Chesstown King's Reviews and Thoughts

Keri returns with a more bitter album than her debut. It’s a sound album, but you can’t but feel she could have done better here. As the title suggests she is mad @ men and don’t want No Boy…lol. The guest features are well used, but should have been spread out more. The album’s construction isn’t that great, but at the end you get a PG remix with Kanye. Overall though the album is good in that it is executed generally well. However I felt some of the concepts for some songs were a little half assed.     I give this album a 8.5/10.

10)Lauryn Hill-The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill: Its no doubt that this album is a classic. U may wonder why it’s so far back. Well technically it’s not; it made my top ten. Some consider this a rap album, but its really not. The songs are an incredible mix of mostly singing and potent rapping.   9)Janelle Monae-The ArchAndroid: Janelle is an incredibly talented artist. This album is a concept album, and its executed extremely well. Just about every song is very entertaining. Some of songs really blend together. She also raps here and there too. The production is also good, with some super futuristic beats.   8)Frank Ocean-channel Orange : Frank Ocean’s debut album is a new favorite of mine. The album has incredible cohesion between the songs. “Thinkin About You” is great, but I really like “Pyramids” and “Lost”. Ocean paints vivid pictures with his lyrics, and his vocals are no joke either. It also surprised me that Tyler, the creator, did not show up on any so...

Usher comes back with an even better album than his 2010 album Raymond vs. Raymond. The album has some pretty simple subjects but the songs are all really well executed. The album starts off with 2 similar songs in Scream and Can’t Stop Won’t Stop. Climax is one of the only really sad songs, but it’s one of Usher’s best. The album has some really nice production, but nothing above R v R. This album is filled with mostly good carefree songs, while some like Lessons for the Lover and the album title track are very emotional. Euphoria is a great song to end the album .This album was better than I expected and it’s great to see Ursher in great form like this. Overall i feel this album gets a 9.25/10. Its a great album but not all that innovative. Ursher baby! lol

Before i give u a review of Usher, Frank Ocean, or Trey Songz new albums, i thought i'd review what i think, to be the R&B album of the year. I hadn’t really heard of Melanie before 2012, but this is one incredible album. Its mostly about heart break and lessons of love. Melanie drives the songs with her powerful, yet elegant singing. Every song is good, but some songs sound a little too similar, but make no mistake the cohesiveness of this album is great. Each guest spot is well used. She is joined by Nas, B.o.B., J.Cole(who opens quite a few R&B albums not just this one) and John Legend. Overall I think Melanie still has some potential to continue to make great albums.   Overall i give this album a 9.5/10. Its just that good.