Customer Reviews

Rebirth

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If nothing else, one can count on Keith Sweat for not selling out. You won't hear any sappy collaborations with boy bands, corny remakes, or featured youth choirs on a Keith Sweat album. I'll spot him one star on that premise alone. As for Keith Sweat's 'Rebirth', it is better than his last CD ('Didn't See Me Coming') but falls short of some his best work. Thankfully, Sweat put the uptempo tracks together at the beginning so that we can skip over them all at one time. They are fairly unintelligible from everything else on the radio. Worse yet, they are difficult to tell from each other with formualic, looped beats and sophomoric, self-aggrandizement. When he is not trying so hard to impress the fellas, Keith Sweat can actually make some of the best uptempo tunes in R&B, like 'Twisted', which he included here as a live version. The remaining tracks on 'Rebirth' are solid Keith Sweat slow jams. The head-bobbing, slinky grooves go down as well as they always have with only the occassional crude lyric tossed in. Check 'One on One' which starts with instructions for some unsuspecting lady to bend over and touch her toes. Probably not a realistic opener unless you're out with Lil' Kim, Anna Nicole Smith, or both. 'Wonderful Thing' is a refreshing slow jam. 'Show Me' ranks right up there with some of his best ballads. If you're a Keith Sweat fan, skip the first six tracks and commence slow grooving at track seven. If you don't don't know much about Sweat, 'I'll Give All My Love to You' and 'Still In the Game' proove more complete CDs for the money. The bland up-tempo songs on 'Rebirth' drag down what is otherwise a fine effort by Mr. Sweat.

It pains me to give a Keith Sweat album such a low review, but I agree with what another reviewer says...that after dropping the LSG album, Still In The Game was a step down and Didn't See Me Coming was another step down. With Rebirth, he just fell down the stairs.

Most of the songs on this album are fast, and they're the problem. And I'm not saying that just because they're fast, but because the production is terrible, the guest rappers are about as dope as Irv Gotti, and the lyrics are cheesy and generic at the same time. Also, when you listen to the singing in these bouncy tracks, it doesn't even SOUND like him. If Keith wanted to go back to fast songs, he should've stuck with flavors like those found in "Just A Touch" and "Twisted" (not "I Want Her"; that style's too dated). Instead, he gives us wack tracks like "The Right Stuff" and "I Want You", and the raunchy and disturbing "Anything Goes". The tired "100% All Man" has the chorus "40% lover/10% player/10% stunna/No % hater/40% hottie/Add it up mami/100% all man", and in "Ladies Night", he says he's looking for a girl so he can "shake his gelatin." Men do NOT say that! Also, I don't know WHAT is going on with those sound effects in "Gots To Have It" because it sounds like someone let elephants into the studio. With all these fast tracks and rappers, you can tell Keith is still trying to get younger fans (or whatever he's trying to do), but it just doesn't work. It's sad when you can't even cross over right.

The slow songs are the only ones that are worth listening to...or so I thought. "Show Me" and "One On One" are good, and "Can It Be" is tolerable. "Wonderful Thang" is decent until he refers to a woman as "You wonderful thang, you" during the chorus. "In And Out" is all right but that background singing is dreary. And it's really annoying that the end of almost every ballad has Keith saying "Turn the lights down" three times.

Keith Sweat calls this album Rebirth, but the rebirth of what, I can't tell. You couldn't pay me to listen to this album again.

Ugh! I can't believe it! Once one of r&b's greatest balladeers and soul singers, Keith Sweat has in fact lost it. I'm sorry to say that, as I used to be a fan. But if I am going to write a proper review I've gotta 'runteltdat!' like it is. If you want TRUE Keith, revisit 'Make it Last Forever'. In all honesty he hasn't released a truly righteous album since. A string of hit singles and various collaborations have kept him afloat, but this latest release further cements his decline into the bargain bins of used cd stores.

From the very moment this cd begins, you know exactly which direction Keith is going to take. Unfortunately it's a wrong turn. I never woulda thought I would see the day when Keith would wear the guise of a fake pimp and sing about "poppin' bottles with his girls" all the money he has and about "shakin your booty up'. He has been mislead into thinking that this is what his audience wants to hear from him. He's given to making 'baller' references in all of his songs. This just WILL NOT DO! And in these attempts he comes off as the poor man's RKelly.

