Coming Home (CD - 2006)

Lionel Richie's career since his superstar heyday in the early 1980s has been spotty, marked by long silences and lackluster releases. The year 2006's aptly titled COMING HOME finds Richie delivering the one-two punch of uptempo commercial dance-pop and the sentimental love ballads for which he's known. Interestingly, Richie sounds less like an adult-contemporary artist on COMING HOME than ever before, thanks in large part to producer Antonio "L.A." Reid, and high-profile beatmakers like Jermaine Dupri and Raphael Saadiq. The results are surprisingly au courant (check the island-infused club track "Up All Night"), with dashes of new jack swing, hip-hop, and neo-soul, but Richie's old magic with a melody still takes center stage.

Lionel Richie's eighth studio album as a solo artist is led by "I Call It Love," a lightly buoyant and bittersweet single produced by Swedish hitmakers Stargate, the same team that helped boost Ne-Yo's In My Own Words. It's an ideal match, one that should've been made more than once. Too much of Coming Home is merely pleasant -- particularly the adult contemporary fare, with the exception of "I Love You" -- or too conscious of remaining with the times. While the likes of "Why" and "Up All Night" involved Richie's songwriting in some capacity, just about any twentysomething vocalist could be fronting them; the same goes for the Jermaine Dupri-produced "What You Are." The stab at emotionally cleansing reggae of the Bob Marley variety, "Stand Down," comes up short as well. That said, at least half the album should satisfy Richie's longtime followers. ~ Andy Kellman minimize