DWELE Subject (Virgin) Rating: NNN Rating: NNN
On the surface, little sets Dwele apart from the rest of the ooh-baby R&B set. The Detroit crooner moans about love and sex from the now-familiar neo-soul perspective on his wildly anticipated debut (out Tuesday), keeping things clean and respectful and just a tad predictable. It’s behind the gooey lyrics where things get interesting. Dwele comes from the Slum Village camp, and JayDee’s fingerprints are all over Subject. With a hiphop background, Dwele neatly skirts the typically overproduced R&B route, instead adding club-friendly thumps under his jazzy soul breaks. In fact, Subject is actually under-produced. Dwele’s got the voice, but not the songs to carry such sparse tunes. Subject is an intriguing first shot, but it’ll be more interesting to see what he does next.
