Just when you thought all your favourite singer and producer of the 80ies and early 90ies went away or have retired, you see a lot of them coming back on independent labels (like Miki Howard, Freddie Jackson, Melba Moore, Michael Cooper or Tony Terry). And if you ever wondered what happened to Michael J. Powell, well here he is, producing this nice album for Maurice J(acobs). And you also get a return from Amp Fiddler (aka Mr. Fiddler...remember So You Wanna Be A Gangster?).
Maurice's voice is sometimes reminiscent of Kenny Lattimore (especially Say You Will with it's background arrangements), but that's not bad at all. In fact, the whole album is great with the right mixture of up-/mid-/and downtempo songs.
Even the two covers - Marvin's I want you (done a little faster than the original, but that makes it worth listening to) and Simply Red's Holding back the years (looks like that's some kind of modern classic right now with covers from The Isley Brothers and Angie Stone already done)- fit nicely in the mood of this CD. 2001 really is one of these years where the indies have outdone the majorlabels once again!