Combine
Prince's influence with traces of
the System and a dose of hip-hop, and you've got
Natural Selection, a male duo that consisted of Elliot Erickson and Frederick Thomas and showed some promise on this self-titled effort. Although the CD is rather uneven and doesn't fall into the essential category, the group's R&B/pop hooks can be catchy. Unlike so many of the urban contemporary songs recorded in the early 1990s, likable numbers like "Hearts Don't Think (They Feel)," "Bum Rush (Your Heart)" and "Do Anything" are the work of a group that was striving for originality, as opposed to being content to sound like the product of a musical assembly line. Despite its shortcomings,
Selection had more heart and integrity than most of the urban contemporary acts that debuted in 1991. But regrettably, the obscure group fell through the cracks and disappeared without getting a chance to develop. ~ Alex Henderson