The Life

1	Why Not Me 4:26
2	There It Is (Interlude) 5:00
3	2 Way 4:09
4	Differences 4:25
5	So Fine 3:14
6	Tribute to a Woman 4:59
7	Why Did You Go (Interlude) 6:05
8	How Deep Is Your Love 4:21
9	That's How I Get Down / Ludacris 4:13
10	Show After the Show 4:21
11	Role Play 3:52
12	Open Arms 4:45
13	Superhuman 4:10
14	Two Reasons I Cry 5:15
15	Just Because 3:42

Barnes & Noble

Ginuwine earned his reputation among R&B fans by offering up irresistibly good eye and ear candy. On his multi-platinum discs The Bachelor and 100% Ginuwine, the pretty boy crooner dazzled listeners with his Michael Jackson-inspired dance moves and catchy hooks and harmonies accented by jerky, Timbaland-concocted beats. Since the release of his last disc, however, the Washington D.C. native has experienced his fair share of joy and pain, and those feelings inform the tracks on his third album, The Life. On the positive side, Ginuwine was celebrating his relationship with stunning rapper Sole´ and the birth of their child -- blissful events that are reflected in the jubilant slow jams "Differences" and "Tribute to a Woman." Tragically, both of Ginuwine's parents died within the span of a year, and he pours his grief into the deeply confessional "Two Reasons I Cry." Although he has split management ties with Timbaland (Tim contributes the stuttered-beat "That's How I Get Down," featuring Atlanta rapper Ludacris), The Life still serves a mix of sentimental ballads and lyrically forthright up-tempo and mid-tempo tracks. For instance, on the bluesy first single, "There It Is," Ginuwine offers an antithesis to Babyface's pushover anthem "Soon As I Get Home" and Destiny's Child's man bashing "Bills, Bills, Bills" with lyrics such as: "I'm not doing this shit for nothing/I pay the car note, light bills, house note/...what more do you want." Whether he's bearing his soul or giving his lady the boot, Ginuwine always keeps it real. Tracy E. Hopkins

All Music Guide

On his third album, Ginuwine is even more of a practiced R&B loverman than he was on his first two releases. Big Dog Productions, Inc. and the team of Troy Oliver and Cory Rooney produce the bulk of the beats here, which, as usual, mostly range from slow to very slow tempos with such trendy touches as acoustic guitar passages. But all that just serves as a bed for Ginuwine's elastic tenor and his message to the women in his audience. The singer sounds like he's been reading women's magazines and tried to construct a persona that's as appealing as possible. "Baby," he croons in "Why Did You Go," "I'm sorry for whatever I've done and I want you to be my wife." In "Differences," he talks about how much he has improved since meeting the woman he's addressing, concluding, "I'm so responsible." Even when he's criticizing a woman, as he does in the album's first single, "There It Is," it's because she's not contributing to the relationship, while he's holding down a steady job and paying the bills. It's only in the album's eighth cut, "How Deep Is Your Love" (an original, not the Bee Gees song), that he begins to apply pressure for sex, ungallantly suggesting that if the woman doesn't come across he'll start cheating on her. "Show After the Show" is a come-on to a post-concert groupie, which seems to negate what's gone before, and "Role Play" moves on to kinky sex, but in the album-closing "Just Because," Ginuwine acknowledges the temptations of his occupation and pleads, "I'm trying to learn to be committed." It's hard to believe that anyone who's swallowed his line before is going to become skeptical now, so The Life looks like another winner for him. William Ruhlmann