On his latest release, Trey Songz continues his reign as the hardest working young singer in R&B. His five-song Inevitable EP, which comes out in the U.S. on Nov. 28, 2011 (Trey's 27th birthday), is his fifth release in the past two years, including an album in 2009 and an album and EP in both 2010 and 2011. And that's not even counting the multiple mixtapes he's also put out during that time period. That said, quantity doesn't necessarily equal quality. All his past releases have been marked by their inconsistency; they consisted of a few hot songs sandwiched in between mediocre ones. The good news on Inevitable is that the quality level is sustained pretty much throughout; there's no songs that automatically make you want to reach for the fast-forward button.
Tight Package
The strength of Trey Songz' Inevitable as a quality listen all the way through can be attributed in part to the fact that there's only five songs on it, which lowers the odds of garbage making the final cut. One drawback of his past two full releases, 2010's Passion, Pain & Pleasure and 2009's Ready, is that they were both too long. It may sound funny to hear someone complain about an artist putting too many songs on an album, but that was definitely the case with Trey. Too many watered-down songs that failed to distinguish themselves from the pack had been his main problem. Fortunately, that issue is non-existent here. Instead, we have a tight package of tracks, with each being unique in tone and atmosphere.
For example the second track, "What I Be On," which features the rapper Fabolous is a swaggered-down, braggadocios hip-hop track that sounds like a musical cousin of Chris Brown's "Look at Me Now." But the song before it, "Top of the World," is a melancholy ode to his home state of Virginia that sounds like a lost Drake track, even down to the emo rap verse Trey spits. But the best material of course, is the sexually-charged material, particularly "Outside (Pt. 1)," an ode to public exhibitionism, particularly outdoor lovemaking: "I don't want nobody more than you, just want your body on this mornin' dew/I get these covers layin' right for us, ain't nobody lookin,' it's just Mother Nature watchin' us," he sings. The best song is arguably the last one though, "Sex Ain't Better Than Love," a mid-tempo ballad where Trey sings about how he's learned that sex can be empty if its not with someone you care about and that real love is made through the heart. (Figuratively speaking, of course.)
Whether you're a devoted fan of Trigga Trey or someone who's been on the fence while waiting for him to put out an album that's consistent all the way through, you should probably be delighted with Inevitable. Let's just hope the quality carries over to his next full album, Chapter 5, due out in 2012.
For example the second track, "What I Be On," which features the rapper Fabolous is a swaggered-down, braggadocios hip-hop track that sounds like a musical cousin of Chris Brown's "Look at Me Now." But the song before it, "Top of the World," is a melancholy ode to his home state of Virginia that sounds like a lost Drake track, even down to the emo rap verse Trey spits. But the best material of course, is the sexually-charged material, particularly "Outside (Pt. 1)," an ode to public exhibitionism, particularly outdoor lovemaking: "I don't want nobody more than you, just want your body on this mornin' dew/I get these covers layin' right for us, ain't nobody lookin,' it's just Mother Nature watchin' us," he sings. The best song is arguably the last one though, "Sex Ain't Better Than Love," a mid-tempo ballad where Trey sings about how he's learned that sex can be empty if its not with someone you care about and that real love is made through the heart. (Figuratively speaking, of course.)
Whether you're a devoted fan of Trigga Trey or someone who's been on the fence while waiting for him to put out an album that's consistent all the way through, you should probably be delighted with Inevitable. Let's just hope the quality carries over to his next full album, Chapter 5, due out in 2012.