Brian Mcknight Gemini CD

Personnel: Brian McKnight (vocals, keyboards); Juvenile (rap vocals); Tyron Chase (guitar); Chris Loftin (bass guitar); Prescott Ellison (drums).
How do you approach an album that's lush and elegant on one hand and lyrically nasty on the other? Bring your lover and your playful side because Gemini is an aptly named loose and free bedroom winner from Brian McKnight. The cool crooner has had little trouble going platinum in the past, but his albums have also been a bit too patchy, too concerned with being contemporary, and too clogged with guest stars to let McKnight's overabundance of talent really stretch its legs. Rappers Juvenile, Skip, and Akon liven up the slick and sneaky "Watcha Gonna Do?," while Talib Kweli's short appearance on "She" doesn't feel tacked on at all. That's where the concessions to music of the moment stop, and while they're not at all unnecessary, the album really succeeds when McKnight wears all his singer, composer, musician, and producer hats at once and brews up something between Prince's self-titled release and a Sweetback album. Sprinkle in some up to date innuendo and you've got a more soulful, mature alternative to R. Kelly, but what could have been a perfect collection of music for grown folks is dragged down by a couple tracks of filler. "Stay" wanders just a shade too much and "Your Song" is too crowded with clichés to deserve such a jazzy delivery, but there's still enough of an album left to consider this one of McKnight's best. Equally catchy and effortless, "What We Do Here" will be listed on the sticker of McKnight's next best-of, while heartstring-pullin' ballad "Everytime You Go Away" brings to mind Back at One's best tracks. The "lose that loser and get in bed with me" slow funker "Grown Man Business" and "Here With You" ("I reach around and grab a little booty/And it feels so goooood") represent the swaggering but no less sincere side of the album, a great yin to the precious and sweet yang found elsewhere. There are hints of the jazz album McKnight plans to do next, nice hints that it'll be as pleasing as it is polished. Minus a couple wanderers, Gemini is just like that. Glossy but deep R&B with an extra helping of confidence, cool swagger, and expensive satin sheets. ~ David Jeffries
Those born under Gemini, the sign of the twins, are thought of, in astrological terms, as unpredictable, complex creatures. Thus, it is fitting that Brian McKnight would dub his 2005 record GEMINI, as the ever-versatile singer/songwriter plays a dapper chameleon here. The introduction finds McKnight toying with bluesy doo-wop before setting his dulcet tones into the contemporary R&B tune "What We Do Here," a seduction number out of the book of Jodeci. On "Stay," he dons a vocal-jazz persona rivaling Al Jarreau, while the smooth single "Everytime You Go Away" sports a bass groove straight out of the 1980s.
On that latter track, the silken-voiced balladeer intones "it's hard to breathe without you, girl, and baby, that's a fact" with an earthen, vulnerable sincerity that typifies every McKnight composition. It's that mature connection to his songs that places McKnight in the category of the finest contemporary R&B crooners. He drives that point home on "Grown Man Business," as he touts the virtues of the reliable, refined man over the sweetest of soul beats. Brian McKnight has been turning heads since he was in his teens, and as a thirtysomething on GEMINI, he is at the top of his game.