Keith Sweat likes to play it safe; he merely took a leave of absence from his day gig, for example, to support his first hit album, Make It Last Forever. Therefore, there was little reason to expect his second album, I'll Give All My Love to You, to be very far removed from his debut – and it's not. But that's not necessarily bad.

Released in 1987, Make It Last Forever was an important record to black folks and to black pop. Its glimmering first single, "I Want Her," ruled jeeps, boom-boxes and urban airwaves. It established coproducer Teddy Riley's trend-setting R&B sound, and for the first time the sophisticated romanticism of folks like Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke met the new hip-hop noise that was erupting from the streets. Make It Last Forever sold 3 million copies and spawned three more hits following "I Want Her."

Now, I'll Give All My Love to You. Like its predecessor, this album discusses love – lost, found and reclaimed – and lust over grinding, pounding synth grooves. The balance between soul and sequencer is near perfect and very engaging. Opening with a dramatic fifty-three-second excerpt called "Interlude (I'll Give All My Love to You)," the LP's first impression is as galvanizing as a swift breeze on a hot summer night. The next cut, "Make You Sweat," is more kinetic. It bops and jives like a dude on the prowl; the jam's opening lines reveal Sweat demanding some hottie to "give it to [him] now!" He's a bit more subtle in "Your Love," which gets the Teddy Riley treatment in "Your Love – Part 2." The latter sounds Soul II Soul-ish and features Sweat talking most smoothly about taking some babe where she's never been before.

Things on I'll Give All My Love to You aren't always so blissful. In three ballads, including a duet with Gerald Levert ("Just One of Them Thangs"), Sweat's girl steps out on him. He wonders why in "Come Back." His conclusion: He took too many chances and lost. The way he pleads, though, draining his tenor pipes dry, makes the song a winner. Sweat knows his New Jack Swing, and in the old-fashioned way, he's also damn good when he's tugging on your heart-strings. (RS 584)

HAVELOCK NELSON