(Virgin) Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds’ 1989 album,Tender Lover, established him as the, or er,baby face of smooth-tonsilled R&B. Umpteen Grammys later, and with Edmonds now aged 56, or Return of the Tender Lover goes back to the source. This is customary-school R&B with a fine glass finish,the musicianship and production audibly expensive and the man’s voice so honeyed it presumably requires the attentions of worker bees. Every song is approximately love, from the catchy and bouncy We’ve Got Love to the gossamer Fight for Love. Humbled, and adorational love (“I’m mystified that you hold chosen me”,“When I’m with you I’m walking on air) is a specialist subject; Exceptional could be a Michael Jackson ballad. The best tracks turn up the temperature from cool to simmer: Love and Devotion has something of the airy atmosphere of Marvin Gaye’s lurve records, while I Want You (featuring After 7) finds the customary smoothie coming dangerously close to working up a sweat.
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Source: theguardian.com