Records, as well as several moderately successful singles. The band comprised sisters Kena and Nakia Epps, who hailed from Chicago, and Karen Johnson, of Boston. They began singing together in 1987 under the name of Not Your Average Girls, with the original group consisting of five members, and they traveled and performed original music for several years before landing their first record deal with Capitol Records in 1991, although they never released an album for that label. In 1993 the group disbanded and Kena, Karen, and Nakia carried on, changed their name to Phajja and left Capitol Records for Arista. That didn't last long, and in 1995 they signed with Warner Brothers Records, and it was this label that finally released their debut album 'Seize The Moment'. Two singles were lifted from the record, 'What Are You Waiting For' and 'So Long (Well, Well, Well)', and they also achieved some airplay for their cover of the Christopher Cross song 'Sailing'. They appeared on Soul Train in May 1997, and after a brief break they returned in 1999 with a new single 'Checkin' For Me', which was produced by Mario Winans and written by themselves and Shari "Truth Hurts" Watson. This was meant to be a taster for their second album 'Meeting In The Ladies' Room', but before it could be released it was cancelled by Warners and consigned to the vaults. As I've said so often before, there is generally nothing wrong with these cancelled albums, and I'm sure the decision was entirely financial, so it's worth giving this one a listen as it's a fine r'n'b album of the period, and didn't deserve to be canned. 



Track listing 

01 Say It Ain't So  
02 Checkin' For Me  
03 Better Days  
04 Don't Come Back 
05 Shade  
06 Slept  
07 Don't Want To Be A Hater 
08 What's Goin' On  
09 Anything You Wanna Do  
10 Why  
11 It Must Be Love  
12 My One & Only  

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