Time to Move

Albumrecension

Crosby Loggins won MTV's 2008 contest Rock the Cradle, a reality show where the offspring of celebrities faced off to prove who was the most talented, but it's fair to say that he had a leg up on the competition, as he was the only one fronting his own band and touring on a regular basis. Once he conquered Rock the Cradle, he was poised to move from the minors to the big leagues and so he did, signing with Jive, leaving his backing band the Light behind in favor of a set of studio pros directed by producer John Alagia, who helmed records by Dave Matthews Band and John Mayer. The latter makes a cameo on "Time to Move," the title track of Loggins' 2009 major-label debut, adding some thick, brown-toned blues fills that momentarily goose the album out of its sweet, sleepy sway. But the moment passes as quickly as the sprightly "Radio Heart" — the only song on Time to Move that could conceivably bear that description — leaving a lasting impression of Crosby Loggins as a too-sensitive soul, crooning candied words of love to a girlfriend whose heart he won a long time ago. Vocally, Crosby sounds closer to the son of James Taylor than Kenny Loggins, his friendly, warm, yet thin singing sometimes uncannily recalling a safer Sweet Baby James, something that gives Time to Move a slight classicist feel, even when the production has a bit of the modern immaculate, slightly chilly, touch of Coldplay. Of course, Loggins never indulges in the pomp and circumstance of Chris Martin; he's deliberately, proudly intimate, creating tunes on such a small scale they could happily float away, or at least be overshadowed by another music from a more demonstrative artist, perhaps someone along the lines of Jason Mraz. Loggins may indeed come across like a male version on the breezy charms of Colbie Caillat but that means he's pleasant, placid, and likeable which is, in the words of the album's opening song, good enough.