Though prolific as a writer/producer of R&B, soul, hip hop etc, for his first UK number one, R Kelly steps outside one box and into another by coming up with the most eighties of eighties power ballads. Not exactly a genre crying out for a revival I’m sure you’ll agree, but what the hell - I'm happy to go along with him in the name of nostalgia. So, tremulous verse leading into arms aloft chorus of gurning inspiration that begs for dry ice start pumping stage left? Check; 'I Believe I Can Fly' has all this to spare in its balladry par excellence, but what Kelly forgets to add is the 'power' element of the equation. And he forgets to add it because he doesn’t seem to realise that he HAS in fact written an eighties power ballad.
The potential to soar is there alright, but the would be smooth groove clip clops like a lame mule while Kelly himself delivers his lyric with the hesitancy of a man perched up on a twenty story balcony with a set of home made glue and feather wings strapped to his arms, gingerly eyeing the drop below; 'I Believe I Can Fly' has an in-built wilt that makes it more pep talk than genuine aspiration. Maybe that's closer to the truth at that - it's fortunate that 'I Believe' has proved a popular song over the years and there are no end of alternate covers that do manage to take the lid off.
But even in the hands of a full-blown gospel star like Yolanda Adams, 'I Believe I Can Fly' is still self-help therapy masquerading as popular song; a 'Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway ' set to music or the Rocky theme with words. If it’s the kind of social Vaseline that to inspires you to 'go for it' then good luck to you, but for me there’s something cynical at the heart of all this - whether that heart is the songs or mine I don't know (sharing the sleeve with Bugs Bunny is no credibility aid), but 'I Believe I Can Fly' is functionality personified, sparks none of my plugs and whatever Mr Kelly is feeling is passing me by. Or perhaps flying over my head.
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