Bobby Valentino - Valentino, Bobby (R&B) (CD 2005)

It's been a while since a young male R&B crooner has made an impact on the music scene. Discounting the man who thinks we're all interested in his confessions (and judging by his sales, he's right), there hasn't been someone who makes you want to listen to him. Mario? Too busy trying to copy Usher's style after failing with the R. Kelly gimmick. Omarion? Please. Only impressionable females are remotely interested in his "used to be in a boy band, now I'm a man" persona. And the list can go on and on. It seems like the R&B singers near my age bracket - although, you could say this for the genre as a whole - either want to be irrepressible lovermen or thuggish gentlemen. Disturbing the Peace's first singer Bobby Valentino falls into the former category with his self-titled debut, but he has a few things going that differentiate him from the rest of the bunch.

One of them is the mystical production distracts the listeners from the everyday subject matter prevalent on this album. On the Tim Kelley-produced "Tell Me", beautiful-sounding pan flutes and elegant strings mask the momentum-killing come-on attempts present in this song such as "Oh girl, tell me, how you get that in those jeans?/The way you poppin' it is killin' me." And, on the admittedly-great first single "Slow Down", more flutes and gentle, knocking bass are used in the background to set the scene for Valentino's efforts to get a girl to give him a chance. It's a nice-sounding song, even though topics like this have been covered to death and the "Don't turn around, because the pretty round thing looks good to me" parts of the chorus are laughably corny (But, I'm not his specified audience, so it may work on the ladies).

Another thing Valentino has going for him is that - outside of a decent Ludacris appearance on the slick-sounding "Give Me a Chance" - he has no guest rap appearances that usually taint most contemporary R&B records. It's something that's greatly welcomed on an R&B album these days. It's almost enough to make me forgive the one time he uses falsetto to below-average results on the bedroom ode "Love Dream". It's an effective mood-setter (with lines such as "I wanna wake up to your smile and look into your pretty eyes" and the smooth production), but Valentino's voice strains itself when he tries to go falsetto, but that's a problem that should be able to be fixed.

I'll have to admit that Valentino shows some potential on his debut album. If he can vary his subject matter (this disc is strictly for the ladies) and avoid making songs like the clich -infested "Gangsta Love", then he should have a productive musical career. As for now, he has the tools to succeed - a regularly-enjoyable voice, beautiful production behind him, a connection to Dirty South's capital, and the backing of several influential people. It's ultimately up to him if he succeeds or joins the increasingly-crowded pool of one-and-done artists.


2.5 stars