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| Popmatters |
 Not that T-Pain would ever be confused for an album artist, but one would have to imagine the poor critical reception of Thr33 Ringz stung a little. After all, 2008 was the year T-Pain asserted that he was the ringleader of pop music and we would all be forced to follow his lead for years to come… and yet the opposite happened. The album went Gold, but other than “Can’t Believe It” and “Chopped ‘n’ Skrewed” there’s not a memory to be had. It felt sloppy compared to Epiphany, and at the time Autotune was given a lot less slack than it is now. T-Pain became a scapegoat almost by default, and honestly rEVOLVEr arrives as a bit of a surprise.That title is a confusing one; taken as the word it is, one would assume T-Pain sees himself back on the bottom, waiting for his turn back in the chamber. But the ‘evolve’ is notably emphasized in press materials and the album art, which means T-Pain would rather us assume he’s grown as an artist and become something much more than we once knew him as. That would be quite lofty expectations for any artist as pigeon-holed as Teddy is, but especially so when considering the (some would argue novelty) impact of hits like “Bartender” and “N Luv Wit a Stripper”. Does anyone really want T-Pain to grow as an artist, or simply recapture his ignoble magic? Well, turns out that’s a moot point because rEVOLVEr is more of the same, very much so. You’re not even given a red herring to imagine an alternate reality where T-Pain is an R&B artist to be taken seriously, as T-Pain gives “Boom Boom Pow Pow” about 40 seconds of chorus and bridge before shouting “I’ve got money for these whores if you open up the door!” About a minute later, Lil’ Wayne opens his verse with the modest boast, “I go so hard they call me go so hard,” which is just maybe dumb enough to stick. And with that we’re off on another journey through T-Pain’s strange world. For fans of his work it’s worth noting early that rEVOLVEr is a notable improvement from Thr33 Ringz, containing roughly the same amount of ups and downs as Epiphany did. There’s the charming silliness of “Default Picture” that details romantic Facebook and Twitter escapades, the simulated duet between Lily Allen and T-Pain, “5 O’Clock” (entirely based on a portion of Allen’s “Who’d Have Known”), and the straight up ignorance of “Mix’d Girl”. But there are also vapid club songs like “Bottlez”, “I Don’t Give a Fuk [sic]” and “It’s Not You” featuring Pitbull that aren’t going to do anything for people who don’t see those titles and immediately think, “oh, that song’s for me!”...full text |
| Popcrush |
| After a taking a brief hiatus, Auto-Tune king T-Pain is back with his fourth album ‘rEVOLVEr.’ Despite Jay-Z‘s attempt to put an end to the usage of the popular vocal software, the rapper-turned-singer defiantly uses it on the 17-track collection. And there lies the sticking point with ‘rEVOLVEr.’ While T-Pain’s Auto-Tune is in full effect on club tracks like ‘Bottlez,’ ‘Look at Her’ (featuring Chris Brown), ‘Rock Bottom’ and ‘It’s Not You’ (featuring Pitbull), his robotic voice can be quite annoying at times. However, on ’5 O’Clock,’ his robotic vocalizing is effective next to Lily Allen‘s hush vocals. T-Pizzle is actually at his best when he’s not using Auto-Tune. On songs like ‘Drowning Again,’ the crooner reveals his vulnerable side and it’s refreshing to hear. Although the subject matter of strippers and ballin’ gets tiring after repeat listens, his slow ballads like ‘Center of the Stage’ (Featuring R. Kelly and Bei Major) and ‘Sho-Time’ saves the album from being completely boring. T-Pain’s ‘rEVOLVEr’ album does show growth and how much of a great songwriter the Grammy-winning hitmaker is, once he deviates from tunes about money and strippers. 1. ‘Bang Bang Pow Pow’ Feat. Lil Wayne T-Pain’s opening salvo to the album featuring his buddy Lil Wayne. Over a thunderous beat and stirring violins, T-Pizzle and Weezy rap ignorant lyrics about blowing money, bagging strippers and laughing at broke haters. [Listen] 2. ‘Bottlez’ Feat. Detail A bouncy club anthem to poppin’ bottles and all-night drinking. 3. ‘It’s Not You (It’s Me)’ Feat. Pitbull A formulaic dance-pop song (ala David Guetta) as T-Pain explains to his girlfriend that he’s addicted to the strip clubs, and if they break up it’s not her fault. Mr. Worldwide provides the lyrical assist on the track. 4. ‘Default Picture’ This is a charming tongue-and-cheek ballad for the digital age. On the song, T-Pizzy is cyber-macking to the ladies as he sings of falling in love with someone’s avatar on Twitter and Facebook. 