On his follow-up to 2003's successful
Chocolate Factory, scandal-plagued
R. Kelly spins his notoriety for sympathy, acknowledging that he's a flawed man and a sinner, but he believes in God and is just looking for love and peace. That, in a nutshell, is the theme of
Happy People/U Saved Me, a double disc containing two distinct albums (just like
OutKast's Speakerboxx/The Love Below). The first,
Happy People, is a seductive, late-night album about positivity and love, the second all about salvation and God. Taken as a whole, the album presents
Kelly as a saved sinner who still struggles with temptation -- struggles that are chronicled joyfully on
Happy People and remorsefully on
U Saved Me. Since
Happy People/U Saved Me delivers two distinct and cohesive albums, it offers further ammunition for those defenders of
Kelly who claim that he's made the best music of his career when under fire. There's validity to that argument.
Kelly has shrugged off the celeb cameos that littered his earlier work and he's backed away from any contemporary beats, relying on the classic '70s soul that has always been at the core of his best music. He's turned inward, and that insularity has helped focus him, giving
Happy People the feel of an old-school loverman record. At its core,
Happy People is a seduction record, and seduction has always been
Kelly's strength, so it shouldn't be a huge surprise that it, overall, is the more successful album of the two, the one that sustains its romantic mood and delivers it with stylish economy. As a record, it's assured and coherent, with little flab and a consistent vision; it's one of his strongest efforts. But
U Saved Me isn't far behind as a cohesive work either, perhaps lacking the hooks of its companion but never deviating from its religious spirit. Overall,
Happy People/U Saved Me captures
Kelly at the top of his game as a record-maker, which makes it a definitive work of sorts. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
