CD Review: D. Goode - "Listen Up"

It's rare these days to find an album of music - any kind of music - that you can repeatedly listen to all the way through without skipping any songs, especially an album by an artist on a small, independent label. But Listen Up by singer David Goode, professionally known as D. Goode, is just such an album. Listen Up is reminiscent of the old days when albums were full of quality songs and not just two or three radio tracks packed between a bunch of mediocre material. Not every song on this album is perfect, but even the ones that aren't are still head and shoulders above a lot of what passes for R&B these days.

And what makes Listen Up so good is ... Goode. Or to be more specific, the crisp, velvety voice of D. Goode. In a world full of fakers and barely-talented singers, Goode is most definitely the real deal.

His butter-smooth, romantic vocals on songs like "Late Nite," "V Day" and the sunny "Diamonds Ain't Enough" are a refreshing change-of-pace from the same old, cliched phony-sounding songs about love. And "The Breakfast Song" is a metaphor track that R. Kelly would be proud of: "I got pancakes on the table, syrup on the side, what a wonderful meal and all a brother wants is you," Goode sings.

Two of the great things about Goode's voice are its clarity and purity. There's no studio tricks added to the vocals (a la T-Pain) no out-of-pitch warbling (a la Bobby Valentino), no embarrassing hip-hop-wannabe singing. No, it's just good, modern R&B that's aimed at young sophisticates, but can certainly be appreciated by the young and older alike.

Although Goode's original, heartfelt singing carries the album, the song production is also on point. None of the usual hot producers of the moment are here - and that's a good thing. Guys like EZ Elpee, Danny Rich and Proper T might not be household names, but they definitely prove with their contributions to Listen Up that they're just as talented as better-known, higher-profile producers like Rodney Jerkins and Scott Storch. And even better, their signature sounds aren't as familiar to the public, giving them an air of freshness and newness that most big-time producers haven't had in years.