CD reviews 8/9

In one week, this kid will turn 14, and this surprisingly assured piano-based debut introduces a talent that should be around for some time. This is pop without the bells and whistles, and the focus is on Chance's remarkably strong, emotive voice and piano playing. The production isn't candy-coated. Strings spice "Unfriend Me" and the immensely appealing title track, but they never threaten to usurp the vocalist nor are they used to trigger false sentiment. A lot of teen pop is infectious like a bad rash, but these songs transcend his age.

"Cheyenne" is infused with yearning, while the acoustic guitar-driven "Home Is in Your Eyes" feels unusually genuine from someone so tender. While he works with star producers such as the Matrix, this is certainly not a producer-driven disc. Chance may be too young to understand the complex emotions he writes and sings about, but he sure makes it seem as though he does.

Adkins is a lovable lug who is a big softy underneath. He is less glowering than Toby Keith, more of a harmless lech than, say, Keith Urban.

The first few tracks here are carefully calibrated testaments to hearth and home; the tear-jerking ballad "Just Fishin'?" details a father/daughter fishing trip with ruthless effectiveness. "Proud" is solid and unassailable, none the worse for its stubborn refusal to budge from its talking points. As if in summation, its penultimate track, "Poor Folks," is about fishing and pickup trucks and people who have everything because they have love. Anyone who hasn't already given in to Adkins's ham-handed charms will find that resistance is futile. Adkins performs Sept. 30 at Mystic Lake Casino.

After the shaken cocktail that was "Wine & Spirits" (2007), this smoky R&B singer/songwriter returns to the game with a bigger, bolder mess of holy-rolling, synthetically silken, '80s-ish soul and frank, loving funk. Patterson is an undervalued lover man on par with Maxwell, and he's a musicmaker/arranger on the level of a Raphael Saadiq. "Bleuphoria" is his best effort yet.

With guests ranging from gospel guidance counselor Andrae Crouch to Faith Evans and Jody Watley, Patterson investigates funk (and a solid, uptempo cover of "I Only Have Eyes for You") before hitting his dramatic, romantic stride with the falsetto-filled "Miss You" and the liquid, Loose Ends-like "6 AM." The ballads are sensuous ("Goodbye"), and, with Auto-Tune used only sparingly, the sound is marvelously human. But the strangest, yet most satisfying, move is Patterson's take on big gospel in the self-penned "Mountain Top." The loin-stirring devil might be in "Bleuphoria's" sexiest details, but the hand of God is all over this CD.