Ten (Brian McKnight album)

In 2006, McKnight severed ties with the Motown label after the release of Gemini (2005), his fifth project with the record company.[1] Granted a new creative release after signing a new record deal Warner Bros. Records, he felt able to write material with a new-found "maturity and depth of honesty" for his next album,[2] his tenth project (including 2002's compilation album From There to Here: 1989-2002),[2] which he later described as "full of theme songs," inspired by his post-divorce life.[3] As with on previous albums, McKnight wrote and produced most of the material on Ten himself.[1] Additional collaborators include production duo Tim & Bob as well as Bryan-Michael Cox and his protegé WyldCard. American country music band Rascal Flatts appears on the song "Red, White, Blue."[1] "More Than Just a Thang," a duet with Jill Scott, failed to make the final track listing.[1]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
About.com	[4]
AllMusic	[5]
Entertainment Weekly	[6]

Mark Edward Nero from About.com found that McKnight's decision to leave Motown Records "has proven to be a good one for McKnight who sounds completely rejuvenated on his tenth album, appropriately titled Ten. Not only is Ten an all-around better album than his last Motown release, 2005's Gemini, it arguably ranks among his best three or four albums ever."[4] In his review for AllMusic, Andy Kellman remarked that "just about the smartest thing Brian McKnight could do in 2006 is collaborate with Tim & Bob, a veteran do-it-all studio duo who have quietly contributed to many of the best and/or most successful R&B tracks [...] With 2005's Gemini and this release – two of his finest albums – McKnight is on something of a roll."[5] Billboard magazine wrote: "Now an elder statesman in the R&B and pop arenas, McKnight offers another mood-setting mix of midtempo cuts and ballads."[7]

Margeaux Watson from Entertainment Weekly gave the album a C+ rating felt that "Brian McKnight’s slick sound is favored by the urban adult-contemporary set, and it’s unlikely he’ll win any new (read: young) fans with his 10th album. Mostly produced by the singer-songwriter himself, Ten is a merrily generic batch of R&B grooves and slow jams."[6] SoulTracks's Detrel Howell wrote that "Ten will more than likely shine for Brian McKnight's diehard fans who support his music without fail; for me, it wasn't chock full of all that I'd hoped for after hearing "Find Myself in You," but it won't be banished to the archives just yet."[8] Ben Ratliff, writing for The New York Times, found that on Ten McKnight was "working within a tradition, and one worth upholding, but not at the cost of [...] abject cliché. A lot of the record operates on autopilot."[9]

Ten debuted and peaked at number 32 on the US Billboard 200 in the week of December 23, 2006,[10] selling 63,000 copies in its first week of release.[11] It marked McKnights's lowest-charting album since 1992's Brian McKnight and was a considerable decline from his previous four efforts, all of which had reached the top ten of the Billboard 200.[10] The album also debuted at number four on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, becoming his fifth consecutive album to reach the top five.[12]