Given that the Jive Records press release compares the Chicago R&B tycoon to Beethoven ("The mark of a true artist is the willingness to experiment ... It's this kind of dedication that has given the world talents like Beethoven"), you can hardly blame them for sending out review copies of this album on old-school cassettes to prevent internet uploading.
All of which is a pretty highfalutin way of announcing that the old tomcat has written some new songs. But what songs - it's not that R lacks imagination, but Sex in the Kitchen, Sex Weed and (Sex) Love Is What We Makin' ... suggest that he needs to sort out his libido if he's going to be remembered as anything other than a heavy-handed stud. On most tracks, Kelly resorts to a meandering, semi-spoken style that cancels out any vestige of a tune, too.
The "willingness to experiment" manifests itself as a five-part serial called Trapped in the Closet, each section ending with a "cliffhanger" that supposedly whets the appetite for the next chapter. The plot involves Kelly's fling with a married woman; as with the rest of the album, sheer audacity carries the day.
