The search for romantic love consumes several tracks. It takes more than charm and good looks to win a girl’s heart (“Til I Say So”). “Ocean” speaks of surrender to God and thanks the Lord for being a faithful friend. The Britney Spears-esque “Getting Too Heavy” finds a girl rejecting the sexual advances of a boyfriend. A two-timing guy gets chewed out on “Not This Time.” On the hit single “No More (Baby I’ma Do Right),” the singer demands respect from a boy who treats her shabbily in front of his friends, but . . .
The remix of that pop fave, titled “I Can’t Take It,” features gangsta rapper Nas making thinly veiled threats while alluding to drug use and statutory rape. “Curious” finds the singer fantasizing, in general terms, about going further with a boy sexually. Defying her father, a girl consummates “naughty thoughts” in her own bedroom on “Crush on You” (“Baby girl been puttin’ it down when he ain’t around . . . You make me wanna do all the things that he said not to . . . I’ll risk it all for you/Daddy don’t have to know”).
In the greater context, “Getting Too Heavy” isn’t so much an abstinence song as one stating, I’m not ready yet. Other cuts suggest that all a girl needs to “get busy” is the right guy at the right moment. The teenagers in 3LW (short for Three Little Women) may gush over God, but they lack a moral compass for matters of the heart.
