Album review: Keri Hilson - In a perfect world...

After being one of my most anticipated albums two years ago, Keri Hilson's debut album In a perfect world... is finally released. I'll be the first one to admit that everytime I saw the release date changed, I cried a little inside and was almost at the point where I didn't care about if the was album dropping anymore. But now that it's finally here, we can ask ourselves this question: was it worth the 2 years of waiting?

We start off the album with the first track, which is well...the intro. The intro completely caught me by surprise because in most cases with other artists, the intro is a complete waste of time and CD space. This intro however consists of a hard knocking beat couresty of Timbaland, and Keri singing. The lyrics are a bit lame but when the beat is that hot, it doesn't matter. Right after the hard knocking intro, we get more hard knocking songs that serve no purpose at all besides getting people in the club to dance. The oh-so familiar "Turnin Me On" produced by Polow Da Don comes on and right away, I'm forced to press next. I liked the song when it first came out but I cannot stand Lil Wayne's autotuned ass anymore. Nor can I stand Keri's helium voice. And the thousand remixes? I don't think I can listen to this song for another 5 years. After this track, we have "Get Your Money Up" which features Keyshia Cole and Trina. Surprisingly (and sadly), Trina is the only that brings it on the track. I know right now, the Trina stan on the Ashanti forum probably wants to give some lovin' right now (we'll talk later), but it's the truth. Polow again provides a solid beat but putting two Polow tracks back to back really devalues both beats. And to finish up the trio of club bangers, we have "Promiscuous Girl part 2" or otherwise known as "Return The Favor". This song suffers from two problems, number one being the fact that it's been out for ages and number two...IT HAS NO HOOK. Well it used to, but Keri's team decided to take it out. No excuses though because the song had 6 cowriters and the best thing they could come up with was "HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY"?!

Next up is Keri's current single "Knock You Down" featuring Kanye West and Ne-Yo. Oh and it's also produced by Danja. Right off the bat, you hear Kanye rapping again which actually surprises me because of all the autotune crap he's been doing lately. This song is definitely one of my favs though and will probably be America's favorite too.

While Keri does a decent job with the bangers, the slower tracks is where she clearly excels. "Slow Dance" which is older than Madonna appears on the album, and it is definitely hot. Produced by The Royal Court, the track gives me a Tweet vibe but with Keri's signature twist on it. Following that track is another jam called "Make Love" and this one is produced by Polow. This reminds me of something Janet would do back in the day but again, Keri puts her own thing on it. I'm announcing it right now, a baby or two will be made to this song by me. Next up, we have my favorite track "Intuition", which is produced by Timbaland. This track actually reminds me of "Miscommunication", which was on Timbaland's Shock Value album. The air tight vocals, along with the quirky lyrics that only Keri can do. Oh, and the beat is hot too. It gives me some hope that Timbaland still has it in himself to produce a decent beat. I would have loved to hear a beat switch somewhere but I can't complain.

"How Does It Feel" comes out and right away, I check the song name again because I swear I've heard the beat before. Oh right, 4 Minutes by Madonna and Elevator by Flo Rida. It's not bad though I guess. "Alienated" is next, and is produced by Cory Bold. Some people love this song because of it's lyrics and some hate it because it doesn't seem to go anywhere. I personally did not care for the song at first when it leaked, but listening to the lyrics in more detail brought out another dimension in the song. Next we have "Tell Him The Truth" which again is Hate It or Love it track. The beat (produced by Danja) doesn't really go anywhere but the lyrics are nice. I love the track. I may be crazy for saying this, but this may be Keri's equivalent to "4 Page Letter" by Aaliyah. That's how much I like it.

To finish off the album, we have two very familiar tracks. The first one, "Energy" was the first single off the album and is essentially a pop song. It's a pretty good song though. And to close out the album, we have "Where Did He Go?" which seems a bit lackluster after hearing the rest of the album. I played the crap out of the song for 2 years but it doesn't hold up compared to the rest of the tracks. Still though, it's great to hear the CDQ of the song.

The only thing I'm mad about is that after hearing snippets of songs like "High Heels" and "Love Ya", I was anxiously waiting for them to be on the album. Unfortunately for us though, some garbage called "Change Me" featuring Brother Darkness Akon made the album. That song is an automatic one point deduction off the album. Oh yeah, another problem I have with the song is that Keri doesn't fully emerge as an artist throughout the album. "Knock You Down" could have easily been mistaken for a Kanye or a Ne-Yo song. Same goes for "Get Your Money Up" and "Return The Favor".

To wrap this review up, I had huge expectations for this album because Timbaland was producing it, which is probably unfair but what can you do? Still though, the album is a pretty decent debut and I believe Keri has made the transition from song-writer to singer.

RATING: 7/10

Standout tracks:
- Knock You Down
- Slow Dance
- Make Love
- Intuition
- Tell Him The Truth



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