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Babyface – Return Of The Tender Lover

Veteran R&B crooner Babyface is making  one hell ,of a comeback with the release of his first original solo album in 10 years, Return of the Tender Lover.

“This is old-school R&B with a fine glass finish, the musicianship and production audibly expensive and the man’s voice so honeyed it presumably requires the attentions of worker bees,” the Guardian‘s music reporter Dave Simpson wrote in his three-star review on Thursday. The nine-track album is all about love which has pretty much gone out of in the current hyper-sexual musical landscape. He won’t boast and have his way with the ladies, but treat them with respect, tenderness, understanding & a sense of wonder like a true lover, hence the title of this fantastic release.

“The collaborations on Return of the Tender Lover and the design of its production feel traditional, in the sense that they don’t attempt to update Babyface’s sound and instead lean comfortably on a long, established career,”Pitchfork‘s Brad Nelson. I give him much respect for this as much of today’s R&B music sounds the same. That classic R&B vibe sounds really good!!

Babyface has produced some of the most popular ’90s R&B songs, including “I’ll Make Love to You” by Boyz II Men, “You’re Makin’ Me High” by Toni Braxton , “We’re Not Making Love No More” by Dru Hill & the soundtrack of “Waiting To Exhale” (one of my favorite soundtracks). He became a force in the R&B genre with the release of his sophomore album Tender Lover in 1989 and with 10 Grammys and 3 consecutive Producer of the Year awards under his belt, he is taking command of the stage again to teach these young R&B cats how it’s supposed to be done – with class & poetry without taking any shirt off or dissing our beautiful women. BigUp!!!

OneLove

 

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