T-PAIN

rEVOLVEr
Sony Music

Two years after his profession was more or less deaded by Jay-Z via Death Of Auto-Tune, T-Pain returns with his long delayed rEVOLVEr LP, a record that promises less Auto-Tune and more actual singing.

Whatever the reason, rEVOLVEr forgoes almost any signifiers that might pigeonhole the Florida-native and Nappy Boy frontman. The album opens with Bang Bang Pow Pow and Bottelz, two songs that have far more to do with megaclub dance-pop than with R&B. Like his best songs they’re light, expertly constructed and just a touch insipid.

However, although T-Pain’s lyrics are clever, his guests’ vocals (provided by the likes of Lily Allen and Chris Brown) repeatedly seep down over T-Pain like syrup, eventually covering them whole. So while T-Pain’s robotic voice is still the album’s signature, it becomes increasingly apparent how much it has also become a limitation.

But while T-Pain is outshined, he is not outmanoeuvred. He has done something only an extremely secure and forward-thinking artist could do: create the circumstances of his own obsolescence, and profit from them.

In the end, what this record ultimately boils down to is whether or not you’re tired of the incessant vocoder effect. If you are, this really isn’t for you. But if you’ve learnt to love the now-mainstream “holy grail of recording,” T-Pain does it better than anyone.

_JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD

xpressradio by X-Press Magazine

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