"Playlist" is the first release for Island Def Jam's relaunched Mercury Records division, and it reunites Babyface and his former writing/production partner Antonio "L.A." Reid.
The 48yo premier vocalist/songwriter/producer is back with his eleventh album covering the classic songs that inspired him throughout his career.
Returning after a two-year break, Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds signals a stylistic change of direction from R&B to Adult Contemporary on "Playlist" which encompasses sensitive rock covers ranging from James Taylor's "Fire & Rain" to Jim Croce's "Time in a Bottle"...
This 10 song collection features three original tunes and some of music's finest performers lending their talents, including Dean Parks playing acoustic guitar, pianist Gregg Phillinganes, percussionist Rafael Padilla and Brandy on background vocals.
Babyface sings like a crooner with nothing to prove.
The new disc has what music fans know about Babyface - his mellow style and it also has what music fans may not know about Babyface - his love of classic pop.
The album is a collection of covers of classic melancholy pop hits that the R&B crooner grew up loving and and that influenced him to write how he writes : "It's music that's close to me, so it's kind of like my playlist", he explaines.
"That's who I am. I'm a combination of those things".
He sounds comfortable with his choice of...HIS PLAYLIST, "I don't think I have abandoned who I am. This is just another part of me".
However, the question remains : "Will this seemingly significant shift in genre surprise die-hard his fans in the least?"
BILLBOARD points out : "As one of R&B's most successful producers, Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds has always been more interested in soft sounds than in hot beats, and on "Playlist," the mostly-covers follow-up to 2005's underrated "Grown & Sexy," he draws a line from his work back to the '70s-era lite-rock hits that first inspired him to croon earnestly about the wonders of love and friendship. Sonic sap threatens everything here, but Edmonds usually manages to stave off Hallmark ickiness with an ear-tickling detail or two; dig the tasty Spanish guitar on his version of Jim Croce's "Time in a Bottle" or the gorgeous backing vocals on his reading of James Taylor's "Shower the People." One of the disc's two originals, "Not Going Nowhere," addresses Edmonds' recent divorce in language that's more honest than you might expect."
Here is a man unafraid to rep for the drippiest balladeer ever, Dan Fogelberg -- and no one will call Edmonds on it, because his restraint and care eliminate any sense of the maudlin. "Not Going Nowhere," his own lullaby to the children of his amicable divorce from Tracey Edmonds, is a new classic in the sub genre -- and could someday be a smash for his recent collaborators, soft country-rockers Rascal Flatts.
He applies his smooth, soulful voice to his own edgy songs as well as to the more-traditional material.
He mellows out with a touching cover, enhanced by retro acoustic guitar, of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and a warm, haunting version of Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight", on which Brandy and Keith Slettedahl provide supporting vocals.
Kenny himself considers "Playlist" as almost a "genre" album, in that he consciously took the genre of '70s music, which has certain constraints built in, and put his own sensibility into it, producing a very credible contribution to the genre without compromising on quality or accessibility.
"I think ultimately good music is going to rule the day again. And mostly, good music comes from what's honest", he says.
Sometimes he brings a not-readily-definable, slightly unsettling undertow to his admirably earthy songs of love and life, one that's not quite orthodox in standards- classic pop covers; dealing confidently with the whole emotional gamut from lost to lusty, seductive to lonesome, he avoids triteness in essaying with honesty a genre that's renowned for that quality!
Difficult to explain, you just have to hear it.