CeCe Winans
Modern R&B is, of course, all about love. And for Winans, who has won or shared eight Grammy Awards as a gospel singer, that means love of her lord. (Indeed, without the lyric sheet, in which she uses the uppercase when referring to Him, listeners may mistakenly assume she is expressing secular sentiments with lines like "Love is the only key/ That opens every door.") Unfortunately, much of this album only demonstrates that soft-pop lyric writers have no monopoly on vague imagery and dull clichés. The CD's best written, most hard-core gospel song comes, surprisingly, from Lauryn Hill, the Fugees star and one of several R&B headliners who appear on the disc: "The world is moving much too fast/ Mothers have kids they outlast...Break the bonds that tie your flesh/ Without Him then life is death." (PMG)
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