Weekend Review

For Kenny's third album, he seemed to shy away from the slower ballads that established his career (and put me to sleep), in favor of a more up-tempo vibe. While there are a few slip ups in this formula, it seems to work far better for Kenny in the overall quality of the album.

The album starts with the catchy groove "Weekend." The song is nice and pleasant, carrying a light feel that keeps you bouncing to the beat. While the song carries little deeper meaning, it succeeds at grabbing your attention and entertaining you.

Keeping the flow, "Baby You're The One" continues the strong uptempo sound. It is a fun track that entertains throughout. While the halting delivery can be a little aggravating at times and the song isn't really all that original, it's still a solid number.

Proving my feelings as to the benefit of moving towards uptempo tracks, "Can You Feel Me" shows Kenny returning to his slower style of his earlier albums. In doing so, Kenny continues to lack the strong delivery necessary to make a track like this work. Shanice makes an appearance in the number, but her part is relatively minor.

The next track is uptempo once more, as Kenny tries to keep the album moving with "If Love Is What You Want." While the track moves at a fast pace and the chorus has some nice vibes, the song doesn't have much weight to it. It's way too long and drags on at the end.

"Lately" is a pretty stylish track, on which Kenny does some of his best delivery yet. His voice adds to the mysterious feel that the beat establishes. The uptempo chorus adds a nice contrast to the slower verses. Overall, a nice creative track with a wide array of styles.

The seventh track on the album, "Don't Deserve," has an infectiously catchy chorus and some nice delivery by Kenny. The song is just the right length and is an enjoyable listen. Well done through and through.

The next song on the album, "Right Down To It," has a nice light beat to it. Kenny's delivery is great and the chorus is catchy. The song is fun and while it's message is a bit tired (I love you, don't worry what other people say) it doesn't matter. The song works as everything about it just clicks together right.

Still, even though Kenny seems to have found his niche in the uptempo songs, he also does well with a few slow songs on Weekend. "The Things I'll Do" is sweet as Kenny promises that he'll make up for all the crap his girl's other lovers have done to her. The chorus is nice and the bridge is solid. Kenny seems to have sacrificed the quantity of slow songs on the album but he also improved the quality.

If you don't believe me about the improved quality of the slow songs up to this point, then the tenth track, "Who" should be enough to convince you. Kenny rocks the house with pleading emotions and some solid delivery. The track is heart wrenching and Kenny shows more emotion than ever before. Whew, the track is kickin and is a nice conclusion to the album.

And of course, ending the album is the standard gospel track thanking the Lord. Not much to distinguish the track from other similar numbers.

tl;dr: If you loved Kenny's older work, you might be disappointed by the quantity of uptempo tracks. For everyone else, this is a great album. Solid fun uptempo tracks with some beautiful ballads.