by Steve Huey
TLC's debut album, Ooooooohhh...on the TLC Tip, established the trio's image and unorthodox fashion sense, which at this point was based on baggy, brightly colored clothes and Lisa &Left Eye& Lopes' trademark condom. Some accused them of borrowing their look from Bell Biv DeVoe, and their female-positive, pro-safe-sex attitudes from Salt-n-Pepa, but TLC has the boundless enthusiasm to make it all convincingly their own. What they don't always have are the songs to pull off a consistent album. The most infectious songs are naturally the singles: &Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg& is bouncy, catchy, and sexually assertive, and &What About Your Friends& is an equally danceable meditation on true friendship. The chart-topping ballad &Baby-Baby-Baby& is typically well-crafted Babyface, if a little by-the-numbers. Some of the album tracks keep the sense of fun going, but others fall flat -- not that they're bad, they just aren't that memorable. On the plus side, Left Eye gets a lot of space for her distinctively nasal, girlish rapping, and the entire group drops rhymes on &Das da Way We Like 'Em.& Although it's uneven, the best moments of On the TLC Tip deserved their popularity, and set the stage for the group's blockbuster success the next time out.