Is' good, but not what I look for in an Isleys album...

Look, I love the Isley Brothers; I grew up with 'em, an' I respect them for bringin' new meaning to the term longevity, so for that reason there ain't much bad I can say 'bout this album. I love Ron Isley's voice an' I love smoothed-out R&B, nice hooks, atmospheric an' romantic background music an' this album has ALL of those things. So why is this not an essential album to me? Simple. These lyrics, while charming, sound like they comin' from a young, thuggish R&B loverboy, NOT a mature, elder statesman who knows the game well. I do like the groove on 'Warm Summer Night' an' there are some even more solid songs on the set like the funky, guitar-fueled opener 'Move Your Body' an' the hypnotically soulful 'You Didn't See Me', both produced by the mos' underrated talent in R&B Raphael Saadiq, an' there are some hidden gems throughout like the monumental title track which owes the mos' to their classic '70s ballads, but overall there's jus' not enough of that real, raw emotive grown-folks' music I was in search of.

Maybe Ron is tryin'ta relive his youth with this Mr. Biggs persona, maybe R. Kelly (who, don't get me wrong, I love as a singer) HAS in some ways corrupted them, an' then again maybe I jus' don't get it, but this style jus' don't work for me when it comes to the Isleys' music. I'll admit I like the bluesy flow of 'Contagious', an' I'm a sucker for this whole cinematic 'Down Low' drama that Ron an' Kelly have been playin' out in song for the past few years, but they shoulda stayed on the musical path they were on from their '97 disc 'Mission to Please'. THAT was grown-folks' music, an' THAS' what I'm lookin' for in them; I need my game to be backed up with some serious, uninhibited, classy romantic RELATIONSHIP music, not a cartoon character named Mr. Biggs feedin' his ego an' his appetite for sex.

This album is the main reason, I'm hesitant about pickin' up their most recent album 'Body Kiss', 'cause from what I've heard is' all that this is an' more (or less dependin' on how you look at it), so I guess if you gave this five stars, then you can't go wrong with it. But, me personally, I'm'a stick with their more substantial older stuff.

Listening to it right now!!!!!

The Isley Brothers are timeless. Their music is enjoyable to every generation. To come all these years and have devoted fans is not luck, it's talent.

Ronald Isley a. k. a. Mr. Biggs is just a Kool Kat. His songs are about relationships of today but portrayed in a tasterful way. He is not ashamed to admit that men get played too and he does this well with the help of my boy R. Kelly.

All the tracks on this album are a treat to listen too. I find myself repeating most of them. This album should be in anyone's collection that enjoys R & B.

Later.....

Ronald & Ernie you don't need R. Kelly! Get rid of him!

I've been a huge fan of the Isleys for over 30 years, and stuck by them through the early Motown soul and their golden groove-funk period of the 1970s, through to the later stuff right up to the excellent Mission To Please album. But that's when they should have dumped R. Kelly, because it's the last album that had any really decent hook to it. And when you have a blistering guitarist like Ernie Isley, why bury him so far in the mix that his licks sound like they're being played through cotton wool?



R. Kelly's plodding grooves just grind from one indistinguishable track to another, which is pretty much the case on the even more disappointing follow-up to this, Body Kiss. The only track that kicks any ass here is the opener, Move Your Body, which fools you into thinking this might be a return to former glories for our heroes. Sadly, the leaden funk of R. Kelly then comes crashing in like a tidal wave of sludge and we get a whole turgid mess of leaden walking-pace 'grooves' that might sound all right in the background when you're getting it on with the partner of your dreams, but as listening music just gets you all exasperated and reaching for the 3+3 album again.



Come on, Isleys, dump the Kelly glop and get back to what you can do best!