On I Know, his 14th solo album and first for Virgin Records, Vandross ups the ante with broader strokes of jazz, funk and dance -- sounds that have always been a part of his music -- here Luther-ized, made his own. The balladry that helped all of his previous albums achieve platinum, double or multi - platinum status and generated many of his 22 Top Ten R & B singles is still confidently smooth, and yet intricate and involved. The title track, a gentle testimonial of a passion that defies the status quo, is one of the album's many luxuriant love songs and future pop hits. But I Know is a revitalized Luther, and it presents a more complete picture of the artist than ever. "It's great to have a new start with a new label that I've long admired," Vandross says of his new Virgin family. "For them to receive the album the way that they have, gives me an indication that I did a lot of things right with this. I want people to know that this album was a labor of love, that it's real, and to know how much I enjoyed making it." From the sympathetic exhilaration of "Keeping My Faith In You" to the sublime satisfaction of "Now That I Have You," those spirits of caring, truth and pleasure can be felt throughout what is perhaps Vandross' most pervasively upbeat album. In a career that found its first success when the young singer launched one of his songs in the Broadway show The Wiz, then went to the next level when he landed a gig as one of David Bowie's background singers on Young Americans, going a bit higher when Vandross became one of the most popular session and jingle singers of the '70s, and hitting a plateau as Vandross released his double-platinum solo debut in 1981, Never Too Much, that's been non-stop ever since, I Know's jubilation is quite an achievement.