Kenny Lattimore - Anatomy of a Love Song (2015)

Born and raised in Washington, D.C., before Kenny reached his teens, he was winning talent shows at his junior & high schools, where he performed everything from classical R&B. He joined the vocal group Maniquin. In 1987, the group signed with Epic, and two years later released their debut album. Lattimore left Maniquin in 1990, and began writing and collaborating with a number of artists, including Glenn Jones, Jon Lucien, & Dem Twinzz, singing on the group's demos. Eventually Kenny landed a record contract with Columbia. His debut album was released in 1996; a steady seller over the next year, going gold and spawning the Top 40 R&B hit 'Never Too Busy.' In the here and now, Lattimore's Anatomy Of A Love Song represents the eighth installment in a stellar R&B career; and a welcomed return to form.

Ten of the 14 songs on Anatomy of a Love Song were available in early 2013 as Back 2 Cool, an album that made its way to very few attentive fans. "Find a Way," written with Raheem DeVaughn, debuted as early as June 2012, yet it sounds fresh in 2015 and represents the makeup of Kenny Lattimore's sixth solo album. The singer is at his best when he cooks up modern smooth soul that evokes late-night, late-'70s/early-'80s R&B radio programming; a cover of a ballad written by the likes of Skip Scarborough or Leon Ware could have been inconspicuously slipped into the sequence. A few cuts -- such as "You Have My Heart," "You're My Girl," and "Still Good" -- are among Lattimore's career best, and there's a knockout duet with Lalah Hathaway in the form of "Nothing Like You." Among the newer songs, the top standout is "Love Me Back," a Bobby Womack-quoting smooth groove that ends up somewhere between Keni Burke's "Risin' to the Top" and Donell Jones' "Spend the Night." It sounds as if Lattimore felt absolutely no pressure in delivering his first widely released solo album of original material in 14 years.