Bieber looks to shed his ‘Baby’ image

Justin Bieber
“Journals”
Island Def Jam/Universal

The Canadian teen pop sensation has dropped his latest studio album, looking to put his “Baby” days behind him by upping the sexual innuendo in his new 15-track album “Journals.”

The 19-year-old pop star is shying away from the cutesy pop songs of his first album and energetic electro beats of his previous album “Believe” and is showing a bit of maturity in his move to more R&B-inspired tunes. His new album has a number of melodically seductive tracks such as “Hold Tight” and “PYD,” which features the smooth vocals of R. Kelly. “PYD” may be the closest Bieber has ever skirted to sexually explicit lyrics with seductive lines such as “From the door, to the wall, coffee table, girl get ready, I’m gonna put you down all the way.”

He has shown signs of maturity too, covering a wider range of genres. The blues guitar melody and lagging tempo tone of “All that Matters” are quite catchy as is the guitar fingering and percussive beats of “Recovery.”

(juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)

R. Kelly returns with ‘Black Panties’

R. Kelly
“Black Panties”
RCA Records

In his previous couple of albums, R. Kelly had toned down his raw sex approach and tailored himself as a more youth-friendly Kelly. However, in his newest release “Black Panties,” the R&B artist has taken it to the far extreme, in a shameful and at times almost too-cheesy-for-words raunchy, frat house sex album.

With tracks such as “Marry the P**sy,” “Crazy Sex,” “Every Position” and “Show Ya P**sy,” R. Kelly is overdoing his attempts to prove that he’s still at the top of his R&B swag and ends up doing quite the opposite in revealing his desperate attempts in these not-so-seductive singles.

With lyrics such as “Gonna go down on my knees and ask that p**sy to marry me” or “Cookie, cookie, cookie, I’m a cookie monster ... like an Oreo I love to lick the middle,” Kelly takes more than decent sensual beats and kills the mood with such crass and immature lyrics to the point where listeners may wonder whether or not they accidently purchased a Weird Al Yankovic spoof album by mistake.

The album’s only saving grace were his vocals, helping prevent the release from being a total flop. “Genius” is one of the few tracks that are worth a listen and best shows off on his trademark velvety voice.

(juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)

Rain fails to impress in comeback album

Rain
“Rain Effect”
Loen Entertainment

In his rushed attempt to quickly make his return to the music scene after his military discharge, Rain has fallen short of hyped expectations on one of the K-pop industry’s most anticipated comebacks in recent years.

The singer, actor, performer and all around entertainer Rain has dropped his sixth studio album “Rain Effect,” a mere six months after his military discharge that kept him on a near two-year hiatus. Coming more than five years after his previous full studio album “Rainism,” the hallyu star had K-pop fans on their toes hoping for a giant, knock-out return. Unfortunately, the dance album with its lack of growth and diversity is less than impressive and doesn’t stray too far from any of his previous releases.

“Rain Effect” features 10 tracks including two title songs “La Song” and “30Sexy.” While “La Song” does have a cool circus fanfare as the chorus, both the tracks in general are lacking in listening value and rather are really influenced on Rain’s visual choreography attached to the singles.

(juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)