NAP series Heart Attack

This is a part of the NAP series, but instead of critiquing albums, let’s do this in baby steps, shall we.

There are some songs that need to be discussed; not because they are good or bad songs, but merely because an artist or a song has been receiving so much heat.  In this case, Trey Songz has been on a tear for the last couple of years.  He has toured with Jay-Z, he’s even toured off the strength of a mixtape.  He’s been taking the risk of doing mixtapes, and it has paid off for him.  Think about all of the current mainstream male R&B artists, there may be only five of them.  R&B isn’t rap, it takes more time to create a good product for the masses, and somehow Trey has been able to prove that the hard work does pay off. Probably even more amazing is the consistency and how quickly his product is made.  Whether you yourself like it or not, obviously his label (Atlantic) loves it since the music keeps churning out.

Recently, Trey released a new single called “Heart Attack”, which is the first single from his upcoming summer album Chapter Five. Of course the summer is a big time for Hip Hop and R&B artists: the weather is hot which leads to beaches and very little clothes being worn.  So I expect a lot of this album, especially since the last two albums have escalated Trey to the upper echelon of the current R&B scene.

Now as far as the song goes; if you can get past the first 10 seconds, you will be okay. It’s a throwback 8-bit sound. I played the Harlem Globetrotters NES video game a little too much (maybe I’m showing my age a bit), but some of the cheers began with that same type of sound.  After the first 10 seconds, you see that this is a catchy little pop song about the pain of love.  After so much material about sex, in the beginning (after the 10 seconds of 8-bit sound) he says "turn the lights on" which can be taken as saying "it's time to see the truth".

It’s not like the subject is original at all.  In fact R&B singers in general talk or sing about three subjects: sex, how good love feels, and heartbreak.  The first challenge with R&B singers who stay on these subjects is how to make it sound fresh.  Trey does a decent job with this by staying away from the ad-libs that I’ve come to know him for.  He’s a bit more mature and is able to take this topic seriously (we’ll see if the maturity part continues).  There's something kind of cool with the phrasing of falling "in too deep and you can't think about giving it up" even though once you think about it, it's really sad this is a description of a dysfunctional relationship. The second challenge with singers who talk about heartbreak/loss of love/dysfunctional relationships is to not make it an angry and slowly paced song, or as I prefer to say a slow burn of a song.

At the same time, the song is not perfect, but it’s a nice teaser for what will be an interesting summer for Trey. Let’s see if he can exceed his last two efforts. Both albums, Ready and Passion, Pain & Pleasure were both certified gold, but were at times falling back on “booty calling clichés” (USA Today) and “steady mackin’ over slow airbrushed jams” (Rolling Stone).   But as I said earlier, the summer is all about beaches and scantily clad people; those things only lead to steady mackin’ and booty calls.  You know I'm right.