R. Kelly reviewed
Untitled
(Jive)
Whatever its artistic merits, Untitled is Weird Al-proof, an utterly ridiculous R&B spoof with its creator an amalgam of Luther Vandross, Luther Campbell, and Steve Stiffler.
Kelly breezed through the underage-porn/rape shitstorm with relative flair and has decided to ignore it on his first album since acquittal. There are no crass rebuttals or I-told-ya-soes, just Mr. Rated R. going about his business whether morning, noon, or night. Consecutive songs about muff-diving? Yes! Yodelling during sex? Who doesn’t? Despite the promise of earlier albums (particularly the double R), Kelly is loathe to ignore the dancefloor before he’s too old and uses Untitled as his own erection set. For a 42-year-old dude, however, he’s starting to show it. While his bedroom travelogues aren’t as stiff and predictable as LL Cool J’s or 50 Cent’s, it’s either total sexual freakdom or nothing. Kelly the seducer is a phantom on Untitled — it’ll be interesting to see how long he can keep up the charade while he’s got real shit on his mind.
— Steve Forstneger
