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On his fourth studio album, Love & Life, Eric Benét makes a bid to show that he's still a relevant, creative artist. And the album's a good argument for his case: even though it's his first since 2005 and though he hasn't had a big hit song since 1999, Benét's vocal style isn't stuck in the past. In fact, Love & Life, released in the U.S. on Sept. 9, 2008, is a fresh, thoroughly contemporary album that swings from richly romantic to deeply uplifting to strongly spiritual.


On the album, Eric doesn't break much new ground or blaze new trails, but anyone who's a fan of his work should be able to enjoy this album.

Throughout much of his career, Eric Benét has been underappreciated by the mainstream, but has a loyal and devoted core fanbase. And that fanbase will undoubtedly appreciate Eric's fourth album, Love & Life. It's filled with the lush melodies, personal lyrics and beautiful harmonies that his fans have come to expect from him. This is evident from the album's very first song, "Love, Patience & Time," a mellow, Babyface-esque track on which Eric sings about overcoming personal obstacles through faith.

The majority of the dozen songs though are mid- and slow tempo love songs, which is Eric's specialty. He hits home runs with sexy ballads like "Hunger" and "Chocolate Legs" and the more uptempo tracks "Weekend Girl" and "Iminluvwitchoo," a duet with Linda Kiraly. Another winner is the Latin-flavored "Spanish Fly," a brass horns-fueled number about - you got it - sex.

In fact, there are no bad songs on the album. All 12 of them have qualities that can keep you from hitting the fast forward or skip track button. That said, there's nothing on the album that's completely extraordinary, either. All the songs are solid, well-sung and have intelligent, insightful lyrics. However, the album is almost completely a feel-good affair. Very little drama, no conflict, nothing to really spice things up here and there. There's no balance here between the good and bad of life, it's just primarily about the joy of living. Although it's nice to see that Eric's at such a good place in life right now that he's putting out almost totally positive music, it makes for a boring album at times.