Comin' From Where I'm From

09/18/2003 4:00 PM, LAUNCH
Dan Leroy

When Anthony Hamilton dropped his debut, XTC, to deaf ears five years ago, urban music still didn't have much Southern exposure or identity. Things have certainly changed: these days, the "country and proud" crowd is growing all the time, and the Charlotte native, who's provided hooks for Eve and Nappy Roots, counts himself among it on his second album. But the down-home trappings--Hamilton's camo hunting gear; the obligatory soul-food song ("Cornbread, Fish & Collard Greens")--prove fairly inessential to this collection. What sticks in the memory is simply a voice that transmits hurt and desire almost transparently. Surrounded with sympathetic Soulquarian production that matches its ebb and flow, it rises to majestic heights on "Float," a slow jam of aching beauty and horniness, and wallows in the mire on the title track, which transcends its overused letter-from-prison format and has you straining to hear the sorry tale anyway. Hamilton's hometown matters little during such moments, and there are enough of them here to recommend this disc--wherever you're comin' from.