Jazmine Sullivan - "Live A Lie" (mp3 link removed by Blogger)

I didn't know much about what to expect from Jazmine Sullivan's debut album, Fearless, other than that it features one of my favorite R&B singles of the year, "Need U Bad." And in some ways that song's a red herring, and in some ways it gives you a good idea of what to expect. It's the only song with any reggae overtones, and it's a bit breezier and more immediately accessible than the rest of the album. But almost every song on the album is about some kind of romantic angst, and is sung with the same spleen-venting intensity. If you tire of R&B vocalists who oversing everything regardless of the nature of the material, you'll find this to be an exhausting listen, along the lines of a Keyshia Cole record or the last Alicia Keys album. There's a whole lot of wronged woman revenge fantasies on here, which might be OK if "Call Me Guilty" was as fiery as "Ring The Alarm," or "Bust Your Windows" (one of my least favorite R&B singles of the year) wasn't a pretty tame tale of vengeful car destruction compared to "Before He Cheats." And really, Sullivan just doesn't quite sell those songs with any tangible passion or anger, it just sounds like she's blaring and blaring without projecting the emotion those kinds of songs need.

But there's also a lot of playful, diverse genre-hopping on Fearless that saves it from being a totally fatiguing vocal showcase. The bonus track "Switch" (which is a bonus track and not part of the proper album for no apparent reason, which always bugs me) and "One Night Stand" grate on me with their cutesy girl group harmonies and Mark Ronson-style Disney retro production, but I could see people really liking those songs. And there are string-driven songs almost completely devoid of drums like "Lions, Tigers & Bears" that take the album fully out of radio R&B territory, or even out of the type of unorthodox territory you'd expect from an album featuring production and songwriting by Missy Elliott. But it's actually Salaam Remi, the producer who's been underrated and insulted by insinuation every time someone says later Nas albums don't have good beats, who really shines on the album's more offbeat arrangements. In fact, one of the most intriguing things about Fearless is that 5 of the songs produced by Remi credit samples of original compositions recorded by Salaam Remi, which makes me curious if he has some unreleased solo album out there that's only making its way to the public through repurposed versions on Sullivan's album.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 20, 2008 at 9:53 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.