Gemini

Personnel include: Brian McKnight (vocals, keyboards); Juvenile (rap vocals); Tyron Chase (guitar); Chris Lofton (bass guitar); Prescott Ellison (drums).

Those born under Gemini, the sign of the twins, are thought of, in astrological terms, as unpredictable, complex creatures. Thus, it is fitting that Brian McKnight would dub his 2005 record GEMINI, as the ever-versatile singer/songwriter plays a dapper chameleon here. The introduction finds McKnight toying with bluesy doo-wop before setting his dulcet tones into the contemporary R&B tune "What We Do Here," a seduction number out of the book of Jodeci. On "Stay," he dons a vocal-jazz persona rivaling Al Jarreau, while the smooth single "Everytime You Go Away" sports a bass groove straight out of the 1980s.

On that latter track, the silken-voiced balladeer intones "it's hard to breathe without you, girl, and baby, that's a fact" with an earthen, vulnerable sincerity that typifies every McKnight composition. It's that mature connection to his songs that places McKnight in the category of the finest contemporary R&B crooners. He drives that point home on "Grown Man Business," as he touts the virtues of the reliable, refined man over the sweetest of soul beats. Brian McKnight has been turning heads since he was in his teens, and as a thirtysomething on GEMINI, he is at the top of his game.