Chante Moore is one of the sexiest veterans of the R&B game. Past the looks, her albums are generally so-so. Her fifth solo album Love The Woman, released under Peak Records, sounds in production like a continuation of her 2000 hip-hop flavored Exposed album. Lyrically the album is about the same as every other CD Moore has created.

Back in my childhood I was a big fan of Peter Cetera, a former member of the group Chicago who went on to a semi-successful career in the 80s as a solo artist. As I got older in the 90s, his albums started to sound the same as well. He even got so bored he had to do a remake of a few of his own Chicago hits. 

I am not attacking Cetera or Moore for their "repeat on" style of music. I think they have exceptionally unique voices. My issue is that, in terms of style, it seems neither one of them really seem to be able to break from their past albums. I'd, for one, like to see Timberland do a track with Cetera. 

When I hear Raphael Saadiq (Toni, Tony, Tone) and Warryn Campbell (who produced some albums for Mary Mary), I figure that at least they would push some sort of spice into the mix of the usual relationship tales Moore likes to spin. Unfortunately, 10 out of the 11 tracks are just filler material. 

The upsetting part for me was that she really came into her own on one track — "Guess Who I Saw Today". It's a jazzy, breezy sort of song that fits in with her voice, but I really wish it wasn't a remake of a Nancy Wilson song. George Duke, who produced hits for the likes of Gladys Knight and Anita Baker, should have right away re-did the album to a more jazz-oriented sound.

Hell, she could grab some points from Dana Owens herself since she's dabbled a bit in that genre in her post-rap career.

She really seems to have even more fun with Aretha Franklin's "Start Of Something Big", which on my player appeared as a hidden track on the album. I never actually heard of this song, but Chante obviously does the remake justice by putting her complete soul into it. She skits and scats and sounds like she's playing a girl who would literally yank a man into a passionate kiss without any questions.

The release date for this album is June 17th. That's three weeks away. There's still time left for Chante to scrap this CD and try her hand at more songs in the style of the two I mentioned. Not only would it make the album sound different from the rest of her catalog, but it would actually mean that she's moving forward, not backward.  

I wouldn't purchase Love The Woman just to get the two tracks I like. Borrow it from a friend or purchase an MP3 of them if you can. If you know Chante or are part of a fan club, please tell her if she can't re-do this album to try to lean towards songs like those two. If she ever does that, it might really be the start of something big for her.