5. ’5 O’Clock’ feat. Lily Allen & Wiz Khalifa A standout track on the LP. The chart-topping tune features Lily Allen and Wizzy as T-Pain apologies to his lady for his late-night creep to the strip clubs. (Watch) 6. ‘Sho-Time (Pleasure Thang)‘ A nice melodic love ballad from Teddy Pain as he gets into loverboy mode and promises his lover pleasures beyond her wildest dreams. 7. ‘Rock Bottom’ This song boast some fantastic production with its rollicking beat and melodic piano groove. The downside is the subject matter — he sings about bagging a stripper. There’s no denying it, T-Pain stays in the strip clubs. 8. ‘Look at Her Go’ Feat. Chris Brown One out of a few occasions that T-Pain forgoes the Auto-Tune and utilizes his own voice. On the hand-clapping track, him and Breezy yell out commands for the ladies to drop it like it’s hot on the dance floor. [Listen] 9. ‘Mix’d Girl’ Another tongue-and-cheek song in which T-Pain is looking for a beautiful woman to “mix” it up with for the night. If she so happens to be racially-mixed than that’s a plus, too. 10. ‘I Don’t Give a F—’ A novelty Auto-Tune-derivative track. Skip it. 11. ‘Drowning Again’ feat. One Chance This is a big surprise on the album full of Auto-Tune-assisted songs. T-Pizzle shows his vulnerability on this lovely piano-driven track. We need to hear more of T-Pain behind the ivories instead of behind the Auto-Tune. [Watch] 12. ‘When I Come Home’ A yearning ballad where the crooner sings about his loneliness and pining for his girlfriend back home. 13. ‘Best Love Song’ Feat. Chris Brown A violin-driven pop anthem that was leaked online back in March. It still sounds fantastic but is now dated by Internet standards. 14. ‘Turn All the Lights On’ Feat. Ne-Yo Another club jam featuring the soulful stylings of Ne-Yo. There’s nothing particularly outstanding about the song. 15. ‘Center of the Stage’ Feat. R. Kelly & Bei Major This has all of the earmarks of being a huge radio hit. T-Pain, R. Kelly and Bei Major sound like an updated version of the ’80s R&B group Guy with this laid-back love song dedicated to strippers. If you can ignore the subject matter, this is a big standout on the album. 16. ‘Regular Girl’ It’s not our favorite song because of T-Pain’s trite raps and it sounding similar to his past hits like ‘I Can’t Believe It.’ By this time, we are pretty much Auto-Tune-d out. 17. ‘Nuthin” feat. E-40 & Detail T-Pain tries his hand at a hyphy song and grabs Bay Area slanguage rapper E-40. This song does “nothing” for us. Skip....full text |
| Bbc |
| Stubbornly refusing to acknowledge Jay-Z’s imploring of rappers to quit with all the awful vocal effects, 2009’s Death of Auto-Tune, T-Pain has pressed ahead with this fourth LP, the follow-up to 2008’s Billboard Chart hit Thr33 Ringz. Blinkers up, he’s delivered another set that dizzies with its disregard for a pure and simple vocal. By the end of these 17 tracks the head is heavy with images of the Smash robots battle-rapping against a crew from whatever planet The Clangers call home. Auto-Tune well and truly jumped the shark with the late-2011 release of the video game Saints Row: The Third, in which a pimp character called Zimos speaks through a perma-Auto-Tuned voicebox having had a tracheotomy. Played for (big) laughs, the presence of such a figure should, surely, be the final nail in the coffin of this rightly maligned approach to production. Which makes rEVOLVEr something of a relic before it’s completed its initial spin. The typical array of guest vocalists are spared too much of a post-production savaging: Lil Wayne spills forth his standard torrent of stoned non sequiturs; Chris Brown notches his 157th and 158th ‘featuring’ credits of 2011 (there or thereabouts) with Best Love Song and Look at Her Go (brilliantly, he manages to slip in a "cowabunga"); and Lily Allen is perfectly sultry on 5 O’Clock, which samples her song Who’d Have Known. But T-Pain himself knows no other way to present his vocals, and the end product can become excruciating in its one-dimensionality. The influence of Eurodance is clear on the Ne-Yo-starring Turn All the Lights On – substitute T-Pain’s computer-twisted barking for the smoother female vocals of a Kelly Rowland figure and you’d be hearing a likely hit – and the superbly cheesy It’s Not You (It’s Me), which bubbles like the cheapest of fizzy pop. Slower numbers Rock Bottom, Regular Girl and the social-media-stalker effort Default Picture offer respite from the relentless pace elsewhere; but those Auto-Tune vocals rise to the forefront of the mixes, obscuring any discernable emotion....full text |
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