Music Review

Playlist (2007)

EW's GRADE
B

Details Release Date: Sep 18, 2007; Lead Performance: Babyface; Genre: R&B

Like R&B vocalists from Stevie Wonder to Al Green, Kenny ''Babyface'' Edmonds can take bland or treacly material — here, for example, James Taylor's ''Fire and Rain'' — and render it superior to the original with delicate or atypical phrasing plus sheer commitment. Passion, not laid-backness, rules on Playlist, a set of originals and covers. Sometimes Babyface's take is equal to the singer's (Bob Dylan's ''Knockin' on Heaven's Door''). Less successful: the fussy arrangements on cringers like Jim Croce's ''Time in a Bottle.'' B
DOWNLOAD THIS Knockin' on Heaven's Door

Originally posted Sep 14, 2007 Published in issue #955 Sep 21, 2007 Order article reprints

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