Brian McKnight – the poster boy of ‘90s R&B – frames his latest offering in grandiose terms. According to McKnight, Genesis (2017) is supposed to reflect an artistic ‘rebirth’. Fully aware that it would be futile to emulate contemporary artists such as Drake, McKnight sees Genesis as an attempt to carve out a modern sound for the middle-aged R&B crooner.

Sadly, the album fails to make any statement of originality. Lyrically, Genesis is utterly and consistently generic, covering McKnight’s usual talking points of love, sex, and women. Lines such as ‘girl you light up my life like 10 million stars’ (’10 Million Stars’), ‘I believe we belong together’ (‘Forever’), and ‘baby all I need is you to love’ (‘Everything’) could be taken straight from any of McKnight’s earlier releases. However, the clichéd lyrics and tone are not the album’s inherent weakness. After all, McKnight’s signature hits (‘Back at One’, ‘Anytime’, ‘One Last Cry’) were so successful because their lyrics conveyed simple, understandable emotions, packaged in hook-driven R&B melodies and punctuated with McKnight’s airy falsetto.

Rather, Genesis misses the mark on a production and musical level. Despite a promising start with a slightly edgy and enigmatic prelude, most of the album’s tracks veer into insipid, breezy R&B with lacklustre and forgettable melodies. Ballads such as ’10 Million Stars’ or ‘I Want You’ lack any romantic or sexual intensity. The up-tempo numbers (‘So Damn Real’, ‘UDONTHAV2BELONELYNOMO’) are outright monotonous with synthetic and contrived production choices. McKnight’s vacuous delivery is also to blame. It is particularly regrettable that McKnight’s buttery, warm vocals – displayed beautifully on his 2016 live album An Evening with Brian McKnight – are not given much scope to shine. In fact, his voice is often lost in the mix with certain songs pitched in his indistinct lower-register.

Yet, the album is not entirely without merit. The ballad ‘Everything’, while slightly too mawkish for my personal tastes, successfully employs the formula of McKnight’s most successful hits and is the only download-worthy track on the album. Its creamy orchestration and soaring chorus perfectly showcases McKnight’s vocal range. The penultimate track ‘Blow Your Mind’ is a refreshing palette cleanser with its jazzy and bluesy composition, although McKnight’s performance lacks conviction and the end result feels rather half-baked. The final track, ‘Genesis’, a continuation of the edgy prelude, closes the album well. However, its catchy refrain – ‘are you down for this? Metamophosis. Genesis’ – seems invalidated by the sheer banality of the preceding tracks. It is unclear what exact point McKnight is trying to make.

Far from the inception of a new sound, Genesis reflects one of McKnight’s most anaemic efforts yet.

Grade: C- 

(Image copyright: SoNo Recording Group)