J. Holiday - Round 2 (Reviews)

1. Intro
2. It’s Yours
3. Fall
4. Don’t Go
5. Wrong Lover (feat. Rick Ross)
6. Run Into My Arms
7. Sing 2 U
8. Lights Go Out
9. Make That Sound
10. Forever Ain’t Enough
11. Fly
12. Homeless
13. I Tried

Via DJBooth

It’s not easy being a male R&B sex symbol. Sure, at first it’s fun to watch girls hyperventilate every time you take your shirt off, but after a while all the screaming gets annoying. No matter how big you once were, it doesn’t take long before the screams subside and the hyperventilations slow down. The harsh truth is there’s always some younger guy waiting to knock you off your sex symbol pedestal. That’s why ultimately, no matter how well you dance or how cut your abs are, it’s still about the music. If you can’t consistently make quality albums you’ll just end up hosting crappy reality shows on cable TV (sorry Tyrese, that was uncalled for).

That’s why even though women across the country orgasm at the mere thought of J Holiday singing, he still needed to prove he could be a legitimate and long-lived musical force. Mission accomplished. Holiday shows that he’s more than a sex symbol with his aptly-titled Round 2, the slim singer’s follow up to 2007’s surprise smash Back of My Lac. Round 2 finds Holiday shifting away from Lac’s harder-edged image in favor of a smoother sound, resulting in a well-crafted album that shows that while Holiday’s got a ways to go before he reaches elite status, no one will ever be able to call him a one-hit wonder again.

Holiday exploded out of relative obscurity to the top of the charts on the strength of his smash hits “Bed” and “Suffocate”, two slow burners that cemented his status as a baby makin music machine. Since the former was helmed by The-Dream, who we recently confirmed is the motherf**king man, the public can be forgiven if they wondered how Round 2 would fare without the helping hand of the Radio Killer. Holiday’s first attempt to recapture the magic is the lead single “It’s Yours”, a synth-heavy track that slowly grinds while Holiday lays down the same “can’t get enough of you” lyrics that served him so well on his first go round. It’s Yours is an admirable attempt to walk the thin line between pop and R&B, but it lacks that intangible appeal that make “Bed” so unforgettable. If any track off Round 2 has the potential to blow up it might just be “Wrong Lover”, a storytelling cut that brings on Rick Ross for a dope guest verse while Holiday charismatically falsettos across the laid-back beat. I don’t know if there’s another Suffocate-level smash on this album, but I would still expect to hear Round 2’s best and brightest on a radio near year you very soon.

Overall Score: 3.5/5

Read the rest here

Also, via StarPulse

J. Holiday probably won’t improve upon the commercial success of Back of My Lac’.
Its two singles, “Bed” and “Suffocate,” topped the R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart, which helped place the album at the same position on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
He has hit the jackpot and does not have the pop appeal of the more polished Ne-Yo, whether in sound or image, so he should just attempt to make another “Bed,” collect a moderate amount of radio play for his effort, and fade into the background, right? A move possibly made in part after witnessing several artists attempt to make their own “Bed” (whether through enlisting the song’s writing/production team, the-Dream and Carlos McKinney, or approximating it with other studio hands), Holiday instead delivers a second album that is not a retread. It’s not a reinvention, either, but the roster of collaborators is almost completely different, and Holiday all but eliminates the tough guy and stoner talk. While the singer hardly sounded on edge throughout Back of My Lac’, he sounds even more comfortable and assured here, like someone who has nothing to prove and can get down to making some durable bedroom music; part of this could be due to his significantly increased songwriting input. It all lends itself to an album that is stronger than the debut (if without unique songs that scream “massive hit potential”), one that is less cocky, more confident, and all the more charming for it — you can’t help but be won over by a singer who is not too proud to reference and even namecheck a spectrum of inspirations, from the Chi-Lites to “Bed” and “Suffocate” co-writer the-Dream, while serenading his woman. Andy Kellman, All Music Guide

Overall Score: 3.5/5Similar Posts:

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1. Intro 2. It’s Yours 3. Fall 4. Don’t Go 5. Wrong Lover (feat. Rick Ross) 6. Run Into My Arms 7. Sing 2 U 8. Lights Go Out 9. Make That Sound 10. Forever Ain’t Enough 11. Fly 12. Homeless 13. I Tried [...]

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