Tq Paradise reveal

When I heard Tq was back on the scene oh, only a decade after his first album came out, I was quite glad. The lead single to his most recent effort Paradise was the song of the same title. Now, to be honest, I was expecting something truly great when I first read the title of the song, given that there is a song called Paradise on his first album They Never Saw Coming, and it was one hell of a track. I even remember what track amount it was. 4. That's right.

Unfortunately, the newer Paradise was desperately average, generic, poorly produced and minute in its melodies. Krayzie Bone from Bone Thugs N Harmony makes it worse, dare I say, and I am left wondering what happened to Tq over the past decade. Did his first two albums, record label errors aside, two major classics of R&B, simply such the creative juices from him?

All Songs By Justin Bieber

The second track, Soulja, is better, but is still generic and lacks that Tq 'magic' we saw in the 90's - that magic which made Baby aka Birdman, Lil Wayne and his Cash Money Millionaires buy separate copies of the They Never Saw Me coming for every state they went to, because they played it so much and ended up scratching it! It absolutely was that good. (Quite surprising, therefore, that the boys at Ca$h Money recommended that Tq become their own version of Usher, rather than staying true to his own style that they had loved so much on tour. They should have just hired Justin Bieber if they wanted that.)

The second single, S.E.X.Y, is an upbeat ode to a woman's beautiful form, and it's a nice song, in fact one of the best singles of 2008 up there with Lollipop, but with these two up there as the best you can't help but think music is becoming considerably worse. It's almost like a function of time, starting from the 90s, the more time goes by, the worse it gets. When I was growing up, Lauryn Hill and her Miseducation, The Fugees, Mariah Carey and Dreamlover - all that beautiful stuff - Busta Rhymes going crazy and his Extinction, and of course Tq and his own They Never Saw Me Coming, were all over the radio. Fast transmit ten years, and what do we have? Lady Gaga whose discography is maybe the trashiest, most annoying set of songs to have ever existed; Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez. Sure, Justin Bieber has a good voice but don't half of his songs sound like a recycled version of something else? Why am I saying all of this? Well, this is absolutely how Paradise sounds. It sounds like Tq trying to sound like his old 90's 'reality R&B' self, but he just can't do it. One fancy is that, despite his 'reality R&B' his songs in the 90's had distinctly beautiful melodies, melodies which were often the polar opposite of the hard realities they conveyed. For example, his song One Lick was a story of one final drug job gone wrong, but have you ever heard a more beautiful hook in your life! Where is that Tq?

Speaking of which, I had absolutely high hopes for track 6 on Paradise, Proud Mary. You know, anyone with the word 'Mary' in, sung by Tq, my ears are going to perk up like a dog in front of a most succulent beef brisket. However, no sweet melodies, a fairly decent song for 2008, but I can't help but feel empty at it. Ain't the Same, and I Don't Know (featuring Jagged Edge) give me a similar feeling, the previous kind of a summary of this whole album. And I Don't Know, well, let's just say that after I Remember, I unbelievable so much better of Tq and J.E.

Ebony Eyes is quite clearly the best song on the album. It doesn't sound tired, the melodies are, while not orgasmic as on They Never Saw Me Coming, relatively fresh and it just shows that Tq still has something in him, but I just get the feeling that some kind of personal tragedy may be the only thing that can force the remaining brilliance out of this man, that we all know he has. It would be selfish of me to wish ill on anybody, because Tq, anyone he does now, is still the author of some eternally classic work and even if he never repeats it, he should all the time garner respect wherever he goes. Unfortunately, it won't be for the most recent Paradise. Rating: C-

Tq Paradise reveal