Ralph Tresvant is nearly overwhelmed by the strength of his affections on new single “All Mine.” For added firepower, the singer recruits his old group-mate Johnny Gill, who attacks the backing vocalist role with his characteristic intensity.
“All Mine” is co-written and produced by Gregg Pagani, who also has credits on overlooked gems like New Edition’s “This One’s For Me and You” and Charlie Wilson’s “There Goes My Baby.” While those were cheerfully mid-tempo, Tresvant’s latest single is a low-and-slow ballad, full of plush keys and light snaps. Tresvant alternates between grateful compliments — “You’re all I ever asked for, I can’t hold it in” — and winking come-ons: “I’m ready for dinner, but I ain’t talkin’ ’bout food.”
Tresvant and Gill have a history of singing together that reaches back more than three decades: The latter joined the former’s group, New Edition, in 1987, just in time to contribute to Heart Break, which remains the ensemble’s best album. The interplay between Tresvant’s light tenor, lancing and supple, and Gill’s cannonballing parts, melismatic and shattering, was a key element on classic ballads like “Can You Stand the Rain.”
Both singers went on to establish solo careers, but they periodically reconvene, like on “This One’s For Me and You,” an R&B hit in 2016. While Gill released three albums during the 2010s, Tresvant has mostly remained quiet. “All Mine” is his first new single in more than a decade.
