Jamie Foxx has another album out—sure, why not? While
Foxx’s last release came off as unnecessary and opportunistic to some, his
actual first album came out in 1994, so he technically has deeper roots than
many. He’s neither among the best nor worst singers of these fifteen years so
he’s no less deserving of his spot than any of the long list of forgettable
R&B dudes that have come and gone. More to the point, Intuition [J Records] actually isn’t bad. Of course, it isn’t
actually that good either.
Mainly, Intuition is
predictable and calculated. All of the requisite elements for a typical modern
R&B album are there: The-Dream, Tricky Stewart, Ne-Yo, an okay Timbaland
track, a dumb verse from Lil Wayne, Auto-Tune, gratuitous obscenity, T.I., a
dedication to independent ladies, that chick from Floetry, Hennessey, public
sex and so on. Probably by coming out of his own pocket to bring most of this
together, Foxx has built an album that would’ve been just as good no matter who
was singing it.
As a result, there’s really nothing terribly objectionable
about any individual song on the LP. There are a few questionable choices
– using a strange variant of his “Ray Charles” voice for “I Don’t Need
It,” for one – but something like the mid-tempo dance track “Digital Girl”
(with an uncredited assist from Kanye West) is a decent enough. “Blame It”
(T-Pain’s legally obligated cameo) has a guy going “heeeey” on the beat and
even though it isn’t Jeezy, it’s probably close enough.
On the album’s “quiet storm” segment, Foxx goes into the
standard Brian McKnight-isms and…whatever. People who might enjoy “getting
their freak on” to the soothing sounds of Willie Beamen should check out
“Freak’in Me” but just about everything else that follows is slow and
theoretically romantic so there’s plenty to choose from. You’ve heard this all
before, sometimes better, sometimes worse.
If you’re in your late thirties but enjoy pretending that
you’re in your mid-twenties, this is the album for you. Every trendy R&B
trapping of the last few years is represented here so you’ll have no problem
getting up to speed on “what the kids are listening to.” Jokes aside, Jamie
Foxx is mainly just doing what’s expected of him. Intuition (hopefully) isn’t his best attempt at giving the
genre the boost it needs, but he isn’t doing it any harm either – could
be worse.