Surrender

Kut Klose

Kut Klose members LaVonn Battle, Athena Cage, and Tabitha Duncan have attractive voices, but they haven't come up with a distinctive group sound; they simply fill in around the lead vocals in the most predictable ways. It doesn't help matters that the album's 11 songs, largely written by Keith Sweat and his sidekicks, are undernourished melodically, giving the three women little to do but repeat the same sing-song rhythms over and over. If Surrender were simply boring, it could be easily dismissed. It's more insidious than that, however, for Sweat and his male cronies have used the three women of Kut Klose as vehicles for their own sexual fantasies. There's something smarmy about powerful industry figures who sign up young women desperate for stardom and who then direct those women to moan and croon about how they want a "Lovely Thang" who will "Lay My Body Down" and "Do Me" the way "I Like." Kut Klose's new album is nothing more than the Penthouse "Forum" set to formulaic slow jams. --Geoffrey Himes

Surrender Album: