TERRY KLIENTELL is an Atlanta based producer/songwriter. He has a Batchelor’s Degree in Business Administration and runs his own record company, RXL Recordings, as well as a music production company called The Production Firm, Inc. All this admirable, if somewhat daunting, entrepreneurship has provided the groundwork for his debut release ‘Everything You Need’.
Despite striking a confident pose in his photographs (Terry has two looks – one with the gold neck chain outside his T and one with it tucked in his T) Terry Klientell (a.k.a Terry Beals, a.k.a Terrance L Beals, a.k.a Terry ‘Klientell’ Beals) is at pains to make sure you know where his debut album lies musically.
His press release states that on his album “you’ll hear a mix of modern R&B grooves and melodic hip-hop tracks.” It is an album that has been “made to satisfy music lovers who like R&B and hip-hop.” Terry’s goal “was to make sure this CD had all of the elements that an R&B or hip-hop fan would want or need in an album”.
On first playing ‘Everything You Need’ I soon realised that this was an indeed album that would be appreciated by fans of R&B and hip-hop, being an album that contained both those elements. Feeling like I’d turned a corner with Terry by identifying his musical style I decided to check out his inspirations.
They include P. Diddy, Ashanti, Babyface and Usher. More tellingly Terry is also a big admirer of Quincy Jones and hopes to recreate the master’s successful approach to making music by employing the talents of other artists on his records. Terry is helped out on ‘Everything You Need’ by rapper Wil B (who for all I know may or may not be another incarnation of Terry) and by female singer Carma (not Terry, honest.)
‘Everything You Need’ is a smooth ride and plays to the gallery throughout, offering easy to digest songs about love, love and more love. Terry and his various pseudonyms perform all production and executive production duties. The sound is slightly Bontempi at times but the grooves are there and the vocal production is effective, making best use of the interplay between male vocal, female vocal and rap.
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Lyrically it’s no great shakes. Terry wants his girl to know that he’s the man for her (‘All My Love’, ‘Everything You Need’ ‘My Heart/My Love’) whilst his girl just wants to be treated right (‘Special/Just Want To Be’, ‘Love You Everyday’).
When Terry tackles less loved-up takes on love the album briefly rises above the same old same old R&B. ‘Stepping Out The Door’ is the best track, both musically and lyrically. It’s the one song where the girl gets to be more than a benign foil for Terry’s declarations of love and is allowed to make the choice; in this case she’s leaving. The album ends with its other strong track, the slowed down ballad ‘When My Baby Needs Me’.
In the hands of more experienced artists (and better production values) these tracks would work even better. And maybe that’s what Terry is really pitching for with this album.
On listening to ‘Everything You Need’ I’m not sure what Terry wants to be (let alone who he wants to be): producer, singer, songwriter, businessman, svengali. Maybe he wants to be all of them.
As it stands ‘Everything You Need’ presents itself more as a calling card for the multi-talents of Terry: The Music Businessman rather than as a sampler for Terry: The Music Artist.
www.rxlrecords.com
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