The Makings of a Man

R&B singer Trey Songz  will release his 4th studio album, “Passion, Pain and Pleasure” on the 14th of September, with the music industry hoping it can spike sales after a record weekly low last week. A preview of a few songs off the album was given to UStream last month as a teaser for fans, as well as surprise calls to some lucky ones (like myself) who got to hear his CD first.

As seems to be usual now for many artists, some of his songs were leaked on to the Internet, which he gave a little acknowledgement to by saying “Shout out to everybody who didn’t listen to the leaks,” he said. But the singer brushed off the premature release of some of his tracks, adding, “Bootleggers gotta eat. I ain’t mad at y’all boys.”

Much of his lyrical content has to do with pleasure and passion, not so much pain. With lyrics like “wouldn’t it be nice if all night I was in you?” from ‘Love Faces’, and “That thang cold, y’all, that thang cold,” in the same song, women all over the place are going to be driven wild and saying how smooth the singer is.

Despite its overtly simplistic theme the album is pretty decent and could mark a transition in Songz’s career. This is probably his most complete work so far, it showcases a lot growth and definitely more maturity. The production here is stellar, the vocals although not groundbreaking are interesting, things only get shaky when lyrics are in play. There is room for improvement lyrically for this young star in the making. Songz has a bright future in this industry.

According to the early estimates Songz’s “Passion, Pain and Pleasure” album is expected to sell between 230,000 and 250,000 units in its first week of release. This is a big leap forward for the “I Gotta Make It” singer whose last CD and best selling release yet, 2009′s “Ready” only sold 131,000 copies in its debut week.