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Ginuwine - A Man's Thoughts
| Allmusic |
| Ginuwine's first album in three and a half years (the 2007 release I Apologize was unauthorized), A Man's Thoughts is his first release away from the Epic family, and it's pretty much business as usual. It's a decent set of modern R&B, dominated by seductive slow jams, that stimulates a little more often than it fades into the background. It does take a serious tone on a handful of songs dealing in a wider range of relationship issues than lust, heartache, and devotion; "Show Me the Way," with an anthem-like chorus, is a guard-dropped plea for direction, while on "Last Chance," the singer has never sounded more desperate as he attempts to rescue a relationship. On the lighter side, Ginuwine reconnects with Timbaland on "Get Involved," but it's a missed opportunity, an overstuffed wreck of a club track where the producer and Missy Elliott all but completely wipe him out of the picture....full text |
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| Boston |
| The smooth R&B vocalist Ginuwine switches on his loverman supreme persona with a set that is almost exclusively dedicated to late-night ballads. It’s kind of hard to believe this is the same singer who emerged with the grind groove “Pony’’ more than a decade ago. But guys grow up and slow down. In a time when hip-hop and R&B artists are taking salaciousness to the nth degree, Ginuwine turns to open-hearted devotion and sweet understatement on tracks like “One Time for Love’’ and “Open the Door.’’ He mans up, taking responsibility for mistakes and tries to salvage love on “Last Chance,’’ the disc’s defining song. The record is about a man understanding the complexities of relationships and what a woman needs. There are some songs with giddy-up, especially the big bounce of “Get Involved,’’ featuring Timbaland and Missy Elliott. It doesn’t fit with the rest of the disc, but who cares when it’s this great a ride with a cool Timba groove and Elliott’s sly, quick verse? What Ginuwine seems to be saying here is that a real man’s thoughts are not what everyone thinks they are these days. (Out tomorrow)...full text |
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| Nytimes |
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A few disarming moments on “Octahedron” unfold slowly, with pockets of space and calm. Don’t be lured into trusting them. This album, the fifth studio release by the Mars Volta, employs stillness as a setup for all manner of disruption: sharply pealing riffs, phantasmagorical metaphors, convoluted song structures. In many ways it’s a typical effort from the guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and the vocalist Cedric Bixler Zavala, who make up the Mars Volta’s cunning and ever-agitated core. But that’s not to discredit the more measured side of “Octahedron,” a harbor for some of this psychedelic prog-rock band’s most alluring melodies and among its most coherent recordings. Presented as an eight-song suite, the album delivers a panoramic range of intensity, sliding along that range in ways both gradual and startling. So a brooding tune like “With Twilight as My Guide” can swell and then ebb almost to the lulling point before the next tune, “Cotopaxi,” arrives with whiplash force....full text |
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