En Vogue Back On Music Scene With Its Third Album

They’ve been away more than three years and lost a member, but En Vogue returns this week with “EV3,” the act’s third full-length album.

The album features returning members Terry Ellis, Cindy Herron, and Maxine Jones and includes vocals on selected tracks by Dawn Robinson, who left the group for a solo career.

Herron says the loss of a voice that had been with the act since its inception posed a challenge.

“It made us have to work harder, because we had to really concentrate on rebalancing our harmonies,” she says. “But once the adjustment was made, it was business as usual - three female vocalists doing their best to entertain listeners.”

In an effort to make the best album possible, the label enlisted the talents of some of music’s most successful songwriters and producers, including Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Diane Warren, David Foster, Ivan Matias and Andrea Martin, and longtime En Vogue producers Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy, who contributed five tracks.

“That was the biggest thing about this album versus the others - the different songwriters and producers,” says Jones. “It stretched the recording process out longer because we had to travel to different cities.”

“Funky Divas,” En Vogue’s last full-length album, peaked at No. 8 on The Billboard 200 and No. 1 on the Top R&B Albums chart in 1992. It has sold more than 3.2 million copies, according to SoundScan.

The album spawned three Hot 100 top 10 hits: “Free Your Mind,” “Giving Him Something He Can Feel” and “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It).”

“Runaway Love,” the act’s 1993 EP, featured “Whatta Man,” which spotlighted the rap talents of Salt-N-Pepa. It reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“The (musical) landscape has definitely changed since our last album,” says Ellis, who recorded her solo debut, “Southern Gal,” in 1995. “We had to be aware of the creative changes in the business, but at the same time we remained true to ourselves. So we didn’t change a lot, style-wise.”