Four and a half years after releasing a contemporary gospel album on Gospocentric,
Kelly Price returns to secular R&B on producer
Warryn Campbell's My Block label. On
Kelly,
Price collaborates extensively with
Campbell (
Mary Mary,
Alicia Keys,
Brandy), who comes up with some of his biggest-sounding productions in order to match her voice. The cathartic, closet-cleaning “Tired” and the following song, a club throwback based around
War’s “Galaxy” (with a touch of
Michael Jackson's “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”), are highlights, as is the relaxed “Speechless” -- adroit synth-funk that recalls the early-‘80s productions of
Leon Sylvers III and
Prince. A handful of other producers, such as longtime
Price associate
Shep Crawford, contribute in smaller capacities; on “Not My Daddy,”
Price and
Campbell are joined by
Mint Condition's Stokley Williams and Lawrence Waddell (if not the rest of the band), and the result sounds just like classic
MC -- a vibrant, almost live-sounding song filled with hooks that deserves to be one of the bigger adult R&B singles of 2011. ~ Andy Kellman