Album Review: Kenyon Dixon, The R&B You Love

Kenyon Dixon

The R&B You Love (released September 29, 2023)

Is R&B on its way back to its glory days?

… Or, are y’all just paying attention to it again?

Though we’re a LONG way from the heights of the 70s, the groundbreaking 90s, or even the 2000s, mainstream R&B convos have been stronger than they’ve been in years.

We’ve seen some really incredible R&B projects this year

We’ve seen some … not so great ones, but hey, at least it got folks talking

And when the US-HER RA-YM-OND (NowBabyTellMeWhatYouWannaDoWithMe) performs during next year’s Super Bowl halftime show, it will literally be the biggest stage for R&B in decades.

It’s a great look for a genre that has spent more than 10 years trying to recapture the mainstream gaze. But if you know like I know, R&B never truly left the building.

When industry fat cats, fans and even veteran artists dipped to chase rap, autotune and whatever is going on on Tik Tok, a dedicated few were still here, grinding for the sake of the genre we love.

Props to Kenyon Dixon for holding us down.

Long before his breakout LP, the South Central LA native was a jack of all R&B trades, providing his pen and background vocals for artists like Tyrese, Alex Isley, Justin Timberlake and TGT. Grammy nominations soon followed, and while his 2022 LP Closer turned heads, as your Unbiased Music Reviewer, I gotta keep it a buck. I thought it was a solid release with several highlights, but I knew he could go harder.

Closer was full of potential, but you can’t buy groceries with potential.

The R&B You Love is the album turns that potential into promise.

If you didn’t already know from his Twitter takes and outspokenness about the genre, Dixon isn’t just a student of the game, he’s an unabashed R&B nerd. From the production, use of interludes, guests and even track titles, you can tell this project was carefully curated by a true fan.

The album interludes tell the story of R&B Kenny on a date, featuring convos with a young lady ranging from R&B’s history to its current obsession with toxic lyrics. Essentially, this woman is the personification of R&B itself, and Kenny is here to fight for her love.

The R&B You Love knows how to set the mood. At first glance, album opener “In Your Head” seems like the usual sparce “vibes” that we’ve heard ad nasuem over the past decade, but Dixon’s vocal performance pairs well with the atmospheric production, thankfully keeping things interesting (and keeping us out of slumberland). “Shine” thrives thanks to a jazzy sax while the lively strings of “Fantasy” bring so much energy to the proceedings. Props to Cozz’s rap verse too – it wisely matches the vibe of the song instead of going off into left field, clashing with the groundwork laid before it. His rap peers could learn a thing or three from his approach.

The midtempo ballad “Good Love” was birthed from the womb of 90s R&B, and y’all know I’m here for it. Dixon parties like it’s 1985 on “Slow Dancing,” which serves as a talk-box tribute to Roger Troutman. Pay attention, children, THIS is how you use a vocal effect on a song – instead of making the entire track sound like the Megatron Mass Choir, those vocal effects are simply used as the garnish for an already great song, not as the whole meal. It makes for a much more diverse listening experience.

And true to its name “2000s R&B” lives up to its billing, sounding like it was plucked from BET’s Midnight Love circa 2002. Not only does it nail the vocals and production fundamentals, it’s filled with R&B Easter eggs, with tributes to Ray J, Case, Carl Thomas and of course Next, thanks to a great feature from RL. All this one needs is a rain-soaked video and a B-list actress to co-star.

Though The R&B You Love is constructed as a love letter to R&B’s many eras, it doesn’t always avoid the pitfalls of those eras. Like some neo-soul tracks before it, “& Then Some” with Alex Isley settles into a groove and kinda gets stuck there. I kept waiting for it to hit another level that it never reached. And despite the Usher shoutout and decent production, “98 Vibes” fails to break out of the pack.

Look, y’all know how much I love the year 1998 – you can’t namedrop that year without going Vibranium-hard. What we got was … just OK. 2018 Vibes.

Thankfully, the stumbles are relatively few, with the feel-good “Wait” and heartfelt “Again” providing strong closure for the project.

The R&B You Love is by far Kenny’s best project to date, an album that does run away from R&B’s past. Instead, it embraces decades of lessons and repackages them for a new era, establishing Dixon as a voice for a new generation yearning for love.

Listen, when you hear interludes like “Lucky Prelude (ILY)” and mumble to yourself “Now why wasn’t THIS a full song?” that’s as R&B as you can get.

Kenny knows R&B never left. He’s just trying to get y’all to pay attention again.

Best tracks: “2000s R&B,” “Slow Dancing,” “Fantasy”

4 stars out of 5