How some female singers must envy Chanté Torrane Moore! The 41-year-old San Francisco-born chanteuse not only possesses a sweetly sensual, honey-coated set of multi-octave pipes but her alluring physical pulchritude is also a tremendous feast for the eyes. As soul anoraks will remind you, this is actually the photogenic singer’s first solo outing since 2000’s ‘Exposed’ (her last two CDs, ‘Things That Lovers Do’ and ‘Uncovered/Covered’ were both a series of duets with spouse, Kenny Lattimore). This debut for the Peak label doesn’t quite hit the highs of her debut set, ‘Precious’ – which featured the awesome ‘Love’s Taken Over’ – but it has plenty of rewarding moments nonetheless. Most of all, I believe that this 11-track set reminds us that Moore’s lithe voice is still a thing of great sonic beauty – and her versatility is underlined by the inclusion of a lovely jazz-tinged closer, ‘Guess Who I Saw Today,’ which perhaps points in a future stylistic direction (it’s also a personal favourite with this writer). Soul heads will prefer, no doubt, ‘It Ain’t Supposed To Be This Way,’ a mid-tempo romantic ballad with a hint of gospel that begins with the bare accompaniment of piano and drums. The most striking feature is the call-and-response interplay between Moore’s expressive lead and the supporting, multi-tracked harmony background vocals (also supplied by Moore). ‘My Eyes,’ with its thumping beat box kick drum, tips its hat towards contemporary R&B, as does the infectious ‘Do For You,’ though its arrangement is laced with a telling tincture of classic Philly-style soul. The album’s title track with its sultry groove has echoes of Moore’s earlier sides for Silas/MCA in the early ’90s while in a different vein is the Latin-infused ‘First Kiss,’ a blissful bossa nova groove that evinces a lovely summer vibe. Overall, this is a pleasing return from a singer who’s quite clearly still at the top of her game. Love the album…It’s out in the US now and gets a UK visa in September.
(CW) 4/5
