Ray J. - 'For the Love of Ray J' (Soundtrack)

Despite having very little true singing talent, music veteran Ray J has managed to become a household name in recent years. Not due to his singing of course, but due to his infamous sex tape with model-socialite Kim Kardashian and because of his VH1 reality series, "For the Love of Ray J." The show, which follows 14 women as they try to woo Ray (a la "Flavor of Love") has it's own soundtrack, a 12-song collection of mostly new music that was released March 24, 2009. The soundtrack is a typical Ray J album: full of weakly sung songs about sexual escapades and freaky behavior. The album, like the show, isn't worth much.

There's one big tie-in between the album and the show, and that's the opening track/title song, a half-heartedly sung track where Ray roll calls the contestants on the series and explains how he gave each of them their nickname. (For those who haven't seen the show, each woman trying to woo Ray is given a nickname that suits their personality; for instance, Feisty's the feisty one, Unique has a unique persona). The song is pretty bad; the arrangement's poor, the lyrics are too wordy and the vocals are totally off. And things don't improve much on the other 11 songs, where Ray sings - poorly - about his sex life. Every song features a guest performer, usually a washed-up or B-list performer, such as Warren G. (on "Crush"), Shorty Mack (on the pretty good first single, "Sexy Ladies") and Bubba Sparxxx (on "She Got Me Like"). Their presence further confirms that Ray doesn't have the talent to carry a full album himself and needs others to prop up his songs to make them listenable.

There's also the fact that the soundtrack has a theme that's completely contradictory from the show. The show is about Ray's supposedly sincere efforts to find the love of his life, but on the soundtrack it's sex, not love, that's the only topic at hand. It probably would have served him well to put a couple of tender, emotional ballads on the album; maybe even a duet with his much more talented and successful sister, Brandy. But all he's done with this album is reinforce his reputation as a player with a one track mind. The only surprising moment here is that Ray's father, Gospel singer Willie Norwood, has his own song on the soundtrack - a surprisingly danceable and well-sung spiritual number called "Apocalypse Soul." But other than that song and a remix of Ray's biggest hit, "Sexy Can I," this soundtrack seriously lacks material worth listening to.