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March 19, 2010

Ear Shot: Trey Songz "Ready"

R&B singer performs Saturday at Conseco Fieldhouse

Trey Songz

“Ready”

Atlantic

Rating: 2 stars (of 4)

Trey Songz (born Tremaine Aldon Neverson) makes clear from the first line of the first song on “Ready” that he’s a student of the R. Kelly school: “This right here’s a panty-dropper,” he croons. The voice is undeniable — smooth and sweet as an eclair — but the sentiment, however true, just seems trite. Even the clever conceits of the hyper-horny “Neighbors Know My Name” — with its plucked strings and squibbly keyboards — and “I Invented Sex,” wear out their welcome. Listeners who last through these tiring early tracks will move into a hip-hop-flavored middle section that includes the No. 5 single “Say Aah,” featuring Fabolous, and “LOL:),” featuring Gucci Mane and Soulja Boy. The latter an ode to digital seduction set to a toy piano and schoolyard chant. The most genuine and personal moments on “Ready,” are pushed to the end. Album highlight “Black Roses” tells the tale of a withering romance, bouncing with a restrained club beat and keyboard arpeggio: “Who knew our love would ever be called a memory?/Who knew our home for happiness would be misery?” Another broken-hearted tale, “Yo Side of the Bed,” closes the album with Wurlitzer and Songz sounding like Prince, ad-libbing over electric guitar: “I don’t want to sleep if you ain’t here/I just wanna breathe your air, watch you when you’re wrapping up your hair.” “Ready” earned a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary R&B; album, but the Virginia-born Songz seems better suited to romantic turmoil than slow-jam seduction. “Successful” makes the cliches all the more frustrating by suggesting that Songz understands the shallowness, but succumbs to it, anyway: “I want the money, the cars and the clothes,” he sings, mournfully. “I suppose, I just want to be successful.” Surely, modern R&B;’s most talented signers deserve a better fate.

Trey Songz will appear at Conseco Fieldhouse on Saturday with Jay-Z and Young Jeezy.



— Reviewed by staff writer Justin Schneider, The Herald Bulletin

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