Lyfe Jennings - Lyfe Change

One of the few knocks on Lyfe Jennings' first two albums, 2006's The Phoenix and 2004's Lyfe 268-192 was that they were too similar thematically. Both were basically about the singer's ongoing life saga, and even featured spoken between-song narratives that pushed the story along. But on his third album, the appropriately-titled Lyfe Change, Lyfe scraps the familiar formula in favor of a more traditional approach to album-making. The results are both good and bad; good because it's his most cohesive, best-produced album yet. But bad because it lacks the beautiful grittiness of his first two albums.

The into track on Lyfe Change, a spoken-word track called "Change The Game" very cleverly explains Lyfe's new direction. I won't spoil the track, but in less than two minutes, it manages to chart a new course for Lyfe's career via a not-too-subtle metaphor wrapped around a funny anecdote.

For anyone who listened to and loved Lyfe's first two albums, this one might not be for you. On his other albums, he was reaching out to the streets more than the 'burbs with his gritty tales of struggling through life on the block. But on Lyfe Change, the script has been flipped and Lyfe is instead making a concerted effort to appeal to the mainstream. This is made crystal clear on the album's second track, the inspirational Keep On Dreaming, which practically sounds straight out of a high school play, or maybe the soundtrack to Fame. Not many of the others songs on the album are that egregiously commercial, but the love song "Midnight Train," which sounds like something Crosby, Stills & Nash might have recorded back in the '70s, is pretty close.

Love and being in love are a major focus of the album, with another for-the-masses song being "Cops Up," in which Lyfe complains about falling hopelessly in love:
"Somebody call the cops up, lil' mama done stole my heart," goes the chorus, sung by the vocal duo Luke & Q. "She's makin' me fall in love, she's not gonna give it up/Somebody call the cops up, somebody call 911, tell them I've been shot through the heart, I've fallen and I can't get up." And yes, the chorus is just as corny as the lyrics seem, but is balanced by Lyfe's vocal gruffness.

To be fair, Lyfe hasn't completely abandoned songs about struggle. One of the album's absolute best, most substantive tracks is "Old School," an uptempo anthem about havin' nothin' but trying to get somethin' out of life:
"I swear to God, if they keep raisin' the gas price, I'ma sell the Chevy and go buy me a bike/I'm a king, but my crown's in the layaway and I'm just a day away from givin' up," he sings. That's real talk right there, the kind that put Lyfe on the map. It's just too bad there's not more of that realness on this album. Of the few that are here, all are superb, such as the anti-immorality tale "Wild, Wild, Wild" (which is reminiscent of his previous morality song "S.E.X.") and the safe sex warning "It's Real." A reggae-tinged song called, "You Think You've Got It Bad," about counting life's blessings, is also good, but suffers from way too much Wyclef Jean.

Of the song's more sunny material, one of the best of the bunch is "Never Never Land," a love song in which Lyfe manages to address those who say change is bad, by saying that they live in "Never Never Land, right next to Peter Pan," and that "they'll never understand what it's like to be in love." The song is smart without being sappy, romantic without being too redundant.

Overall, Lyfe Change proves that change simply for the sake of change isn't necessarily good thing. However, Lyfe's change seems to be more of a maturation, rather than a cynical attempt to sell out. So although not all of his new material works, Lyfe definitely deserves props for being open-minded and trying new things.