A popular contestant on the 2010 season of American Idol,
Michael Lynche delivers an appealingly old-fashioned slow-burner of a quiet storm album with his eponymous 2012 debut. He kicks off the proceedings with "Crazy Gina," whose big, insistent thump proves to be one of the liveliest numbers here. Most of the rest of the album consists of cool seductive numbers, pitched somewhere between
Maxwell -- whose cover of
Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work" is a centerpiece here -- and
Cee Lo Green at his most conventional. At its heart, the album is a seductive groove album so no songs really pop out, but the sound is good and
Lynche delivers his falsetto ably. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine