Fame can be a double-edged sword; once people know what you do and feel they know you as a person, they begin to have preconceived notions about you. And in the case of TV and movie star Wayne Brady, those preconceptions definitely affect the release of his debut R&B album, A Long Time Coming, released in the U.S. on Sept. 16, 2008. Wayne's public image as an always smiling, squeaky-clean singer-dancer-entertainer in the mold of Sammy Davis Jr. has benefited him with mainstream America, but when it was announced that he was dropping an album, some people scoffed. Well, as it turns out, Wayne Brady's the real deal.
Strong, Soulful
On most of the 12 songs that make up
A Long Time Coming, Wayne establishes himself as a soothing, Soulful vocalist with a pure voice. Yes, you read that right. Songs like the commitment song "I Ain't Movin," the ode to common life
"Ordinary" and the hyper-sexual
"F.W.B." are all easy-on-the-ears adult contemporary tracks that can be favorably compared to songs by sophisticated R&B artists like Brian McKnight, Will Downing and Kenny Lattimore. Among the other examples of great songs are the sexy ballad "Sweetest Berry" and the fun ode to the 1980s "Back in the Day," where Wayne pays tribute to high-top fades, the wop and friendship bracelets, among other things.
Although the good songs are plentiful, there's also some weak moments and wrong turns, like the overblown, melodramatic ballad "Make Heaven Wait," the track "All Naturally," on which Wayne completely rips off Usher's vocal style. Two other weak tracks are cover songs: one is his version of the Sam Cooke classic "A Change is Gonna Come," which tries and fails to even come close to the vocal quality of the original. The other is his cover of Stevie Wonder's "All I Do," which sounds exactly like the kind of watered-down mainstream material that Wayne sings on TV variety shows.
But despite the weaker material, this album's worth listening to. Although most of his television work over the years has been safe and fairly corny, this album most definitely is not. And if Wayne wasn't already famous for his non-music work, this album would be probably be getting a lot more props and publicity than it already is.
