Divine, Lately | Bangerz N Bopz 🔥

In the 22^nd edition of Bangerz N Bopz 🔥 (2024), we highlight “Lately” performed by short-lived R&B trio, Divine. 

Bring on the bold, fierce songs! Bangerz N Bopz 🔥 serves up background info and insight into songs of various styles, especially songs that raise eyebrows and/or stir the pot.  Featured records can be classic or brand new. In the 22^nd edition of Bangerz N Bopz 🔥 (2024), we break down “Lately” performed by R&B trio, Divine.

“Lately (I’ve been watching you) / Been thinkin’ ‘bout you baby / (And everything you do) / Just sittin’ away watching the days go by.” Oh, the 1990s nostalgia! Short-lived R&B trio Divine – Kia Thornton, Nikki Bratcher, and Tonia Tash – is best known for one song, “Lately”. “Lately” appears on their only album, 1998’s Fairy Tales. While they could be mistaken for one-hit-wonders, the R&B trio charted a second top-40 hit: “One More Try”, a cover of the beloved, George Michael hit.  Still, “Lately” earns the most accolades, reaching no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week in late 1998. Additionally, it earned the trio a platinum certified single. The sweet ballad was penned by Chris Kelly and Will Baker. It was produced by John Howcott and Donald Parks.

Matters of the heart fuel “Lately.” Also, dramatic organ also infuses the ballad with some oomph.  In the opening chorus, the most memorable part of the song, the trio are chill, yet the emotion is perceptible. In the first verse, they highlight the heartache: “I wish that I could weather any storm / But I guess it was a heartbreak from the norm / Was a day I will always remember / The saddest day in sweet November.” It’s a similar situation in the second verse, where prayer – petitioning to God – is necessary (“Baby, I’m on my knees, praying to God help me please / Bring my baby back, right back to me”). The theme is simple, as are the lyrics, but ultra-relatable, particularly from the young collective like Divine.  With so many great songs released in the 1990s, perhaps “Lately” doesn’t get its just due.  Still, pushing 30 years of age, it’s a marvelous R&B song.

Divine // Fairy Tales // Modern Entertainment BV // 1998

Divine, Lately: Bangerz N Bopz 🔥 No. 22 (2024) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Modern Entertainment BV; cottonbro studio, Harry Shelton, Kool Shooters, Lucas Pazeta, Mavluda Tashbaeva, Teddy Yang, Wesley Souza from Pexels]