In My Songs
In My Songsis soul man Gerald LeVert's final farewell, a collection of vintage-sounding R&B; equal to any of the discs he put out in his 20-year career. Only, of course, sadder: Prior to track one, Gerald's legendary father, the O'Jay's Eddie LeVert, reminisces momentarily about the months leading up to this album and his son's pride in presenting it; shards of that short speech linger through songs like "Sweetness," in which the man who was called "Teddy Bear" before Ruben Studdard was a twinkle in Paula Abdul's eye promises to "be sweeter tomorrow than I was today," and "Hang in There," a soulful plea sent out to a sulking lady friend. Two upbeat songs break the solemn mood midway through--"DJ Don't" molds itself to fit old-school party-night sensibilities, and "Wanna Get up with You" whisks the ladies off to the dancefloor--but even those tracks can't help going bittersweet around the edges. They represent LeVert's lost magnetism, after all. And they're reminders that the man who once promised to "sing it to you time and time again," won't.--Tammy La Gorce