★★★★★
Winner of a Sony talent contest at 19, he uses amateur technology to define a private dreamworld rather than a public space, and he cracked black radio almost instantly, going pop with the DIY cockiness of his rapper homeboys. This is electronic cocktail soul as thrill-a-minute mood music, and as usual the secret is rhythm--playful riffs and echoes and synthetic percussion setting off a hopelessly slight, totally supple voice.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
Al B. Sure! wants you,girl, he wants you in the worst way. He's gonna love you so damn muchyou're gonna wish he would just go away and let you take a nap. Withsotto voce come-ons and moans, Al is a volcano of R&B-loveman;pleading, but too many of his songs in Sexy Versus just ooze and never seem to end.Only when Al cools it on the heavy breathing does he throw offsparks the way he used to.
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
By alternately sounding like other singers (a little like MarvinGaye, a little like Smokey Robinson, or a little like Prince, as themood dictates), Al B. Sure! achieves that most derivative ofmass-media goals, a highly polished lack of distinction. If he keepsthis up, he'll be a potent, if vague, force in the generic funk-litearena ? no particular thing to all men. The first half of Private Times...and the Whole 9...
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
New York is the capital of hip-hop, a factory town for the dance and rap records that are its musical identity. It is also the capital of black balladry: Dionne Warwick, her niece Whitney Houston, her musical heir Luther Vandross and his heir Freddie Jackson are all stylistically of the Apple...
- www.rollingstone.com
2009-06-08