Bobby Valentino

Why Bobby Valentino—possessor of a pair of mink-thick eyelashes, a gift for choosing the right producers, and a butterscotch set of vocal chords that can move smoothly between sweet and the occasional bit of salt—is not more critically acclaimed is a mystery. Special Occasion, his sophomore album, though packed with tracks shaped by Timbaland, Bryan Michael Cox, Darkchild, and Dre & Vidal, doesn't seem likely to change that, as its attractions are much the same as those of his 2005 self-titled debut.

Both records sag a little in the middle, with songs that don't have the allure of the clear singles, and both could be cut by about five songs to make a stronger album, but both also serve as an effective come-on. You may not think you can be won by someone cooing "baby" and flashing with sparkles, who promises to give you back massages and rock your world with his sexual skills—but shiny clearly attracts us as a species for good reason. All that glitters may not be gold, but if it turns out to be Bobby Valentino instead, that's not bad.

—Hillary Brown
05.18.07

After releasing his debut solo album in the spring of 2005 and then a stint as part of the collaboration Disturbing the Peace Presents Bobby Valentino, Valentino released another solo album, Special Occasion, in the middle of 2007, a slice of modern urban R&B with enough confidence to credit it simply to his first name, Bobby (assuming that everybody would know who it was). The opening track, "Anonymous," featured the talents of Timberland, who appeared to pop up on just about every R&B album from the mid-2000s, but this set the scene for the whole album, which was a series of 16 songs with Bobby making love to the microphone over a sensual beat and even more sexual strings. Especially indicative of this was the title track, which was a live get together with Valentino and one of his female fans. It was just as well the song was only two minutes long for the erotica (and hero worship) was building nicely into a crescendo. Coming from very different worlds, one could be fairly sure that Bobby Valentino had not listened or deliberately copied the vocal style of Craig David, but in some of the vocals, there was more than a passing similarity, although he strayed into Stevie Wonder territory on the track "I Was Wrong." ~ Sharon Mawer, All Music Guide