So, after pretty much an entire year without a halfway decent R&B album (thanks Rahsaan Patterson, Raphael Saadiq and Marsha Ambrosius for providing something for soul fans earlier in 2011,) December promises to be flush with albums by some of the genre’s leading lights. Mary J. Blige has already led the way with My Life II, Trey Songz (who’s got skills) just released and EP, we’ve got Robin Thicke on deck (who has hopefully learned from his Nicki Minaj-assisted disaster) and, we’ve also got Back To Love, the upcoming album by Soul Everyman Anthony Hamilton.
First single “Woo” sounds so much like your normal Hamilton song, you’d never realize that it was co-written and produced by mega-supaproducer Babyface Edmonds unless you checked out the credits. Dude is as smooth as ever, his singing splits the difference between Bill Withers and Al Green, and the video-well, while it isn’t exactly “Thriller”, it’s got a cool little narrative that complements the song fairly well. Come on, you’re not looking at an Anthony Hamilton video for special effects or super-creative visuals anyway. Just enjoy the song however you can grab it!