| Allmusic |
 Omarion’s first two solo albums topped the R&B and Billboard 200 charts, so it is a little surprising that he took over three years to release his third. The singer wasn’t twiddling his thumbs, though. He recorded 2007’s Face Off with Bow Wow -- promoted by a BET special titled The Road to Platinum, it went gold -- and continued his side career in films and on television. After a brief association with Lil Wayne's Young Money label, Omarion linked with EMI and established his StarWorld label for Ollusion, an album that thrives on sparse, tickling productions that are more about atmosphere than anything else. Clusters of synthetic handclaps, snares, and other slivers of percussion, along with impressionist-like use of keyboards and piano, are more prominent than busy and slick, heavily layered arrangements anchored by heavy kick drums and blasting bass. Almost all of these beats would be classified as snapping, slapping, or smacking before banging, flecked with details yet simultaneously somewhat half-assed-sounding. Given the number of partially detached vocals, filled with android-in-heat impersonations, clipped-phrase drop-ins, and messing around (best heard in “Temptation,” containing a hilarious flub around the three-minute mark), it’s as if Omarion wanted to make a concerted attempt to downplay his vocal ability, which only adds to the album’s weird, teasing charm. The lyrics are relatively straightforward, though the back half of one couplet (“You got me shootin’ like a porno/B*tch stick to me just like a bag of Fritos”) could be the product of a Mad Libs session. There’s only one sop to slick pop, “I Think My Girl Is Bi.” It’s easily the worst song on the album, ironically the disc’s only throwaway....full text |
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| Ew |
| A onetime member of the R&B boy band B2K, Omarion has spent the last few years stuck in label limbo. As a result, some of the material on Ollusion, the overdue follow-up to 2006's 21, feels a little bit dated. ''I Think My Girl Is Bi''? Someone alert Katy Perry. He fares better with tracks like ''I Get It In,'' a stripped-down, ''A Milli''-style banger that features a cameo from rapper-of-the-moment Gucci Mane, and ''Last Night (Kinkos),'' which finds Omarion running down all the kinky possibilities of love in a copy shop...full text |
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| Nytimes |
Last summer was a tough one for the R&B singer Omarion. In June he signed up to be a part of Lil Wayne’s Young Money Records. By August he was out, allegedly by mutual consent. “Girl You Know,” a song he recorded with that crew, was done over, with Omarion’s hook replaced with one by the tender R&B singer Lloyd. The new version, called “BedRock,” became a smash.
Omarion’s voice is slithery, not deep enough for truly felt confessional nor light enough to tease. Since the split of the R&B boy band B2K, of which he was the star, he’s struggled to land on a style of his own. He’s been best when producers have molded him to fit their needs, as on the 2006 single “Ice Box,” on which Timbaland pushed him toward nervous desperation.
Likewise the best songs on “Ollusion,” Omarion’s first album in four years — not counting “Face Off,” his underappreciated 2007 collaborative album with Bow Wow — are the noisiest and, by extension, the most demanding. “I Think My Girl Is Bi,” produced by Maddscientist, has the digital pop of the RedOne-produced tracks that have helped make Lady Gaga a phenomenon. Clunker title notwithstanding, Omarion responds with zip and humor: “I bet she’s out with what’s-her-name/The girl that doesn’t have a man.” On “Code Red,” over blaring horns, he alternates between mutterings and gasps....full text |
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