I didn’t realize this was coming out til I saw it in a Target ad.  Definitely picked it up the day it came out, though.  Musiq Soulchild used to be my favorite music artist of all time (I’m not sure who holds that spot anymore), but his last couple of albums were a little bit lacking.  There were always a couple of good songs here and there, but the albums as a whole were never much to write home about.  OnMyRadio, though, is changing my mind about him.  I’m surprisingly impressed with this new one.  He’s on the up and up again!

Notable and favorite tracks:

1. Back Again: I love this first song!  Very reminiscent of the good starts of Aijuswanaseing and Juslisen.  It has a very Welcome Back, Kotter-eqsue chorus: “Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back, girl.”  And when I heard that, I was like, “Oh shet!  He’s back!”

2. Until: Awesome line at the end of the chorus: “This love just won’t ever end, until 2000-and-forever.”  I like the old school voice sample in the background, too.

3. If U Leave (feat. Mary J. Blige): I believe this is the first single of the album.  I like this duet a lot — Musiq and Mary J. complement each other quite well.  Maybe I’ll try to do this song myself one day?

6. Dear John: Interesting break-up song.  The melody feels so positive to me, like it’s supposed to be a long song.  But it’s not.  Intriguing.

8. Money Right: I don’t know why but I like this song so much!  Very upbeat, and I really like the drums that he uses — almost Andre 3000-like.  Kind of corny lyrics, but that’s ok.  I tend to focus on the beats and the melody anyway.

9. Someone: I think I tend to look for the “Dontchange” in every subsequent album Musiq has released after Juslisen.  This is the closest to that.  But I’ve come to realize that there’s no point in doing that.  He already has “Dontchange” and “Whoknows” (which I really like as well).  He doesn’t need to make the same song again.

10. I Wanna Be (feat. Damian Marley): I LOVE this song!  I think this is my favorite track in the whole album.  So upbeat, great melodies.  Almost like a reggae version of “Just Friends”.  And Damian Marley is great.  Winner!

11. So Beautiful: Musiq mentioned in an interview that this is his favorite song in the whole album.  I think it’s pretty good, not bad at all.  I really like how he’s falsetto through most of the song.  A lot like Robin Thicke (but it’s not like his whole cd is falsetto… *ahem*).  Very cool horns in the song, too.

Looking back at writing this just now, it looks like I like this cd a lot!  This is the most I’ve liked a whole Musiq album since Juslisen.  Well done, sir.  You’ve taken over my playlist!

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