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The other day I awoke to my clock radio playing the beautifully saccharine strains of Boyz II Men's "I'll Make Love to You." I felt like I'd had a wet dream. If you remember, this was the group's second Babyface-penned über-smash; it solidified their reputation as crooning, confident ladies' men whose honey-dripping harmonies and satin-sheeted songs could massage the ears and stroke the libido. Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya finds them still giving it up for the honeys (check out "Beautiful Women"), but the boys are running out of steam because they've been revving their engines too fast. They've forgotten that they're at their best when they are playing the cool old-school R&B ballad card — when they're channeling the Chi-lites and the Dramatics — and not when they're trying to be funky-ass dance-floor whores. Most of the tracks on this album sound as if they've been slathered in Rodney Jerkins hand lotion, though the aforementioned R&B hit-maker didn't actually produce any of the songs. Typical is the utterly forgettable (and embarrassing) non-song "Bounce, Shake, Move, Swing," a piece of electro-booty detritus Afrika Bambaataa would have felt guilty pawning off even on Celine Dion.
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