Chico Debarge's Addiction

His name may be Chico, but there is nothing boyish or juvenile about his music. Debarge is always on his grown-man game, when it comes to creating, and his recent album stays true to form. It nearly epitomizes smoothness, from the upright bass in “Nefertiti” and “Slick” (my favorite) to the funkiness of “Oh No.” Debarge has put together a gem, in which the only flaw that I saw was “Math.” It may grow on me, though. And as if Joe hasn’t done enough with that masterpiece of an album, “Signature,” and his rendition of “Can’t Get over You” on the All-Star Tribute to Frankie Beverly and Maze, he wrote what I feel could be every old player’s anthem, “Tell Ur Man,” and Debarge serves it up nicely. “Addiction,” for the most part, is like a glass of Jacques Cardin, after a rough day, it’ll smooth the wrinkles out of any moment and set a mellow kind of mood.