by Alex Henderson
When this self-titled debut album came out in 1998, Voices of Theory was often described as a Latin Boyz II Men. The comparisons were inevitable -- both groups came out of Philadelphia, and Boyz member Michael McCarey produced and co-wrote four tunes on the R&B/pop effort CD: "I'll Give My Love to You," "It's Been Awhile," "Wherever You Go" and "If I Knew." In fact, Boyz II Men's influence is hard to miss even on the songs that McCarey didn't produce. The thing that's missing from this less-than-memorable collection of mostly ballads and slow jams is originality. Apart from some Spanish lyrics on a few tracks, there's little to distinguish Voices from countless other Boyz II Men disciples who were all over urban contemporary radio in the 1990s.