CD Review: Gemini

BRIAN McKNIGHT

"Gemini," Motown Records

R&B singer-songwriter Brian McKnight always manages to be one something away from firing on all cylinders on his latest CD.

The first single, "What We Do Here," is a fine enough addition to the McKnight canon of easygoing soul, but in the chorus, it sounds like he's running his warm vocals through a cold, distancing processor. "Every Time You Go Away" seems on its way to being another wedding favorite -- dressed in beautifully sweeping strings and a majestic piano -- but at the chorus, again, it unravels into an uncomfortable, mouthful of a hook: "I hate to see you go/Even though I know when you're coming back."

Then, just when he might give Prince some competition in the falsetto department on the sweet "Everything I Do," in comes the line: "I'm gonna lay a blockbuster on you tonight."

Indeed you do, Brian McKnight -- one that lands with a resounding thud.

-- Sonia Murray,

Cox News Service

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