Staying Power

07/27/1999 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Dan Leroy

For more than a few Barry White fans, the Master's spoken basso profundities are nearly as important as his music. And in that respect, White doesn't disappoint on his first album since 1995's multiplatinum The Icon Is Love.

His velvet voice is as commanding as ever, whether preaching empowerment ("Get up off your ass," he intones on the you-can-do-it "Get Up") or admonishing a lover too anxious to finish dinner and roll in the hay ("Slow down/ Don't eat so fast," a memorable line from the fine title song). But White's earthy sensuality is frequently at odds with the stiffness of the programmed rhythm tracks, which eventually prove this disc's undoing.

While Wah Wah Watson's pulsing guitar softens the edges of the sultry "Don't Play Games," nothing can salvage mechanical-sounding clunkers like "I Get Off On You" or the wrongheaded covers--War's "Low Rider" and a shockingly lame version of Sly Stone's "Thank You," remixed with little élan by Puff Daddy.

The easy standout is "The Longer We Make Love," a sexy tour-de-force presented in two versions (with Chaka Khan and Lisa Stansfield), which uses rock guitar and staccato strings to stir up a real quiet storm.