Get Your Fill Of Pretentious R&B With Trey Songz' "Tremaine: The Album"

R&B is about sensuality and exploring emotion with a sense of delicacy, subtlety, and sensuality. You can forget about all that when listening to this record, because you'll be able to get your fill of pretentious R&B with Trey Songz' Tremaine: The Album.

There's a fine line between being smooth and being way too forward. For example, when you have a song about having sex with your '#1 Fan' and asking yourself "why am I so nervous," you may have been taking things a bit too far. This is literally what the entire song is about. You actually have to step back and ask yourself: what have I just listened to. The same thing pretty much goes on in 'The Sheets...Still' as he keeps trying to croon while going excessively into detail about sex. This is not something you can do. It maintains this pretentiousness in 'Playboy,' where you really have to question where this album is going and what it's trying to say.

It's really hard to get by all of this. To its credit, there are some good songs. Opening number 'The Prelude' is pretty good, remaining calm and sweet throughout - almost so much so that its gooeyness is almost tangible. Things for the rest of the album do start finding themselves repairing their past sins as it approaches its core, starting with 'Animal.' It's still pretentious, but the instrumental and trap elements help make the song fairly interesting and catchy. '1x1' is what the rest of this record should really sound like - energetic with subtleties rather than upfront explaining the detail of every sex position you undergo. 'Priceless' continues with actual genuine sweetness and thankfulness, evident in the melodies.

There is an immense difference in quality from the beginning half of the record to the latter half. There's legitimate, quality content on the second half of the album, featuring sweet tracks like the infectious, albeit repetitive, 'Games We Play' featuring MIKExANGEL and the charming and dark 'Picture Perfect.' Somehow, this is the same album that features such standard and subpar tracks like the basic 'Come Over' and 'She Loves It.' There aren't really many songs that really hit a special high that prompt a returning to, but at least everything on the second half feels more thoughtful. Take a comparison between the first song and the last, and hear the difference in quality. The album closes on the lovely 'Break From Love,' a piano ballad that sees Trey Songz being genuine rather than creepily recall sexual tendencies.

Tremaine: The Album is a mixed pot. The first half of the record is just utterly atrocious, to the point where you might stop listening because you'll be cringing too hard. It's unfortunate, because if you stopped listening then you'd miss out on all the good tracks the album has to offer. You'll easily get your fill of pretentious R&B with Tremaine: The Album, but you'll be brought some actually sweet tracks before it's over.

Favorite Tracks: Break From Love, Picture Perfect

Least Favorite Tracks: #1 Fan, The Sheets...Still, Playboy

Rating: 60 / 100

Buy or listen to Jermaine: The Album here: