Dec.14 Music Releases (MICHAEL REVIEW ADDED)

14th of December is FINALLY here, which for me has seemed like an eternity, I have waited on these releases, from R. Kelly, Michael Jackson, Diddy and his new group Dirty Money & Tank. A great day for R&B no doubt, without further ado here I start.




Tank- Now Or Never

Track-list
1.Showtime (Interlude)
2. Sex Music
3. Celebration - (featuring Drake)
4. Emergency (Intro)
5. Emergency
6. Scream
7. Keep It 100
8. Foreplay - (featuring Chris Brown)
9. Can I (Intro)
10. Can I
11. Amazing
12. You Mean That Much
13. I Can't Make You Love Me

Genre- R&B

- I'm sure many of you aren't familiar with Tank, but if you're a regular R&B fun, you definitely should be. But if you haven't heard him, do you're self a favor and give his follow up of his Grammy nominated 2007 album "Sex, Love & Pain". Three years after Sex, Love & Pain, Tank is back with his follow up named "Now Or Never", he says he is "celebrating" more.

This album is great, one of the best of 2010, better than Usher's Raymond vs Raymond by a mile. He shows off his great musical righting abilities and great vocals. There's a nice balance in ballads, "baby making music" and songs about enjoying life. Sex Music is the lead single, a great sexy radio song that still stays true to R&B roots "We can, get it on, all night long, to this Sex Music" sings Tank over the heavy beat, the second single "Emergency" is a beautiful slow song about love & regret. The song I believe that could have been released as a single and do well on the radio is "Celebration" which features the hottest rapper out there today, Drake. It's a smooth baby making song, that has all the tools to make #1, and Drake's verse is stunning. Hands down, my favorite song on this great album is "I Can't Make You Love Me'' a cover of Prince, this song is touching & meaningful in so many ways people can relate to it. Shows his vocal's off well.

All in all, this is a great album, that I expect to be nominated with a Grammy or two. I hope it sells well, because guys like Tank should be on top of the music industry, not Kesha or the Black Eyed Peas, good god.
I give it a 4/5 rating. Please do yourself a favour and buy this album, give it a try you won't regret it, worth every penny.


Standout Tracks
I Can't Make You Love Me
Celebration (feat. Drake)
Sex Music
Scream
Emergency

R. Kelly- Love Letter


Track-list
1. Love Letter Prelude
2. Love Letter
3. Number One Hit
4. Not Feelin’ The Love
5. Lost In Your Love
6. Just Can’t Get Enough
7. Taxi Cab
8. Radio Message
9. When A Woman Loves
10. Love Is featuring K. Michelle
11. Just Like That
12. Music Must Be A Lady
13. A Love Letter Christmas
14. How Do I Tell Her
15. You Are Not Alone (Michael Jackson Cover) (Bonus Track)

Arguably the second biggest release of the day behind "Michael". The King is back to re-claim his crown. With his 11th full-length album release, everything is going right for Kell's, upon it's release, so much positive reception for this album, and rightfully so, which he hasn't had much of since the 90's, before he got charged for those horrible things (Please no comments about it, just focus on his music). With more than 34 Million Albums sold, the multi-platinum, 3x Grammy Award Winner, King Of R&B is definitely back.

Promotion was heavy with this one, amazing performances at the Soul Train Awards & Jimmy Fallon, all well received by the audiences shows that he's still got it. All tracks on this album are written & produced by R.


His breath-taking performance at the 2010 Soul Train Awards.

