Jamie Foxx has another album outsure, why not? While
Foxxs 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. Hes neither among the best nor worst singers of these fifteen years so
hes 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 isnt bad. Of course, it isnt
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 wouldve been just as good no matter who
was singing it.
As a result, theres 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 Dont 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-Pains legally obligated cameo) has a guy going heeeey on the beat and
even though it isnt Jeezy, its probably close enough.
On the albums 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
Freakin Me but just about everything else that follows is slow and
theoretically romantic so theres plenty to choose from. Youve heard this all
before, sometimes better, sometimes worse.
If youre in your late thirties but enjoy pretending that
youre in your mid-twenties, this is the album for you. Every trendy R&B
trapping of the last few years is represented here so youll have no problem
getting up to speed on what the kids are listening to. Jokes aside, Jamie
Foxx is mainly just doing whats expected of him. Intuition (hopefully) isnt his best attempt at giving the
genre the boost it needs, but he isnt doing it any harm either could
be worse.