McKnight Returns to Form With Mellowness and Reliability

**BRIAN McKNIGHT

“Back at One”

Motown

McKnight records the ultimate background music, ideally suited for a candlelight dinner for two, not to mention more intimate interludes--music that’s not distracting, in other words. Not like R. Kelly, who is definitely distracting. Kelly comes at you differently on each record, and unpredictability has become his calling card.

McKnight is certainly not unpredictable. He’s the quintessential nice guy who never wavers. His sound is all about gentle reliability and soothing mellowness. And it’s exactly like that, record after record. “You Should Be Mine (Don’t Waste Your Time),” the hit he collaborated on last year with Puff Daddy and Ma$e, was a pleasant shock, with a b-boy aura that lent an edge to McKnight’s typically understated gentility.

There’s no song like that on “Back at One.” Everything is as classy and correct as one would expect from a McKnight project. Basically, it’s pretty but not essential. Fans will enjoy the romantic title cut and the many other tracks in the same vein. Still, it would have been nice to hear a little b-boy bravado.

Where’s Puff Daddy when you need him?

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