Brian McKnight

R&B singer Brian McKnight has managed to carve out a successful, if not exactly adventurous, career while avoiding most of the satin-sheets-and-bearskin-rug clichés that have dogged his Quiet Storm contemporaries. A veteran of church choirs, McKnight released his self-titled debut in 1992, when he was still better known as the younger brother of Take 6 member Claude McKnight. Other than an ill-advised, beat-happy cover of Hall & Oates' "I Can't Go For That," Brian McKnight was a well-crafted combination of smooth, jazz-influenced jams and mid-tempo soul tracks that helped set the standard for '90s R&B. Less slick than Luther Vandross, manlier than Boyz II Men, McKnight demonstrated a remarkable tenor and boundless tolerance for MOR balladry -- most notably on his first hit single, "The Way Love Goes."

McKnight wrote, produced, and played virtually every instrument on his sophomore effort, I Remember You. With similarly interchangeable ballads and the same sensitive-yet-rugged romanticism, his followup was a lot like his debut, only less so.

Not only did the Artist Then Known as Puff Daddy take over some of the production duties on 1997's Anytime, he also enlisted protege Mase to rap on the hip-hop--meets--Quiet Storm "You Should Be Mine (Don't Waste Your Time)," one of McKnight's most appealing hit singles. Anytime, which would eventually sell 3 million copies, signaled the start of a new phase in McKnight's career; successive albums have found him enlisting guest stars like Nelly, Justin Timberlake, and Nate Dogg to lend him a patina of urban cool.

A year after the release of his holiday album, Bethlehem, McKnight issued Back at One, on which he again wrote, produced, sang, and played virtually everything. Excepting the occasional boilerplate slow jam, One is McKnight's finest effort and worth the price for the Grammy-nominated "Stay or Let It Go" alone. On the more daring but less successful Superhero, McKnight -- whose previous idea of uptempo funk had involved peppy synthesizer riffs -- included almost danceable hip-hop tracks and guitars aplenty.

When U-Turn was released, in 2003, McKnight was already an R&B icon, so the cameo appearances by younger crooners Joe, Carl Thomas, and Tyrese seemed homagelike. U-Turn successfully mixed mild, Superhero-style hip-hop with McKnight's usual smooth jams, most notably on the lead-off duet with Nelly, "All Night Long."

Since McKnight is mainly a singles artist, newcomers might want to try From There to Here, a comprehensive hits collection that offers hard-to-find soundtrack cuts and two new tracks. (ALLISON STEWART)