Avoid this cd at all cost! I did! I'm glad I borrowed it from a friend. I listened to it 10 times before I wrote this review and there's not a solitary positive thing I can say about it. I feel like cussing somebody out now.

I must agree with the negative reviews of this album, together with the assessment of Keith Sweat's recent music. Obviously Make It Last Forever is a classic album with a unique sound and it cannot be replicated. With his subsequent 4 albums inclusive of Twisted, Keith Sweat defined a style of music and this is what the fans have come to love and expect. Sweat consistently produced excellent albums with only a few tracks I would leave off a playlist. The reverse is true with the last 3 albums: there are only a few tracks I would include in a playlist. I agree with the assessment that he has tried to cross over to a more hip hop influenced style which does not make the most of his voice, and leaves a hole in the Urban market which he used to fill. I was just listening to Get Up On It from his 4th album and was remembering how I looked forward to his new releases, but not now. These days it's not cool to be soul artist and the record companies just want to make money off all the idiots who buy music for the lifestyle that it is shown to represent in the media. I'm not optimistic about any comeback, but you never know. Bottom line: forget last 3 albums, buy first 5.

I am or should I say was a Keith fanatic but plain and simple, Keith makes the mistakes as many artist do; he forgets about the audience that he came in with. Obviously he is focusing on the younger listeners with his latest three albums. I was very disappointed with this entire CD. The songs were not well thought out and the writting for these songs suck. Keith, two words, Come Back.

On Keith Sweat's ninth album, "Rebirth", Keith Sweat once again finds himself not up to par with his first five albums. He leaves his fans hanging with too many poorly produced fast songs and not enough of his slow songs. Tracks 7 and 12, "One on One" and "Can It Be?" are good slow songs. The song "The Right Stuff" sounds like something that Timbaland would produce. (And don't get me wrong, I like Timbaland!) And the two bonus tracks (tracks 14 and 15) weren't even necessary!

I gave this album a three for effort, but for Keith's 10th album, he would need a devestating recovery after not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR albums that flopped! And he should be getting ready for a greatest hits album.

First of all I would say that those out there dogging this album should stop.This album is in my opinion the best work Keith has put out since the mid 90's.His last 2 albums were not very good at all,but he tries to recapture some of his past glory with this one.The first 6 tracks are not his best work,but once you get to the ballads it gets better.I just think Keith needs to get better production because trying to work with these younger producers is not working.I think he should hook back up with Teddy Riley or maybe Vincent Davis from "I'll Give All My Love To You.Those were his glory days and those 2 first albums are classics.He does need to focus more on love ballads and most definetly needs to starting singing his own background again.Maybe he should work with Babyface since they both live in Atlanta.But,all and all this is a good album and I don't regret purchasing it.

It pains me too to give Keith 3 stars for his "rebirth" cd. But with his latest production, the man is probably just hangin' there! Overall, the production of the faster tracks in the cd was below par. To me, Keith's earlier productions like "Make it last forever" & his self titled album containing "Twisted" remain the stand outs.
However, Keith endears himself to his listeners with the ballads; "one on one" is a stand out, as is "wonderful thang" & "show me". Probably Keith tried to give "what is it?" a groove similar to "Nobody", and though it did not come out perfect, the track is ok.
I guess next time Keith Sweat should take his time before releasing something else, coz I believe the man still has got what it takes to capture his audience.

as usual Keith sweat never disapoints. Other reviews are a bit unfair regarding the uptempo tracks as the first two ones are excellent, the slow jams are slightly below his usual productions
overral its a fair year for this Keith sweat album!

On his Rebirth CD released in 2002 Keith Sweat was a comeback, however because he's been putting out records consistently since the late '80s, and it's not really a creative reawakening since he hasn't changed anything about his game. In the end, Rebirth is really just another Keith Sweat album with promisng ballads. One would have thought that Mr. Sweat would linked up with some new young talent at the time to give him a fresh sound, espically on the up-tempo but the ballads are really the only thing that save this CD. The first single One on One is very good as is Wonderful Thang, but everything is kind of by the numbers.