Chante Moore – Love The Woman
After a brief hiatus & big talk about her comeback, The Chante Moore CD was just OK. Good. But not a home run.
She is so beautiful & talented. With hubby Kenny Lattimore in her camp, maybe he should’ve helped her on this one. With George Duke, the best producer around, the music outplayed her. All of the songs were too predictable, yet undeniably easy to listen to. Its great to see her come back to R&B music, but I wished she would’ve come much stronger than this.
Songs like “Always Gonna Be Something'” & “Can’t Do It” were too easy to give away. Sure, Chante’s incredible voice can transcend any material that comes her way, but the music was just way too easy. They didn’t highlight or give in to her taking over the material. By voice, she has the power. I’m not knocking George Duke for the productions, I just wished for a greater detail behind her voice.
Then, “Special” actually stepped up the bar. But only for a little while. Because “It Ain’t Supposed To Be This Way”, was overshadowed by the background vocals & literally took me out of the review environment for a second. After a slight breather, “Do For You” put me back on track.
A couple of jazz features, “First Kiss”, “Guess Who I Saw Today” & “Give Me Time” actually were the better selections. It proved that Chante can handle the complex, yet difficult task of covering jazz written material. Its the next best thing, to allow Chante to be more creative, as opposed to settling in to ordinary R&B songs. Such as some of those I listened to off her CD.
I rate this one 3 1/2 stars or plus signs. “Love The Woman” cannot, nowhere touch her debut & best album, “Precious”. George Duke produced that one also & maybe, just maybe some of that flavor should have been reached back & pulled from the back pocket for this.
I still would buy the music. Not for charity, but for her willingness to come forth with effort. She is one of the very few female R&B vocalists left out there who can truly sing her soul out. And we need that. The music is great, but I expected more.
George Strand
The Urban Music Scene