The delay in the official release date has turned into almost an obligatory attribute to any new album. Looking at each other, rappers tend to postpone this action and justify it with most various circumstances. Such can be really serious reasons connected with troubles with the law, or some personal stuff like emotional stress, conflict with a label, and so on. One of the genre’s most promising representatives, T-Pain has also dragged out the process of issuing his fourth full-length effort, rEvolver, which, however, look rather like a tribute to fashion. The delay was not too big, and the audience did not even have time enough to get angry at the artist. Another expected thing was the abundant appearance of T-Pain’s colleagues, which again is an attempt to comply with the rules. On the other hand, guest performers will not let us get bored as we try the whole set of the album which, by the way, counts as many as seventeen tracks.
The first half of rEvolver features T-Pain resorting to tricks which his former works have been well-known for. This man does not strive to make his material as melodious as possible, but instead, he offers juicy beats and rich percussion. When tempo rises and new voices appear you know you have met another big thing on rEvolver. After the opening Bang Bang Pow Pow with Lil Wayne, where T-Pain speculates on rap’s favorite issues of money and relationships, comes a very nice dance track, Bottlez. Massive basses and spacious electronic sounds create strongest appeal. The same patterns work for It's Not You (It's Me). Soon, we will get to another fine song, 5'oclock. It is very much of ballad kind, and its main attraction is, no doubt, Lily Allen’s contribution. T-Pain, in his own turn, tries hard to master neo-soul singing. He would get A for enthusiasm, but has a long way to go to get his performance right. Another nice slow piece is Default Picture, a Twitter format love story. An unexpected piano past as a leading one gave another highlight, Drowning Again. The set is closed with a collaboration of T-Pain, and Ne-Yo called Turn All Lights On, another classy club work.
On the whole, rEvolver comes matching T-Pain’s high standards and shows one more time how comfortable he feels working in the format he developed for himself. The overall application Auto-Tune, not long ago considered a shameful deed, has become the artist’s trademark and most powerful weapon. However, it is so easy to notice him working hard to broaden the limits of his style as he experiments openly with R&B and attempts to sing in a manner still alien to him. Although rEvolver set is easily divided into apparent hits and secondary material, the songs here are placed in such a sequence that the CD is an amusing to its very end. Some would say T-Pain gives out much stronger performances as a guest artist while his solo efforts are just appendixes to his career. Even if really is so, we are still observing a big progress made the one who is looking to become anther stylish and original hip-hop trend maker.
Thr33 Ringz
Epiphany
Rappa Ternt Sanga
Carnival Ride 2007
This time Carrie Underwood has taken a more active part in songwriting than when working on her first album, so Carnival Ride has become a more personal creation for her and is sure to outshine its predecessor's success
