NELLY
Sweat/Suit
Universal
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Blame OutKast. André 3000 and Big Boi's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below provided false hope that any hip-hop double album can be artistically satisfying and commercially feasible. So now Nelly, who barely has enough ideas to fill one album, feels confident he can create a two-sided pop masterpiece, Sweat/Suit.
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Loosely organized around two themes -- Sweat is filled with club bangers, street anthems and shout-outs, while Suit serves up lusty R&B jams, earnest love songs and tender odes to family -- this pair of pop albums is meant to showcase opposing sides of Nelly's personality. They do demonstrate his range, floating between a funk-pop duet with Christina Aguilera ("Tilt Ya Head Back") and a broken-hearted ballad with country star Tim McGraw ("Over And Over") with ease. And since Nelly's distinctive sing-song flow makes him a musical chameleon, Nelly proves equally adept making danceable party anthems ("Flap Your Wings"), reggae-tinged raps ("River Don't Runnn") or cool '70s funk ("She Don't Know My Name"). The downside of this pop predilection is when Nelly overextends himself, like on "N Dey Say," which so blatanly samples Spandau Ballet's "True" that even P. Diddy would blanch. These misfires show that, despite success in a few different genres, Nelly doesn't have a strong enough personality for such a sprawling project.
-- David Peisner |
