AMG Review of Love & Life

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

Rebounding from the mess of his divorce from Halle Berry -- and the ensuing Hurricane of an album -- Eric Benet returns to what he does best on Love & Life: making music for love-making. Slow and sultry and steeped in Stevie, Marvin, Luther, and especially Quincy Jones-produced Michael Jackson and Prince's forays into quiet storm, Love & Life is a consolidation of Benet's strengths as a seduction artist. Arriving after the turgid turmoil of Hurricane, this is frankly a relief, as Benet demonstrates a lighter touch throughout Love & Life, shedding any suggestion of personal revelation in favor of courting clichés without blushing. For some artists, this might sound like a retreat, but Benet delivers this slinky romantic music with conviction, as if he doesn't quite realize that what he's singing is essentially boudoir boilerplate. Such quiet determination turns Love & Life into effective mood music -- something that might fall apart under close listening, but it was never intended for such scrutiny anyway.