Love Always is the debut album of American R&B duo K-Ci & JoJo, released on June 17, 1997, by MCA Records.
It was produced by JoJo and several others, including DeVante Swing, Jon-John Robinson, James Mtume, and Jeff Redd.
The album has been certified three times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and gold by Music Canada and IFPI Sweden.
Previously, K-Ci & JoJo had been members of the group Jodeci, which consisted of them and another pair of brothers, DeVante Swing and Mr.
[1] Under Uptown Records,[2] the group released three studio albums certified platinum by the RIAA: Forever My Lady (1991), Diary of a Mad Band (1993), and The Show, the After Party, the Hotel (1995).
K-Ci & JoJo, seeking to shed Jodeci's "bad boy image",[6] began working on other projects.
"[11] Other contributors to the album included Rory Bennett, James Mtume, Jorge Corante, Mike Smoov, Fred Rosser, Jeff Redd, Joey Wlias, Laney Stewart, Gerald Baillergeau, DeVante Swing, Derrick Garrett, Craig Brockman, Victor Merrit, Jon-John Robinson, Andrew Braxton, and Bradley Spalter.
[12][13] Mike Smoov, Jimi Randolph, Derrick Garrett, Thom Cadley, and Mikael Ifverson engineered the album.
[15][16] The album's opening track, "HBI", is a short introduction and is followed by "Last Night's Letter", a slow jam about broken hearts.
[20] It was released in Australia in August 1998 packaged with six bonus remixes of "How Could You", "Last Night's Letter", "All My Life", and "You Bring Me Up".
'"[28] "All My Life" peaked at number one on the Hot 100 and R&B/Hip-Hop Songs,[29] tying a record set by The Beatles by jumping from 15th to first on the U.S.
[37] It was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association[38] and gold by IFPI Sweden.
[44] On July 9, 1998, Love Always was certified three times platinum by the RIAA, for shipments of three million copies in the United States.
In 1998, Love Always was certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), for shipments of 35,000 copies in Australia.
Alex Henderson of AllMusic called "Love Ballad" the "best thing the Hailey brothers have ever done – inside or outside of Jodeci".
[15] Henderson called the album's ballads and slow jams "above average" and noted a lack of new jack swing and R-rated lyrics of the sort he had observed in Jodeci's music.