Dwele "Sketches Of A Man" (Koch)
Unlike lots of knuckleheads, Dwele can actually claim a strong J. Dilla connection: The legendary producer scouted out the upstart Detroit R&B singer at the turn of the century, and Dwele soon became an accessory to Commons and Kanyes. As such, he's also the quintessential upmarket R&B loverman -- not a crass high-roller or a mogul wannabe, but an aesthete with a strong gentlemanly streak and top-shelf friends. The late Dilla understood several kinds of cool, including that kind.
But is Dwele too nice? On "Sketches Of A Man," his third disc, the only tension comes from the singer's refusal to neither smolder nor erupt. Don't go looking for the slightest bit of fire, even in the most obvious places. The single "I'm Cheatin'," for instance, is about scoring two sides of the same girl: "And then you took off your clothes/You asked me who I wanted/The nasty one I suppose," he croons, turning a potential mindfuck into nothing more than a mundane roleplay. The song's hooks are likeable enough, though -- I hear faint echoes of D'Angelo's "Brown Sugar." (More on him in a minute.) The funked-up "Workin' On It," likewise, plays more like a sketch of agitated funk, and not an actual attack. The album-ender "Body Rock" gets closer, but only by taking a circuitous pop route.
But it's the nerdy stuff that really trips me up, and not just because I'm a big nerd myself. The happy-go-lucky, organ-and-piano-flecked "A Few Reasons (Trust Pt. 2)" is a satisfying exaltation of a relationship -- until he brings up Web apps: "If we had computer love/I would let you hack my MySpace/If your love was a dance/You could YouTube it." When I was outside doing yard work the other day, a car drove by with New Edition's ancient "Mr. Telephone Man" playing. Dwele's tune is already more dated than that one. Elsewhere, he drops at least one deflating reference to an Apple ("5 Dolla Mic").
A few tracks are pleasing in a no-nonsense way, though: "Blow Your Mind" is believable; "70's" and "Love Ultra" are memorably sunny; and "Spiritual" has some Dilla-esque weirdness. And that's where we get back to D'Angelo: It's safe to say that Dwele wouldn't have a career without the big man from Virginia, in the sense that "Brown Sugar" truly was a game-changing song for neo-soulsters. But within 5 years, D'Angelo and Dilla were holed up together, making Voodoo. Nothing is cooler than that, and it's amazing how far away it seems sometimes.
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