(Dreamworks)
Dave Hollister can sing. On his three previous solo albums, his numerous collaborations and his work with Teddy Riley's Blackstreet, Hollister has proven his bold, smooth voice to be one of the best in the business.
But great albums do not rely on expert singing alone.
No, a good R&B album takes thoughtful songwriting and caring production. When these things come together for Hollister, he stands head and shoulders above most contemporaries.
On his fourth solo album, , Hollister packs a gritty, hip-hop sensibility behind his velvety crooning. Reluctant to fit one R&B archetype, Hollister shifts themes repeatedly, from painful to sexy and from hedonistic to regretful.
But with its lack of focus and shortcomings in lyricism and production, is a frustrating album that allows tastes of what Hollister could be, bracketed by average filler and laughably bad throwaway tracks.
The album opens strangely with Hollister's interpretation of James Brown's \The Big Payback."" Hollister warns that payback is ""coming to a hater near you,"" but the threat sounds too Nate Dogg-ish and smells of insincere posing.
""Bad When You Broke"" meets Hollister's goal of not glossing over the pain of life in the ghetto, and he makes his point forcefully enough that the four other similarly themed jams on the disc seem redundant.
The first radio release, ""Never Gonna Change"" boasts a tight beat, but strained lyricism make the first sign of real production value feel wasted.
""Never Gonna Change"" is, unfortunately, not nearly the zenith of the album's bizarre lyrical content. ""Reason with Your Body"" finds Hollister telling a woman ""I need you bad as old folks need soft shoes / I'm drunk off your love like I've had too much Absolut.""
While one song with unintentionally funny lyrics would be excusable, even expected from a singer lending a beautiful voice to other peoples words, over half of the songs on the album include verbal passes guaranteed to induce groans from attentive listeners.
On ""Winning With You,"" Hollister spins awkward-to-the-point-of-distracting sports metaphors over what would be one of the head- nod-able beats on the disc.
""Case is Closed"" walks adventurous couples through a law enforcement sex fantasy. And indeed, for those sexually aroused by irony, Hollister may have hit the mark, but it will leave most listeners wondering if he is joking.
It is testament to Hollister's enormous talent that he can sing average words in a way that makes you forget their mediocrity. His voice is almost enough on its own to obscure the weaknesses of the album's numerous co-producers.
That's why it is so frustrating when on ""Pleased Tonight,"" over live instrumentation, Hollister offers up the kind of sweaty, box spring-busting joint that, in greater numbers, could carry a whole album. If the songwriting on the rest of the album matched the passion Hollister puts into singing ""Pleased Tonight,"" this would be a different, very good album.
But brings it all together on just enough tracks to show how good Hollister's next album could be if he gets with the right songwriters and producers.
(Elektra)
At her best, Missy Elliot is tough to beat in the world of hip-hop. She makes a lot of her own beats and works better than anyone with world-class producer Timbaland. She creates catchy, danceable songs with a sexual bravado worthy of Mick Jagger and a sense of humor that makes all of her self-aggrandizing worthwhile. On , Elliot has created a monumental tribute to herself. Sadly, the result is not particularly good.
The album is mostly filler, inexcusable for an album that features collaborations with such talent as Jay-Z, Nelly, Monica and Mary J. Blige. On songs like ""Keep it Movin',"" she makes unsuccessful dabbles into reggae-fused beats. On ""Dat's What I'm Talkin' About,"" featuring R. Kelly, she creates what could have been a gloriously sultry song, but instead it is derailed by a ham-fisted beat that kills the mood. The album is plagued by useless intros and interludes, and even in its most focused moments, most of the beats only seem like pale attempts at matching ferocity of her best work.
This is not to say that the album is without bright spots. With its feet planted in '70s funk, ""Toyz"" is possibly the best ode to masturbation in the history of hip-hop. And songs like ""Pass That Dutch"" and ""Let It Bump"" are fun at first. But eventually, a lot of the album's beats begin to sound alike, which is musical suicide for someone who likes to place herself at the cutting edge of dance rap.
The inconsistency of Elliot's tone is also a problem. On the album's intro, she calls on 2Pac, Notorious B.I.G. and Aaliyah. But it feels inappropriate for someone exercising almost strictly in the field of party music to make claims to the legacy of two of rap's most thoughtful contributors, while with Aaliyah, it feels like she is merely milking the memory of a dead friend. On ""Wake Up,"" she delivers a message for rap to change its ways, but the song features a verse from Jay-Z that seems to completely miss the point. Elliot's forays into message songs simply do not work.
But the bigger problem is how uninspired the album feels. On ""Pump It Up,"" featuring Nelly, we can hear how great collaboration between Elliot and Nelly might have been. Instead, we get a lackluster taste from two of music's greatest partiers. The whole album is marked by an absence of the manic energy that makes her best work so great.
Throughout , Elliot makes allegiances to old-school rap and classic funk and soul. She stands out against gangsta rap and talks about freedom of expression. But if she wants to do any of those things, she should do it when she is strong enough to compare to the best version of herself. On this album, that simply is not the case.
(i4) ??
EXO's past performances have suggested that the band has a long way to go. Fortunately, their new album, , shows that they are coming along, at least a little bit.
""God Save the Milky Way"" has pumped riffs and features the in-your-face, catchy lyrics that they have lacked in the past. One example is: ""God made the junkies / And God made molesters / And God made the mothers of genocide's commanders."" The rest of the album is OK and almost good-it has potential of growing on a listener, but is far from becoming an instant hit.
Meanwhile, ""Unsteady"" sounds, at best, like a cheap knockoff of?? Soundgarden. The chorus, ""I am unsteady,"" sounds vaguely like ""So now you know,"" the first line of the chorus from Soundgarden's ""Outshined.""??""A Day like Today"" is musically flat, but the chorus is enticing, especially lyrically: ""Ritalin, I take a lot of it / Vicadin, I take a lot of it / Just to feel somewhat healthy / Morphine, I take a lot of it / Nicotine, I take a lot of it / Just to feel I am not crazy."" ""Hey, Mr. Everything,"" like ""Unsteady,"" has an alluring heavy, early '90s grunge sound, yet it does not specifically sound like one of the famous grunge bands.
EXO's mix of alternative and grunge stylings are appealing to those listeners who have an acquired a taste for those genres. Oddly, the band's lead singer Scott Tallardia's vocals make him sound like a British pop singer. Luckily, he does not sound like the Eddie Vedder type that is common in bands who emulate grunge, yet ironically he does not sound like a regular Chicagoan.??This leaves the chance that on their next album , they might morph their sound into more of a blend of rock and pop. Either way, it is obvious that EXO has greatly improved their musical repertoire since their early days and are now almost worth seeing.
