Suffering several push backs due to budgeting, songwriter and singer, Keri Hilson brings us here debut, In A Perfect World....
Turnin’ Me On: Street swaggering club banger from “Ms. Keri baby”, has a great beat from Polow Da Don. Lil’ Wayne’s typical unique and unusual metaphors are amusing, while Keri shows her Atlanta roots with her own diva style. An ode for the “dime divas” to ensure that the men are showing the correct manor to turn them on. 4/5
Set Your Money Up: Ladies anthem that shows how they can party it up and stack money as well. Keyshia Cole delivers a decent performance, a bit toned down than usual, while Trina brings her typical bada** swagger and boasts of Louis Vuitton and trips to Paris. 3/5
Return The Flavor: Worthy pop single that features some solid production on behalf of Timbaland, the call and response lyricism is fairly catchy. Not quite the big single that it was expected to be, but it’s decent. 3.5/5
Knock You Down: Extremely pop single and the perfect introduction for Keri, as far as mainstream. The hook is really catchy, as she croons about love knocking people down and staying strong to overcome these obstacles. Ne-Yo adds more pop presence with a cruise mode styled verse and Kanye comes back to normal form with no autotune and a good rap that incorporates some humor within the metaphors. 4.5/5
Slow Dance: While the track is seductive and a tad sexy, it ultimately falls into dullness. Its a nice track that has nice harmonizing, however the beat and her voice, just make the track a bit too sleepy, despite good vocals. 3/5
Make Love: The track fairs better as a ballad than the previous track and Keri’s vocals are more confident. Moments like this, show the singer having true talent and the track achieves its goal as a light ballad that shines from Hilson’s singing, which is also one of the first tracks on the album to allow her range. 4/5
Intuition: Reminds me a bit of Christina Millian’s “Dip It Low”, not in terms of lyrics, but more production and sound. Hilson sings about her feelings of her man messing up and leaving her single. Lyrically it is relatable to women, nice track here that features Hilson’s talented songwriting. 3.5/5
How Does It Feel: Decent club track that has some anthemic horns and confident vocals, but it just decent. The attitude and horns make the track, but it is just a mediocre effort. 3/5
Alienated: Decent midtempo here that has some buzzing synths and atmospheric vibe to it. Keri sings about needing to get rid of her man because she feels alienated. Decent track with airy vocals. 3/5
Tell Him The Truth: Knocking bass and semi-epic vibe, Keri ponders whether she should tell her man the truth. The track isn’t bad, but it becomes a bit dull. She slightly breaks out with some vocals and feeling towards the end, however it isn’t enough from the overall impact. Falls a bit short of expectations, but it’s passable. 3/5
Change Me: The track has all the soundings of a pop smash, however it can’t get out of mediocrity. Akon’s underwhelming performance is a bit disappointing, as he tries to express some soul, but it ends up sounding like a strained rock singer. The hook isn’t too catchy and the whole track ends up being a stylish mess. While the bridge smoothens things out a bit, the track has too much going on and in it, Keri and Akon can’t save the track. 2.5/5
Energy: A strong single that despite the good production and singing, somehow is lacking something and doesn’t fully capture your ear. Singing of heartbreak and how tiring the effort of a relationship is, Keri laments on this ballad midtempo well. 4/5
Where Did He Go: Decent finisher about Keri wondering where her man went. Calm and light crooning, however its just decent. 3/5
Do It: Good bonus here that has a catchy club style. 3.5/5
Suffering several setbacks, Keri delivers with her debut, as the producer trio of Danja, Timbaland and Polow Da Don helm most of the tracks. The album establishes Hilson’s skill in creating club bangers, as dirty south banger “Turnin’ Me On” with Lil’ Wayne works off unique production and some attitude in her singing. She proceeds with ladies anthem “Get Your Money Up” and the call response pop of “Return The Favor”, before bumping into the extremely catchy “Knock You Down” with a good Kanye verse and solid Ne-Yo verse. From here, the album goes into a much slower pace, some decent tracks and some that shine. While the overly smooth “Slow Dance” becomes a bit too soft, “Make Love” fairs much better and shows Hilson’s vocal talent, allowing her to let it out over pondering balladry twinkles. The ballad midtempo “Energy” is a solid single, but lacks something from being “that hit”, whereas the cluttered, overly busy and disappointing Akon performance of “Change Me” results in the album’s weakest track. Throughout the album, Hilson shows signs of superstar potential, however it is evident that she is still searching for her sound. With several other established divas in the game, she definitely has the talent and looks to join the elite few of Beyonce, Keyshia Cole, Ciara and Rihanna among others. You’d wish that she would let the vocals go more often, but a little misstep is to be expected with a debut. Nonetheless it is a strong pop album with an R&B touch that shows great potential and will satisfy fans that have been waiting.
Rating: 8 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment