After losing out on American idol to Taylor Hicks (who had to be one of the most un-marketable American idol winners), Elliott managed to snag himself a record deal. Rightly so, the dude has a great voice. But whilst his debut showcased that he could out radio friendly songs and that his studio vocals were sharp, it was lacking on the whole. His follow up album Fight for love doesn't do much different, but what it does do makes a lot of difference.
The entire album is glossed in a familiar sound, a sound of which tows a line between pop and R&B, but is definitely more R&B leaning on the whole. Many of the songs throw the whole strummy guitars, piano and R&B drum patterns into the mix. You know, that same ol' shit sound that's risen to popularity and been run into the ground for the past couple of years. Whilst it'd be easy to dismiss the album for towing this line, it's hard to when the songs are so good and Elliott sings the hell out of each and every one.
Every song on Fight for love sounds like something you might have heard before. "You say" is clichéd. "Know better" has a very Usher "Moving mountains" tone about it with its chorus and laments of a love gone sour. And there are a bunch of others that ring with familiarity between what's been on radio over the past couple of years and what artists have cut for albums. But the songs stand on their own because they're catchy songs of substance and Elliott injects so much into the songs vocally. You never get the feeling that Elliott is trying to hop on anybodies bandwagon, but instead just work a sound which suits him. And rightfully so. It's not like anybody is trying to hear Elliott singing over some club beat in auto tune.
Elliott has a great tone and texture to his voice as well a that special something that makes you believe and buy into everything he's singing. But even with this, the great thing with this album is that Elliott is singing a bunch of songs which suit his voice perfectly. His debut was decent enough, but it was boring because the songs on the whole didn't give him a great deal to work with. This time around Elliott has a collection of songs which showcase his vocals better and allow him to put his whole heart and foot into them.
The weakest songs on the album funnily enough are the Stargate productions. The Stargate contributions where the stand outs on Elliott's debut ("One word" will always be that crack), but now they're the weakest links. They are not terrible songs by any means, but Elliott sounds like he's singing by numbers on each of them. And it's almost as though Stargate thought about giving Elliott something different, but decided to give him the same recycled shit they've given to everybody else. Elliott buckles with "Cold heart" because it's sound is so different to everything on the album. It just doesn't fit and should have been left in the recycle bin of somebodies studio MacBook. But 2 throwaway tracks and 1 bad track out of a potential 21 isn't bad at all.
It's a shame that all of the bonus tracks were made bonus tracks and that they're spread between iTunes, Amazon and Target stores. Because every single bonus track and could have replaced tracks on the standard edition. "Doorway" is a standout. But it stinks of Brandy. It wouldn't surprise me if it was intended for her originally, because it sounds so much like Brandy song. From the music, the tone, the lyrics, right down to how Elliott sings it. "Shelter" is real nice, but there's something that's difficult to take about Elliott on such a sexy sounding song. His voice doesn't really ooze sex in this context. But "Shelter" is still a hot song, and the vocal arrangements on the chorus sound amazing.
The one thing that I couldn't help but feel as I listened to this album was that it reminds me so much of Brandy. It might be just me. But Elliott works the songs almost like a male Brandy, evoking feeling into the songs, rasp and also stupidly intricate vocal arrangements.
Fight for love is a good album from start to finish. Nice production. Slick vocal arrangements. Solid vocals on each and every track. But there's no one song which defines the album or makes it stick out. What Elliott really needed with this album was a couple of killer tracks that could do the distance as single choices and help both he and his album stick out and command notice. But instead we get an album of really nice songs, which will probably be forgotten about on a mass scale; and this is a shame. Because Fight for love is a collection of really good songs. Not wonderfully memorable. But still good, well produced and well sung songs.
The situation regarding the bonus tracks is also a complete mess. There are enough of them to compile another album. And to have spread them across so many different outlets was asking for them to just be illegally downloaded. My advice to you if you plan on buying this is to buy the Japanese version, which features 3 of the bonus tracks as part of the track list.
If you liked Elliott's debut album, then you'll really like this, as it is much better. A good effort for a sophomore album, if a little forgettable in the long run. It's not the type of album that you can just pick songs from. You really do have to listen to it in its entirety to appreciate it, which is a tall order in an age of playlisting and folk wanting that skip through albums until something really jumps out. But if you are a play from top to bottom kinda person who appreciate heavily R&B leaning songs, then take a chance on this.
Album highlights:
■ Let love be
■ Know better
■ Fight for love
■ Can't keep on loving you (From a distance)
■ You say
■ How do I know
■ Always
■ Good outweigh the bad
■ Shelter
■ Doorway ★ J's fave
■ Forever in you
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