He is taking it back to the day, a Christmas joy-fulled, LOVE r&b album. Inspired by his idols Marvin Gaye, Luther Vandross, Stevie Wonder & Michael Jackson. The lead single "When A Woman Loves" caught the world off guard and put them in awe of the vocal ability, the deep meaning of this beautiful song. The second single "Love Letter" is an amazing R&B song, that has so much heart and soul, it's a song you just want to sit with that special person and hear it on a cold winter day "Did it touch your heart, when you read my Love Letter?" sings R. over a nice smooth beat. The album opens up with it's prelude then on to the original song, which was nice way to start the album. Next up is "Number One Hit" which he performed on Jimmy Fallon, where he tells the special person, she is his "Number One Hit". "I got a studio up in heaven, and it's the perfect atmosphere" smoothly sings the musical legend over that beautiful beat. Jump to track 7, Taxi Cab, which he original wrote for Michael Jackson (I believe, I could be wrong) an AMAZING song, one of my favorite's off the album, everything about is PERFECT, it's just beautiful, it's one of those songs were you can't explain what's so amazing about it, but you know it's amazing.

To sum up, this album is one for the ages, a classic no doubt, that will go along with the other R. Kelly classics like TP2.com, 12 Play, Chocolate Factory and R. This is a breath taking album, which I predict will get an incredible amount of positive critical response. I give it a 5 of out 5 stars, it's quite honestly AMAZING, I'm going out on the limb to say it IS his best album to date, everyone needs to BUY this album.

Standout Tracks
Lost In You're Love
Taxi Cab
When A Woman Loves
Number One Hit
Love Letter
A Love Letter Christmas



Michael Jackson- MICHAEL


Track-list

01. Hold My Hand (Duet with Akon)
02. Hollywood Tonight
03. Keep Your Head Up
04. (I Like) The Way You Love Me
05. Monster featuring 50 Cent
06. Best Of Joy
07. Breaking News
08. (I Can’t Make It) Another Day featuring Lenny Kravitz
09. Behind The Mask
10. Much Too Soon

- The first of probably many posthumous Michael Jackson album's, the King Of Pop & arguably the best entertainer of all time. I was a bit skeptical with this release, because I knew how many of the die hard Michael Jackson fans would react, and just how much are full tracks that were done by Michael. The lead single," Hold My Hand" which features urban superstar Akon, is a brilliant slow ballad, I heard this song when it originally leaked in 2008, but some changes in vocals have been made. The whole album leaked in early December, as do most albums these days, I can't remember any popular album coming out that hasn't been leaked a week or two before it's release these days. But that didn't stop me from buying this album.

Hold My Hand is a brilliant slow ballad that should do well on the charts, and the best song on the album. Akon & Michael's voices blend well together, I'm sure if Michael was still alive him & Akon would work a bit more together. "We're better off being together, than being miserable alone" Michael sings in one of his last songs' that he ever sang, interesting fact, this song was meant to be on Akon's 2008 album "Freedom" but due to it's leak, Akon thought it wrecked the surprise element, as it was going to be a hidden track, and ultimately scrapped the idea of having the song on it. The second track still has me skeptical, it's called "Hollywood Tonight" which honestly has me wondering if it's him on this one, atleast the first verse, it really sounds like an underground r&b singer that I've heard but can't put think of his name atm. But it's a decent track.

Next is "Keep Your Head Up" which is probably my favorite track, mix "Man In The Mirror, "Black & White, sprinkle "You Are Not Alone" and you get this, a nice inspirational song that has trademark MJ all over it. Skip one track, and onto "Monster" which features 50 Cent, it's okay, not much I can say on it as I "nothing" it, neither do I like it, neither do I not like it. I'm not sure 50 Cent's inclusion was necessary, but what can I do.

"Breaking News" is much like "Monster" and angry at the world song, that isn't really bad, nice vocal ability shown & the beat is catchy. I actually like it a lot though, one of my favorite tracks. Much of the rest of the album is great, one of my favorite's being "Much Too Soon".

At 10 tracks, it feels short, but I guess there limited with the material as Michael wasn't someone like Tupac who had kept god knows how many tracks behind before he passed away. I give the album a B-, 2 and half out of 5 stars. As I said it feels quite short, but that doesn't stop it from being a really enjoyable album that helps us remember a legend.


My Favorite Tracks
Hold My Hand (feat. Akon)
Keep Your Head Up
Breaking News
Much Too Soon