Ne-Yo, Sean Kingston and Chris Brown, have a number of things in common: hormone fuelled teens seem to really like them, they are Black Americans who seem to sing a lot of whiney ballad-type women and love-obsessed songs, generally too many effects are put over their voices, I think they are all shite and I have little respect for any of them.

Recently Chris Brown has become the most notable of them after it came out that he beats women, well, he was charged for the beating of one very famous girl who he was involved romantically with, his story hit (no pun intended) the headlines hard and everyone seemed to turn their back on him…but he released an album anyway.

I wasn’t expecting much from it, I didn’t get much from it, so when I was listening to it with a friend we listened out for lines and phrasing that insinuated how much of a wife-beater he is and Rihanna-related references. The album is full of them. “Give me one more chance, we can still have it all”, a pathetic attempt at begging for forgiveness but it continues right throughout the album.

He also mentions “Disturbia” at one point and ironically enough I ended up feeling somewhat sorry for him; because it was a sorry excuse for an album. The music and melodies conform to my aforementioned thoughts on him singing “whiney ballady type songs”, one after the other, again and again and again.

I Can Transform Ya (into a punch-bag) is a single off this album; it has an aggressive beat and is one of two songs on this album that are Club-friendly. The not exactly subtly named Pass Out features an Eric Prydz’ dance hit sample of Call On Me which is the only good thing about the song, if you even consider that song to be good, for me it was a welcome change from Brown’s usual bollox.

Lucky Me is the only song I recall with no stupid “weah weah” sound over his voice, in the verses, at least, and so it stood out as being slightly different from the rest, that said my friend roared when not paying full attention to what she was listening to, “That song is shit!”

I’m probably too old for this pathetic love/please-forgive-me ballad-filled album, I just couldn’t stand to listen to it for very long. However if you are one of the of girls who expressed in a poll that Rihanna got what was coming to her, you’ll probably love this.

If you must listen to Chris Brown, I recommend watching the following link, the song featured is not on the album and it’s not really the point of the video, it’s a couple’s extraordinary wedding entrance. The video has had so many hits they have set up a charity and inevitably all proceeds go towards violence prevention. Brilliant.

Emer Molloy