Kenny Lattimore - Timeless

BY L. Michael Gipson --To remix a famous phrase, "No more cover albums ever, Kenny!" With eyes bulging and a wire hanger high in hand, it's what you want to scream when you hear that such a talented musician has essentially relegated himself to a wedding singer. Timeless is Kenny Lattimore's third album of covers, including two with his wife, Chante Moore. As a collection Timeless holds up well enough, in some instances even better than most in the covers album cottage industry. The problem is that with each Lattimore cover album, we know Kenny less and less as a distinctive artist. The rapidly disappearing uniqueness of Kenny Lattimore is also starting to slip into his work as he strives to be more like the originals and less like himself."Stop trying to be someone you're not." This is a line Kenny covers from the Aretha Franklin classic "Ain't No Way" (from Lady Soul). The line also works as direction for Kenny Lattimore on some of these Timeless tunes. Taking homage and respect to new heights (or is it lows?), Kenny now approaches his Donny Hathaway material (in this instance "Giving Up") by copying far too many of his idol's vocal affectations and signature styling. This is worlds apart from Lattimore's more original cover of Hathaway's "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know," heralded from Kenny's apparent magnum opus, From The Soul of A Man. While there were covers on that album too, including an endearing rendition of George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and a jaw-dropping version of the gospel standard "Well Done," they were all squarely stamped with Kenny's distinct sophisticated style. That originality ducks for cover (pun intended) on Otis Redding's "I Love You More Than Words Can Say" and the Whitfield and Strong classic "That's The Way Love Is." With every faux growl and Southern soul yell, we wonder when did our Northern hipster start eating pig's feet and saying "reckon?"It wasn't always this way. Once Kenny Lattimore was a well-respected artist with a unique voice and-some critic's argued-too pristine vocals. On his 1996 self-titled debut, Lattimore took that polished tenor all the way to #6 on the Billboard R&B chart with "For You," a wedding song whose prophetic qualities regarding Kenny's future were then underappreciated. He followed up that platinum debut with From The Soul of A Man, an elegant collection of original songs mostly produced by Stuart Matthewman (Sade, Maxwell) and that introduced the R&B career of Broadway diva Heather Headley. The album received deserved critical acclaim, but didn't fare as well in the market as its predecessor, only going a respectable gold.CONTINUE READING...