Because they have a best-of comp and a biopic on the way or maybe they just wanted to…
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[5.57]
Crystal Leww: Don’t call it a comeback. No, seriously, don’t. I don’t know what the motivation for this new wave of activity is, but it lacks the spirit of Left Eye. She was on some next level shit, and so was TLC, so why the hell does this sound like the most watered down, devoid of personality tribute song ever?
[4]
Brad Shoup: The placid transcendence of the chords underlying “always meant to be” are sterling. You can plunk them into a rhythm&pop lineage that includes Robyn’s “Do You Know (What It Takes)” and Michael Jackson’s “Stranger in Moscow”. Ne-Yo deserves a chunk of the credit: he helps his co-writers find a path that doesn’t lead to any specific TLC sound, but still evokes a contemporary heyday. T-Boz and Chilli each work her specific range, and the result is a complete single about loss.
[7]
Jonathan Bogart: I don’t have the moral or historical authority to be outraged, to assert that they should, by all that is sacred, only be calling themselves TC, to publicly and performatively continue to mourn Left Eye more than a decade after the fact. Maybe if the song was worse — or significantly better — my unease with its existence could crystallize into something more entertaining to read. But it’s only fine, an unflustered smoothness that could really use the kind of rhythmic jolt that Lopes could always be counted on to provide.
[5]
Patrick St. Michel: A slight but well-earned look back from TLC. Nothing shocking here — sonically or lyrically — but smooth as can be.
[6]
Edward Okulicz: This song doesn’t matter. It’s plugging something or other, but surely radio stations are going to notice that and think it’s been too long since they played “Red Light Special” or “Diggin’ On You” and play those instead (I hope). Anyone that does spin “Meant to Be” more than once will think it sounds a bit like a batch of hit singles vaguely contemporaneous with (but distinctly inferior to) the faultless singles off CrazySexyCool — I can hear Des’ree, Gabrielle and Robyn and you’ll have your own memories, but I don’t know that they’re TLC memories or that this has much of TLC’s essence in them beyond being a reminder of a time when the charts were packed full of all my favourite hits.
[6]
Alfred Soto: The closely miked swooping harmonies of a Ne-Yo production fit the members of TLC like the elements of the survivorhood anthem this is meant to be, even the male football chant out of Nelly’s “Ride With Me.” It doesn’t transcend its consignment as comp-bait though.
[6]
Katherine St Asaph: TLC’s raspy altos still enliven pretty much anything. But they can’t enliven it much.
[5]