Get Up On It

After scoring massive success with his first two albums, Make It Last Forever and I'll Give All My Love to You, Keith Sweat's third album, Keep It Comin', signaled something of a creative and commercial slump for the new jack pioneer, which continued through 1994's Get Up on It. However, Get Up on It is not a bad album by any means. In fact, the set is classic Keith Sweat, filled to the brim with the pleading ballads that made this Harlem crooner so popular. Sweat began to utilize female background vocals, courtesy of Kut Klose, to full effect on this album, especially on the hit title track (one of the album's shining moments), a trend that he perfected on his huge 1996 self-titled comeback album. So Get Up on It finds Sweat in a stage of transition, leaving the formula that began to grow stale on Keep It Comin' and beginning to feature female backing vocals at center stage, somewhat similar to what Barry White and Luther Vandross had done before him. Get Up on It churned out two other singles, the up-tempo yet slightly unimaginative "How Do You Like It?" (which, as the set's lead single, didn't really work to catapult the album to massive early sales) and the big ballad "When I Give My Love," which is pure Keith Sweat. Other standouts include "Put Your Loving Through the Test," featuring the late Roger Troutman, and "Telephone Love." For fans of classic Keith Sweat, R&B ballads, and mid-tempo grooves, this album will do, although it doesn't rank as one of the more essential pieces in this artist's enduring catalog. ~ Jose F. Promis, Rovi