TRANSFORMER:
R. Kelly returns to the roots of r&b on his new album
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| LADIES MAN: R. Kelly seduces like Marvin Gaye at his transcendent best on "Write Me Back." |
Depending
upon the time period and often the region, the term "rhythm and
blues," or r&b, has meant very different things to very different people
over the past seven-plus decades. As the musicologist (not the "addicted
to Love" dude) Robert Palmer noted in his 1995 book Rock & Roll: An Unruly History, it essentially took hold as
"a catchall term referring to any music made by and for black Americans."
But even Palmer was well aware that, by the mid-’90s, his definition had long
since become an anachronism— that by the end of the ’50s, r&b was rapidly
being incorporated into the lexicon of rock and pop, where it has remained ever
since.
That's not to suggest that r&b hasn't
remained a uniquely vital force in music, or that there aren't certain
stylistic distinctions that can still be made. You've got traditionalists like
Jill Scott and Jon Legend, along with more underground revivalists like Sharon
Jones and the Dap-Kings. The r&b charts have also long been a home for pop
phenoms in the vein of Adele, not to mention megastars like Whitney Houston and
Michael Jackson. And, in more recent decades, singers whose stylings borrow
heavily from hip-hop have formed something of a new and rather lucrative
incarnation of r&b, populated by the likes of Usher, Alicia Keys, and
Beyoncé. In fact, if you'd asked me just a few years ago where R. Kelly, a guy
who's widely acknowledged to be one of the most successful r&b
singer/songwriter/producers of the past twenty years, fit in to that continuum,
I'd have called him the king of new jack swing, such is the ease with which
he'd been able to navigate between straight, sexually charged r&b crooning
and hip-hop hybrids like his collaborations with Jay-Z and his groundbreaking,
multi-episode hip-hopera "Trapped In the Closet."
But Kelly, who's worked with everyone
from Janet and Michael Jackson to Whitney Houston and Celine Dion over the
years, has been undergoing a transformation of sorts that began two years ago
with the release of Love Letter, a
vintage-sounding, old-school soul soother that largely eschewed sexual
seductions for come-ons of a more spiritual nature. Love Letter came off as a heartfelt tribute to r&b greats like
Smokey Robinson and, especially, Marvin Gaye. It also seemed like a fairly
unabashed attempt to gain a certain credibility by raising his art to the level
of those legendary artists — just the sort of respectful and respectable
mid-career excursion a performer of Kelly's stature might embark upon to cement
his place in the pantheon of r&b royalty.
But, with the release this week of Write Me Back (RCA), yet another collection of
toned-down tunes that delve deeply, if a bit more widely, into the past, it
appears that Kelly, whose bad boy boasting and behavior has gotten him into
trouble in the past, may indeed have found a kind of redemption in returning to
the roots of the music he's so closely identified with. Or, as the titles
suggest, Write Me Back may just be
Kelly's clever way of continuing the dialogue he began on Love Letter, a somewhat steamier sequel from an artist with a
well-documented affinity for sequels. (As a side note, Kelly's announced that
several new installments of "Trapped In the Closet" are already in
the works.)
Either way, Write Me Back builds on the retro foundation of Love Letter, with Kelly broadening his
palette to incorporate stronger echoes of the smooth, string-embellished flow
of classic Philly soul, along with some straight-up Smokey Motown grooves, a
little Ray Charles house-rocking, and more than a touch of Barry White-style
disco-ball slow dancing. The disc opens with the lite-funk of “Love Is,” a
throbbing bassline and mellow piano chordings creating a cooled-down setting
for Kelly’s increasingly intense testifying on the virtues of true romance, as
lush Gamble and Huff-style orchestrations drive the song toward a climactic
chorus of yearning, multi-tracked voices crooning, “Love is/You and me/Together
for/Eternity.” It’s a simple sentiment that might better be suited for a
greeting card, but, like Marvin Gaye at his transcendent best, Kelly relies on
the naked urgency of his delivery to get his point across.
Another high point is the gospel-tinged
“Believe That It’s So,” an earnest track with lyrics like “There’s no mountain
we can’t move/We will find strength in the groove,” that takes a playful turn
from the sacred to the secular halfway through, with Kelly signaling, “We’re
gonna switch it up” and moving into “fingernapping” clubland with the refrain,
“I had a little too much to drink.” And “When A Man Lies,” with its church
organ, strings, and gospel groove, is the kind of fervent yet controlled anthem
that, again, brings to mind the best of Marvin Gaye.
If there are missteps on Write Me Back, it’s Kelly’s flat attempt
to rock out like early Ray Charles on the bluesy “All Rounds On Me” and the doo-woppy
“Party jumpin’.” Both fall well outside of Kelly’s comfort zone and sound a bit
too much like novelty knockoffs. Kelly’s strongest when he’s chilling,
seducing, laying back and going with the groove. And, Write Me Back reveals time and time again that he’s got the voice,
the timing, and the smarts to rise up to the level of a Marvin Gaye
artistically. If Kelly truly believes that this is his calling, then the next
step would be to move beyond making love to making larger points, like Gaye did
with What’s Going On. He’s got the talent and clout. All he needs now is the
will.
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