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Why we don’t recommend it: nothing special, nothing really T-Pain
Recommended track: “Fantasy” is a saving grace that is at least T-Pain material
The album “Revolver” is the fourth studio album by T-Pain released on Dec. 2, 2011. Though the artist confirmed that the recording for the album was completed in 2010, he delayed the release due to concerns about the deteriorating music market. And the album probably won’t do much good for the market.
Stylized as “RevolveЯ” so that without the R’s at the end the middle spells evolve, the title is a misnomer; none of the 14 tracks exhibit any evolution of T-Pain as an artist.
The official single of the title track “Best Love Song” featuring Chris Brown was released on March 22 and garnered significant attention worldwide but it might as well be Brown’s track featuring T-Pain. YouTube covers of the track by aspiring artists online are more interesting than the original.
“Fantasy” featuring female singer Dawn is the only offering that carries T-Pain’s style of sexual lyrics carried with his weirdly soothing voice.
“Drowning Again,” one of those songs on the rich and famous artist’s heart-felt loneliness and search of true love in every rapper’s album, is painfully (no pun intended) trite, both lyrically and melodically.
“Take Your Shirt Off” has a fast beat that reminds listeners of one of T-Pain’s biggest hits, “Too Low” featuring Flo Rida. Yet it lacks the catchiness that actually makes one want to dance.
Interesting is a line from the song, “now answer this: is Auto-Tune really dead?”
In 2009, rapper Jay-Z released “D.O.A” (Death of Auto-Tune) to criticize how too many artists are relying on vocal-aid technology that corrects one’s pitch and creates a unique digital sound.
Much attention was directed to T-Pain as he is known for his signature voice and melody created by using Auto-Tune. His platinum discs like ``Buy U a Drank,'' ``Can't Believe It'' and ``Good Life'' with Kanye West all have the digitized sound that screams “this is a T-Pain song!”
Many anticipated that the artist would abandon the technology all together for his new release but he did just the opposite. In an interview with the Associate Press on the new album earlier this month he said, “No. It (the criticism on rampant Auto-Tune use) made me do it more, just to annoy the hell out of people.”
However, the album did not have to be Auto-Tune free to showcase T-Pain’s new chapter as a once hit maker.
One and a half star out of four.
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