Keri Hilson: "Turnin' Me On" (Feat. Lil' Wayne)

Keri Hilson has been around the music industry for quite a long time. Penning singles for a plethora of A-list pop and R&B stars from Britney Spears to Chris Brown, Hilson has been the lyricist behind a variety of hit singles. In spite of this behind the boards success, it has been quite a struggle for Hilson to launch her solo career. With her debut album "In a Perfect World" originally scheduled for a mid-2007 release date, the album has been delayed an indefinitely amount of times (currently scheduled for an early 2009 release), most likely due to her two stalled single attempts "Energy" and "Return the Favor", songs that were appealing yet failed to catch on with mainstream pop or urban audiences.

Now her third attempt at a breakthrough single, "Turnin' Me On" differs drastically from her first two singles both melodically and production-wise. Produced by the ubiquitous urban producer Polow Da Don, Hilson has gone street, adopting a suggestive, spoken-word flow on the verses and an equally evocative slang on the hook that is sparse yet addictive. The minimal drum beats, hand claps, and bass add a catchiness to this single that was missing from Hilson's first two attempts. Moreover, Lil Wayne adds a guest verse, an all too obvious ploy by her record label to generate more interest in the single. However, at this point in Hilson's solo career, this is an entirely savvy move, as this single's commercial sucesss will determine whether or nor Hilson's debut album will ever see the light of day. Time will tell whether or not this single becomes a hit, but in this reviewer's opinion, you need to add this song to your itunes immediately.

Jamie Foxx's "Intuition" Is a Tale of Two Halves

It has been nearly 3 years since Oscar and Grammy award winner Jamie Foxx has released a studio album. His 2005 record "Unpredictable" -- in spite of mixed reviews and entirely mediocre material -- was a surprise hit, certified double platinum (essentially due to his Oscar winning portrayal as Ray Charles in "Ray") and produced a #1 R&B hit of the same title. Now 41 years older and removed from the hype of his acting success, Foxx aims to replicate this commercial success with "Intuition", an equally star-studded affair featuring guest spots from a slew of A-listers including Lil Wayne, Kanye West, The-Dream, T.I., and Ne-Y0, just to name a few. In several interviews leading up to the album's release, Foxx asserted this unlike his previous record -- which features an overkill of slow-jams -- this album is "aimed more towards the clubs."

And, for the most part, Foxx wasn't lying, as nearly the first half of "Intuition" sizzles with thumping beats and addictive hooks. The Tricky Stewart-produced lead single "Just Like Me" takes an Usher leftover and transforms it into a sleek, skittering piece perculating with exuberance. The ensuing five song string of the album is a stellar showcase of modern R&B production, featuring funky, futuristic beats from Timbaland, Just Blaze, The-Dream, and newcomber Christopher "Deep" Henderson that are both radio and club ready. However, once the record reaches its titular interlude, it loses all of its momentum. Although the second half of the record features similarly professional production, its reliance on slow jams grows samely, particularly on the tedious and quite cliched Tricky-Stewart jam "Slow" and equally dull "Overdose."

Although Foxx is indeed pushing his mid 40s, his chameleon-like status and confidence really sells the stellar first half of the record, a party-ready stretch that sounds like a record coming from a twenty-something, nor a man of middle-age. From the beat-boxing bounce of Timbaland's "I Don't Need It" to Just Blaze's ingenious interploration of The Beastie Boy's "The New Style" on "Number One", there are a number of potential hit singles frontloaded in the album's first twenty minutes. Ironically, when Foxx plays the mature loverman role on the album's later half, he comes off awkward, stale, and just downright dull. Nonetheless, "Intuition" deserves a listen, regardless of its second half slump. Or at least for twenty minutes.

Brandy: Long Distance

Brandy has surely had a difficult last few years. After her 2004 release "Afrodisiac" failed to be a commercial success, Brandy struggled with many personal setbacks, the biggest of which included her 2006 car crash which left a bystander dead and Brandy facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit early next year. However, for now, Brandy's focus in 2008 is back on music, already delivering her first single from her new album (appropriately titled "Human", a not-so-subtle nod to her personal struggles) called "Right Here (Departed)" with moderate success across urban, rhythmic and pop radio platforms. Follow-up single "Long Distance" is an interesting departure for Brandy, for it is decidedly a reversion back to her late 90's big ballad smash "Have You Ever?" and is by far the least urban sounding record Brandy has put out in years. That said, it is a beautifully building record that features sweepingly dramatic choruses, an emotional refrain, and big orchestral instrumentation at the climax that wouldn't be out of place on a Josh Groban record. If this makes the record sound a bit dated -- well, it may be -- and this big ballad of a single will have a tough time finding its niche on Top 40 radio, with bouncy, upbeat records like Britney's "Circus" and Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" dominating most of the airwaves lately. At the very least, it is nice to hear Brandy on record again, and for someone who has endured so much turmoil in recent months, she has never sounded more at ease.

Mims: MOVE (If You Wanna)

You have been warned: the new single from New York rapper Mims, best known for his ubiquitous crossover single "This Is Why I'm Hot" and quasi-hit follow-up "Like This", called "Move (If You 'Wanna'), is a blazing club bouncer, equipped with a hard-hitting drum loop and deliriously deliable hook that's sure to be a hit on urban and ryhthmic stations this coming month. Similar in production to Busta Rhymes' "Touch It", Mims brings something new to the sparse call-and-clap rap formula by revving up the single with a swirling, heavenly like strings, then switching up his flow on the verses. Produced by Chicago based producers Da Internz, this single was sent to radio in October but has only now started to see some spins on rhythmic radio. Although it may lack enough pop sensibility to generate major airplay on pop radio (the latest trend on Top 40 favors dance records over rap), it deserves to be heard. So go ahead, download this record (available now on itunes), and Move (but only if you wanna).

Kanye: 808's and Too Much Heartbreak!

2008 has been a difficult year for Kanye West; from the death of his mother to the splitting from his long-time fiancée Alexis Phifer, West has endured hardships that clearly have influenced his artistic vision. To add to these personal adversities, West has just come off a mentally draining hip-hop tour. Instead of opting for the more traveled path of a worn-out superstar — entering faux-retirement or simply seeking a low-profile — West unsurprisingly defied conventions and threw himself into the studio, rush releasing 808s & Heartbreak just in time for the holidays. His fourth album in five years, this record oozes with equal parts raw emotion and unfinished production. Whether West is lamenting the end of a romance or lashing out at his critics, 808s & Heartbreak is a bleak, utterly serious affair from an artist seeking a therapeutic release.

While this outpouring of emotion may be healing for West, his disarming joylessness makes for an uneven listen, as this album is as fascinating as it is flawed. For the first time, West sings every song on the record, (with the aid of the T-Pain-popularized auto-tune vocoder) a feat commendable for his fearlessness and not his vocal abilities. Nonetheless, West’ s equally heavy reliance on the Roland TR-808 drum machine (does the album title make sense now?) is overbearing, as nearly every track toes the line between innovative and lazily uninspired.

Promising album opener “Say You Will” and effective “Welcome to Heartbreak” are the former — featuring ominous drum loops, menacingly foreboding synthesizers, and hauntingly sparse piano riffs that are imaginative sounds for West. Lead single “Love Lockdown” is a fusion of efficiently melancholic verses and a climaxing, tribal-drumming chorus. The same applies for follow-up single “Heartless” and album closer "Coldest Winter” — both of which pair lingering drum loops with West’s anguished vocals.

All of this amounts to an album that, although it should be praised for its honesty and ambition, grows sluggish and plodding. Uptempo “Paranoid” — in spite of its burnished, buoyant ’80s synths — is bogged down by West’s woeful rhymes lamenting a relationship gone wrong. The hopeful strings on “RoboCop” are drowned out by an impossibly dense bass line. The intimate, bare-bones production of “Street Lights” attempts to build a personal rapport but ends up falling flat. Even album highlight “Amazing” — with its addictive, hypnotic verses — finds West admitting “I’m exhausted, barely breathing” in a dejectedly droning manner.

In the end, this record will be remembered as the work of an artist working through a trying transition personally and artistically. Ironically, West’s boastful on-record persona — a presence that has been detrimental to some of his previous work — could have provided this album with some much needed punch. In spite of its sizeable flaws, 808s & Heartbreak still deserves a chance, as it serves as a testament to West’s artistic audacity, however afflicted it might be.

