Despite a staple of luminaries including
Montell Jordan and
Brian McKnight,
Time failed to yield the musical sparks required to break
Peter Andre in the U.S. after a slew of hits in both the U.K. and Australia. Jordan's two contributions are among the strongest on
Time: the catchy dance of "All About Us," produced, written, and featuring Jordan's backing vocals, sounds like a knockoff from one of his albums (albeit a strong one), while "All Night, All Right," featuring Coolio, is perhaps the best of the album, a slick up-tempo dance outing with liberal doses of funk.
Andre's wispy vocals often betray his biggest influence, Michael Jackson, and the second half of the album is weighed down with several mediocre ballads reminiscent of his hero. The Motown classic "The Tracks of My Tears" is the best -- a laid-back jam featuring the Refugee Camp All Stars, while the collaboration with
Brian McKnight, "Rest of My Life," also deserves attention. The other tracks generally fall somewhere on either side of overt sentimentality ("Stay With Me") or calculated slickness lacking passion ("What You Like").
Time is a solid effort that doesn't equal the sum of its superstar parts, best summed up by
Andre himself on "Best of Me" with the almost prescient lyric: "You ain't seen the best of me yet." ~ Brendan Swift