Track Listing:
1. Get 'Em Girls (featuring Snoop Dogg)
2. Handle It
3. Accelerate That
4. Scariest Part
5. Saturday Night (featuring Ludacris)
6. What Happened to Us
7. Reconnected
8. Like This
9. Foreign
10. Can Anybody Tell Me
11. Fight For You
12. Maze
13. Here For Me
14. No One Like You
15. Forget Your Name (bonus track)
Part of why Aussie pop/R&B princess and Australian Idol graduate Jessica Mauboy enjoyed such success with her debut solo album Been Waiting was that it was formulaic, containing some surefire hits albeit generic songs that wasn't likely to fail at all. So when the platinum-selling songstress ditched her formulaic sound for a brand new urban sound, her target audience had some trouble adjusting to the new sound with the album's first single of the same title Get 'Em Girls and the track scraped into the Top 20 of the ARIA Singles Chart at #19.
Well, the album is finally here and if you hated the urban sound, be prepared, because Mauboy favours heavy Beyonce beats over the dance/pop sound heard on her debut album. The album opens with first single Get 'Em Girls which by a track standing on its own isn't horrid by any measure, but the music video just ruined it, so it's a rather bittersweet feeling when you re-listen to the track. The album then moves on to the even more urban sounding Handle It and Accelerate That. The album then prods on mindlessly before landing itself on Scariest Part, a nice ballad that really hits its stride when Mauboy lets loose of her vocal power on the chorus. It then returns to another uptempo number Saturday Night featuring Ludacris which is confirmed to be the album's second single. I'm not sure whether Ludacris actually improves the track but it's still catchy and will have no problem racking up some airplay Get 'Em Girls never could. The album then moves on to a tender ballad with Jay Sean called What Happened To Us which happens to be one of the album's highlights.
The next track opens with a very Coldplay Viva La Vida-esque strings section before it morphs into a very Kristinia DeBarge Powerless type of track lyrically. The next track Like This features yet another big name in the form of Iyaz. This track remains forgettable even after a couple plays though, it sounds just like a lot of the other tracks on the album without having something about it that stands out among the rest. Foreign sees Mauboy return to the urban sound that has enough sass in it to differentiate it from the other urban-sounding number Handle It. Can Anybody Tell Me is another catchy-at-first-listen but ultimately forgettable track. Toss this into the same pile as Like This suffers from.
Fight For You tries to be a cross between Jordin Spark's Battlefield and Cheryl Cole's Fight For This Love but is ultimately not as fierce as the former or brilliant as the latter. Still, don't write this off too soon, it's a grower. Maze is a solid album track that sounds like it could do well as a single but as an album track, it's just like some of the other tracks on the album so it doesn't feel like it's as good as it really is. Here For Me is another solid album track that also has potential to be a single, fitting into current Top 40 radio fare. No One Like You is a sweet ballad that is supposedly about her boyfriend which though is sweet, verges on a little boring. Forget Your Name, the bonus track sees Mauboy's smooth vocals run over a thumping beat and sounds like a fiercer version of Up/Down from her debut album though it's not half as good as the latter.
All in all, it's a solid album with a few standout tracks that do have single potential. Now if only her label would get their act together and create a good music video for second single Saturday Night. However, Hype Williams (who directed the video for Get 'Em Girls) has returned to direct the video for Saturday Night and from what I've seen of the snippet, don't expect too much, except a little cheap effects. Oh well. Still, Mauboy has the potential to rival Beyonce for her crown as the reigning pop/R&B/urban superstar on the charts if she gets some better material.
Verdict:
☻☻☻☻☺
Download Link: HERE
Download Link 2: HERE
Labels: JESSICA MAUBOY
