I suppose that since I’m female, I should drool and swoon over
\nBrian McKnight’s handsome features and sexy voice. Sorry, not
\nfeelin’ it. Granted, he is pretty, but that shouldn’t be the
\ncriteria used for purchasing music. It doesn’t motivate me, anyway.
\nI don’t mean to downplay the obvious talents of this gentleman, but
\nhe just does not do it for me personally.<\/p>\n
McKnight composes, produces and sings. He is known for his
\nballads, and he says that he does strive to stretch himself. I have
\nmy doubts about that. He appreciates that he has a signature sound
\nbut encourages listeners to broaden out their musical choices. The
\ntitle track, “Hero” has a tough and strong beat. I actually like
\nthe music on this one. It has some flashy guitar riffs by Brian,
\nDerrick Cummings and James Mazles. “Still” distinguishes itself
\nwith beautiful orchestrations and the vocals are silky smooth. The
\nlyrics are sentimental; it’s a perfect love song. This piece almost
\nchanged my opinion of the man… almost.<\/p>\n
Brian McKnight has a gospel upbringing and was a member of the
\nchurch choir as a youngster. “When Will I See You Again” reflects
\nthat history, vocally and topically. I like the harmony with Fred
\nHammond — they play off one another, and that aids McKnight
\nconsiderably. They plead for a better day because “…the world is
\nsinking down so low.” “When You Wanna Come” has a heavy heart-like
\nthumpity thump beat in the background that adds some interest, but
\nI still found it pretty monotonous and nothing special; just
\nanother song in a long lineup of uniformity. The vocals are bit too
\nfamiliar.<\/p>\n
On this release, McKnight starts off on a pleasing note, but sad
\nto say, after hearing that same note for half an hour, I lost
\ninterest. Brian McKnight does not want to be put into a musical
\n“genre” box. And yet, on this disc, he contains himself almost
\nexclusively to that self-imposed r&b\/soul box. I have no
\nproblem with the music itself, or with the lyrics. But he sticks
\nwith what is safe, rather than venturing out and stretching
\nhimself, and could stand to expend more energy vocally. I also
\nthink it would be interesting to see him go in a completely
\ndifferent direction with his music, even if I’m not sure what
\ndirection that might be. He seems like a talented man who just
\nhasn’t quite matured into his potential as an artist.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, after all is said and done, I still think Brian
\nMcKnight’s work all sounds alike here, or at the very least, so
\nrepetitious that I find myself getting bored very quickly. I
\nsuspect I am in the minority on this… he is definitely loved by
\nmany, judging by sales. But sales aren’t everything.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":26948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7122],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-38257","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-brian-mcknight","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38257"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}