By Michael P. Coleman
Over the last decade or so, nothing has made me miss the late, incredibly great Luther Vandross like a new Ruben Studdard album. While Studdard’s talent has always been undeniable, and he held the promise of standing in the enormous musical gap that Luther left behind, his material never lived up to it.
When I heard Studdard was recording an album of primarily covers, I braced myself for disappointment. After all, Luther himself stumbled with his similarly-themed Songs collection. I feared Studdard would make the same mistake Vandross did, giving us versions of legendary artists’s signature songs that wouldn’t quite stand up to the originals.
I was completely and blissfully wrong. Studdard’s new Unconditional Love is the album we’ve waited for since he won American Idol eleven years ago. It is a stunning, career-defining collection.
Highlights include exceptional covers that match or surpass the originals, including Teddy Pendegrass’s “Close The Door”, Bonnie Rait’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me”, Bob Scaggs’s “Look What You’ve Done To Me”, Paul McCartney’s “My Love”, and Michael Buble’s “Home”. It’s a diverse selection, encompassing a number of genres, and Studdard nails each one.
When the American Idol alum growls “Come here, baby!” on “Close The Door”, you feel it — and your significant other will, too. “Oh, man! I was most afraid to cover this song!” Studdard admitted. “Teddy did such a classic vocal, and some songs you feel should be left alone. David Foster, who produced it, knew I was nervous and told me to just sing my heart out, and I think its one of the shining stars of the album.”
Studdard’s cover of Neil Diamond’s “Hello, Again” is another highlight, featuring an earnest, wrenching vocal that almost made me tear up. (OK, fine…I DID tear up.). And just like Luther was, Studdard demonstrates a mastery at breathing new life into time worn pop classics. He manages to make The Carpenters’s “Close To You” and Stevie Wonder’s “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life” sound brand new — and may have delivered definitive versions of both songs.
Vandross’s influence on Studdard is never more clear than on the Marvin Gaye / Tammi Terrell classic “If This World Were Mine”, which Vandross brilliantly covered with Cheryl Lynn. On Unconditional Love, Studdard (along with Lalah Hathaway) boldly adheres to Vandross’s arrangement and manages to invoke Luther’s spirit without copying him.
“From the beginning of my career, people have said “Why don’t you make an album featuring ‘the Luther Vandross sound’?, Studdard says. “But I was so young, and it’s hard for anybody to tell you at 23-years-old that you’re the next Luther Vandross — even though I’m probably his biggest fan! But the older I get, the more honest and transparent I am about the way I feel about things.” Of the new album, Studdard says “I’ve never felt this strongly about anything I’ve done in my career.”
Unconditional Love features excellent new material as well, but on the covers Studdard ironically gave me the sense that he’s come into his own. I could nitpick the production on a couple of the tracks (producer David Foster overdoes the horns on a couple of songs, reminiscent of his work on Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing”), but those minor missteps are few. Studdard soars on Unconditional Love. Vandross would be proud.
Ruben Studdard’s Unconditional Love is available on iTunes and at amazon.com.
Look for The Hub’s EXCLUSIVE interview with Ruben Studdard in the summer issue of The Hub magazine, on newsstands in June, and on sacculturalhub.com.
Michael P. Coleman will always be close to you at michaelpcoleman.com and on Twitter: @ColemanMichaelP
