RnB Album of the week = Brian McKnight - Ten

Brian McKnight releases a new album to the RnB world, and it's crazy.

I will be the first to admit Brian has not been making music like he did earlier in his career. His last few albums were just mediocre if you ask me, and the only classic song he has made within the last few years is probably "Love of My Life." That CD Superhero was his last good effort, but even that album stopped short with only a few memorable moments, like the above mentioned and the Justin Timberlake callab "My Kind of Girl."

A good friend of mine who has been a Brian McKnight fan for years still thinks Brian is slacking, however I beg to differ. He told me he thinks Brian is trying too hard to recreate older classic songs, and claims every song on this album pretty much resembles "Back at One." I listened to the album fully (as I do anything after throwing it on the Pod), and his 16 tracks all passed the iPod test that I have. [The iPod test is where I listen to every song in a certain album, and rate the songs I like, either a tracks gets 1 star, or 5 stars, and after I listen to the whole album, I go back, and see which songs are not rated, and can them]. Not one song failed the iPod test. Every song was left on The Muzik Vault {my 60 GB iPod's name, lol}. I will not even begin to name the songs on this album and tell you how good they are, because I believe they are all good. I will however school you on the song that I think, if marketed right, will be one of the bigger cross-over RnB songs that we have heard in the past few years.

Brian has always been able to create songs that fall outside of his genre. In the past he has collaborated with various artists, from Justin Timberlake to Juvenile, to now........drum roll, hold your breath RnB fans, Rascal Flatts. Rascal Flatts is one of the biggest country groups out now I guess, I hear their songs here and there, see them on TV, and my son even likes the remake they did of "Life Is A Highway" from the movie Cars. Anyway, they got song with Brian on Ten entitled "Red, White and Blue" that is amazing. It is so fitting for the times as well, it is about a man who is in the military and it away from his family, and they pretty much paint a picture of the effect the war is having on the world today. It is a really powerful and uplifting song that anyone who has a family member in the military can relate to. This song, if pushed right will be huge, hopefully for Brian's sake the label knows what they have, and will do the right thing and give this record the all too popular label push.