Calvin Richardson - 'When Love Comes'

If there's one thing Calvin Richardson isn't, it's subtle. The 13 tracks on his third album, When Love Comes (released in the U.S. on May 27, 2008) are filled with too-loud, over-the-top singing. Some of it's to be expected, since he does hail from North Carolina and grew up with Cedric "K-Ci" Hailey & Joel "Jo-Jo" Hailey, the brothers who went on to join the R&B group Jodeci. And K-Ci and Jo-Jo are also related to another high-wattage vocalist, former "American Idol" winner Fantasia Barrino. But there's one major difference between Calvin and his contemporaries K-Ci, Jo-Jo and Fantasia.

The big difference between Calvin and the others is that their singing is simply better, even though theirs can be over the top or even strained. Calvin has the vocal power, but he's bland and doesn't have the vocal nuances, richness, or uniqueness of the previously-mentioned artists. He tries however, to position himself on their level on When Love Comes, especially during song's spoken-word introductory track, where he refers to himself as "your Soul Prince" and explains what's been up since his last album, 2003's 2:35 PM: "I've been slept on, been hated on, but since I been out the game, it's been like a restautant: I been waited on." Nice.

He then goes on to talk about all the e-mails, voicemails, etc. that he's received asking when he's coming back. He does a fairly good job on the intro of selling himself as a major artist whom fans have been clamoring for for the past half-decade. But then, after raising expectations, he mucks it all up and fails to deliver with the post-intro song, "Sexy Love," which is typical of the album in that its way over-sung and is about as smooth and subtle as a kid swinging a dead cat over his head.

Fortunately though, the laid-back next song, "Holla At You," is a step in the right direction, as is the following cut, the slow and sexy "Fire In the Attic." Calvin also gets props for being a multi-dimensional artist and singing more than just club songs of bedroom music. One example is "Daddy to My Kids," a real-life tale of a man who wants and tries to be a good father, but his babies' mama tries to mess things up and get in the way. Another good 'message' song is "She's Hurtin'," about emotionally vulverable women and the men who take advantage of them. It also must be said that the album is quite well-produced. Calvin himself produced or co-produced all 13 tracks. Except for the poorly-arranged, horn-heavy and decidedly unsexy "Sexy Love," the album has a nice Soul vibe.

When Love Comes is an album that tries to live up to the great Soul albums of decades past. But neither the lead single, "Sang No More," or any other song on the album comes close to the old-school vibe they're trying to emulate. Judged next to much of today's R&B this is an okay album, but in no way shape or form can these songs be considered on the same level as classic R&B or Soul music.