It's getting increasingly difficult for modern R&B/soul singers to not fall victim to "studio trickery" -- a touch up here, a touch up there -- to the point that the end product sounds too picture perfect. While
Latrice Barnett's debut release,
Illuminate, does contain many of today's R&B prerequisites (electronic beats, help from outside songwriters, etc.), the album still manages to maintain an organic quality, as evidenced by such standouts as the title track, "Lessons Learned," and "Pleasure Unlimited." The San Francisco native also possesses the rare quality of appealing to a wide variety of music fans -- after all, she has fronted
Galactic, and as a member of Five Point Plan, opened shows for such varied acts as
the Counting Crows,
Sade,
B.B. King, and
Los Amigos Invisibles. Enlisting the help of several noted producers (including Grammy-nominated producer
Jay-J),
Barnett didn't leave it entirely up to outside songwriters on her debut, as the singer lent a hand in the songwriting process. For fans of R&B in a
Sade/
Seal vein,
Illuminate is certainly worthy of inspection. ~ Greg Prato