Marques Houston: A Music Vet at Age 25

Marques Houston returns with his third solo album, Veteran. Even though his last album was titled Naked, Veteran exposes Marques for the true talent he is, bringing the most vocally strong album of his career.

The introduction sets the tone as a recording of Marques as a toddler tells the world one day he will be rich and famous, then Marques of today gives a list of his achievements dating back to when he was about eight-years-old with the released his first album as the lead singer of the group Immature explaining why he can now call himself a veteran.

he album is reminiscent of his days as a pre-teen consisting of mostly ballads and mid-tempo songs. There is one song fit for the clubs called, "Like This," featuring rap artist Young Joc. Another song which is not as "crunk" but has a more southern snap your fingers style is, "How You Just Gonna." In the song Marques actually raps in a style almost copy cat to the way David Banner raps in his song "Play," but regardless the beat is sure to be addictive.

Marques is very tender on Veteran oppose to his last album Naked where he was very blunt. Houston bought back romance, especially with the track "Holding Back" featuring R&B singer Mya and female rapper Shawna from Disturbing Tha Peace (DTP) also known as the rapper Ludacris' clique. Mya's performance with Marques is very sweet and the rap that Shawna provides doesn't subtract from the mood of the song. Although the underlining topic is sex it is not so overtly discussed like in a previous songs from Naked such as "Sex With You" and "Would You Mind" or the famous "Naked".

Unfortunately, the track titled "Kimberly", which has been long awaited, (this is suppose to have been the name of a girlfriend), should have been on the album Naked, due to the sexual content of this song. Marques decides to boast about being a great lover; it seems like if you have to talk about your greatness in the bed maybe you aren't so great but, it is important to remember this is just a song and if there is a "Kimberly" out there then she knows the truth. Overall it seems that Marques must have been studying the sound of Prince, because this song musically has similarities with the legend's style.

For a fan it seems like the album is over in no time, leaving you wanting more. Overall Marques has yet to out do himself, but this is surely a classic wonderful piece that is really good music with a strong vocal performance.