Ever the sensitive guy,
R&B
loverman
Tank
thoughtfully divides his sophomore disc in two, front-loading it with tender, sexed-up balladry and saving the up-tempo stuff for the second half. On the surface, it's an especially welcome gesture because, in the reverse of how this formula usually works,
is much more likely to lose listeners when he aims for the dancefloor than the bedroom. The slow jams here, while a trifle short in the personality department, are decent enough efforts; almost exclusively overseen by
himself, they include a pair of keepers with classic lineage.
"Supa Sexy"
is a successfully atmospheric rewrite of
"Sexual Healing,"
while
"Make Me Wanna Sing"
uses a sped-up vocal sample from
Minnie Riperton
's
"Lovin' You"
to create the album's most memorable tune. But when
brings aboard members of the
Cash Money
clan (plus some lesser-known producers) to establish his bangin' bona fides,
One Man
becomes one heck of a drag. The nadir is the lethargic shout-out
"Club,"
unlikely to ever be played in one. If you make it that far, the shame of the sequencing soon becomes evident, because two of
's best efforts are buried at disc's end: the acoustic-based
"Better Man"
could nearly be
neo-soul
, and although it inhabits a large patch of
R. Kelly
territory,
"I Still Believe"
is still enjoyable melodrama. Minus the club cuts, this collection wouldn't be half-bad, but at least the CD programming won't require much effort. ~ Dan LeRoy