Happy People/U Saved Me

09/15/2004 5:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Dan Leroy

Even an accused pedophile--that is, after all, R. Kelly’s current description--is entitled to praise the Lord on record. And the long tradition of God and Satan battling through soul superstars, as well as Kelly’s own past gospel leanings, mean that his new foray into spirituals, which arrives alongside a separate collection of secular songs, is hardly a stretch. The question is of intent: where Kelly’s previous outing, Chocolate Factory, sounded like the work of a man at loose ends, and was endlessly, if creepily, listenable as a result, these two discs seem at times as though they were suggested by a defense attorney eager to burnish his client’s image.

The most egregious offender is Happy People, a featherweight collection of midtempo, Marvin Gaye-influenced tunes set in lockstep to Kelly’s preferred steppin’ rhythm. Tamping down his libido, it offers the equivalent of a character witness, culminating in the blandout “If I Could Make The World Dance,” a Pepsi commercial waiting to happen. The sacred material on U Saved Me, by contrast, is more exciting--and troubling. The struggle for Kelly’s soul reaches majestic heights from the opening “3 Way Phone Call,” as he fashions familiar R&B chord changes into urban hymns, and his conversational tenor makes you feel the pain and redemption described in “Prayers Change” and the title track. But the underlying possibility that such devotions are a preemptive strike, a way to publicly get God on his side prior to a final, earthly judgment, is the camel that keeps a fine Kelly album from passing through the needle’s eye.