therecordkrate

Reviews:

Keith Sweat's "Nobody" and "Get Up On It" are superior '90s slow jams, but it's only right that Sweat's best-of album is dominated by tracks from his 1987 debut, Make It Last Forever, the opening statement of new jack swing. Co-produced by Teddy Riley, Make It Last is a work of quietly revolutionary art. On the surface, it doesn't sound worlds away from the steely pop-funk of Jam & Lewis or Reggie Calloway's work on LeVert's The Big Throwdown. But dig, for example, how deliciously low the bass is on "How Deep Is Your Love." While its depth might derive from Zapp, the dark, techno tone also points forward to Timbaland and Ginuwine's "Pony." Riley's embrace of digital sound was nearly global. Even Jam & Lewis would hire a breathing sax player from time to time; Riley just hits the synth patch and lets it rip. If he could have sampled Sweat's emoting, he might have spread it over a keyboard and locked the studio door.

Of course he couldn't have. Sweat belts and pleads with equal intelligence from the throat, gut and nose. Especially the last-he's an absolute master of nasal vocalization. He's also perhaps the last major love man to be as convincingly passive and vulnerable as he is active and assertive. "Right and a Wrong Way" begins with the singer's nearly paternal seduction of a virgin, but soon finds Sweat singing sweet nothings of submission: "I'm yours for the taking/ So you can do what you please." Take him!