American Idol Winner Cook Sizzles on Debut Disc

After I reviewed little David Archuleta’s debut -- which I gave a positive critique of -- I was spurned by a plethora of Archie-loving loonies, criticized for being too hard on the seventeen year old. One week later after Archie released his self-titled album, it was David Cook’s turn in the spotlight, and while I don’t anticipate the same back-lash from Cook extremists, treat this review as one of unbiased intention.

During much of his run last season on American Idol, David Cook drew many comparisons to season five’s resident-rocker Chris Daughtry. Not only was Cook’s style harder-edged than the competition — especially in the context of Idol — he even pulled the same advantage-grabbing stunts that Daughtry did. Cook emerged from the franchise’s most talented season primed to be the first contestant who can hold his own with his Idols.

Of course, the difference between Cook and Daughtry is that Cook won the freaking competition, a feat fourth-place finisher Daughtry could not achieve. This loss certainly didn’t diminish Daughtry’s multi-platinum success, and Cook’s win actually presents a significant challenge. Unlike Daughtry, who had nearly two years to distance himself from the show’s sugary-pop associations, Cook has no such luxury, needing to rush out an album that skirts the line between hard-rocking and Idol-appropriate — a record that solidifies his alternative, post-grunge rock credibility, while still catering to the vastly diverse Idol audience that supported him, from swooning soccer moms to angst-ridden teenagers.

And while this obligatory nod to all audiences has catapulted several post-Idol contestants into super-stardom (Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson), it also has resulted in embarrassingly misguided debuts (Taylor Hicks, Bo Bice), demoting contestants that showed artistic vision on the show into second-rate pop-rock balladeers. Thankfully, Cook avoids this pitfall, as his eponymous debut is a diverse, winning combination of poignant pop ballads and rolling rock anthems.

Surging album opener “Declaration” sets the stage, as Cook effectively builds from a haunting, sparse guitar riff into a swelling chorus. Lead single “Light On” and “Heroes” follow suit, pairing professional songwriting craft by Chris Cornell and Cathy Dennis with Cook’s soaring vocals. Sweeping, U2-esque mid-tempo “Come Back to Me” and hardest-rocking gem “Bar-ba-sol” are arena anthems in the making — perfectly suited for stadiums filled with cell-phone waving, Cook-loving crazies. Nevertheless, the most indelible moments on David Cook are when he tones down the guitars and amps up the emotion, as is the case on the stirring “Lie” or on the compellingly uncomplicated “Permanent.”

Even when the album is lyrically uneven (“Life on the Moon”), feels sort of forced (“Mr. Sensitive”) or is slightly generic (“I Did It For You”), David Cook is held together by the winner’s charming growl and Green Day-producer Rob Cavallo’s welcomed rock flourishes. With a voice that is more versatile than nearly every artist to come out of the Idol machine, David Cook is a multi-format monster in the making, a record that stays true to Cook’s identity while still appealing to the same pop-rock and adult-contemporary-loving audiences that got him here.

Archuleta Amazes with Likeable Debut

If you were anything like me during last season’s American Idol, you wanted to violently vomit every time runner-up David Archuleta opened his mouth. His endlessly flowing earnestness and gosh-darn-it shtick eclipsed his tremendous vocal abilities on the show, as little David always seemed far older than his 17 years. And yet, it is this maturity level from Archuleta that makes his eponymous debut shockingly engaging. Even if it is undoubtedly the squarest record ever to come out of the Idol machine — Archie is about as hip and cool as Clay Aiken is straight — David Archuleta is an annoying indelible listen, full of swelling poppy choruses that become engrained into your subconscious.

Nowhere is this catchiness more apparent than in the record’s opening sequence, a string of five songs that each features an identifiable hook that won’t leave you no matter how much you try. From the charming lead single “Crush” to the soaring “A Little Too Not Over You,” Archuleta finds the balance between age-appropriate lyrics and adult-oriented musicality. Not everything works on his debut — the terribly trite ballads “You Can” and “To Be With You” just reiterate how hackneyed Archuleta sounded on AI — but when the melodies outshine the clichés, David Archuleta is a remarkably promising debut from an artist that seemed destined for a train wreck.