Shock Value (Parental Advisory) [PA] - Timbaland > Reviews > Shocktastic!

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Edgy, variety, different .
Disadvantages:	The Fall Out Boy Track is just a misfit !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Shock Value, pretty aptly named actually, but one hell of a creation.
Timbaland, never even heard a song where he actually put more effort into the vocals than into the production of an album in it's entirety. For surely that is what he is known best for.

I recently reviewed P Diddy's latest album, and am a bit slow on the uptake when R'n'B had it's heyday in the 90's, so forgive me for being a bit awe-struck by some of the stuff I'm discovering recently.
I'll make no bones bout it, I bought this album on the pretext of hearing one song by Timbaland, Feat: Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake called "Give It To Me", currently at No. 2 in the charts. There's a reason for the high positioning too, between Akon, P-Diddy and Timbaland, they currently make up the majority of R'N'B / Hip Hop artists actually releasing anything worth listening to. That is personal opinion but judging by the state of the charts maybe it's a factual point?

SHOCK VALUE:

A cannily structured album, unhindered by the inclusion of some top artists such as Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake, but dig a little further into the track list and you'll be surprised to find who else appears on this 19 track stunner! You'll be amazed that the likes of Elton John, Dr. Dre, Missy Elliot and Keri Hilson all stake a place on the star-list, and Timbalands' collaboration with these artists catapults the album to supreme status!

The Tracks:

An eclectic mix of sensations from hard hip-hop and rap to more rock inspired thumper tunes, my present favourite being Svream feat. Keri Huilson and Nichole Scherzinger.

I'll start with the obvious, "Give It To Me" featuring Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado. It was due to this song that I picked up the album in the first place, well and a couple of sneaky listens to the samples on Amazon. The track itself is a fusion of all three artist's styles, with Nelly Furtado being the predominant vocalist, however the drawl of Timbaland tweaks it into a crunchy R'n'B Bar! As with many of Nelly Furtado's tracks the chorus is instantly catchy, and the vocals from Timbaland add that little bit of rawness to her smoother style.

Scream: as mentioned featuring Nicole Scherzinger and Keri Hilson is another melodic collaboration off-setting Timbalands raw vocal talent with the sweeter sounds of female vocalists Scream is quite an unexpected inclusion for the pure fact it has that rock essence, featuring anm a gutsy bassline and electric guitar melody, but the overall effect is of something kinda anthemic.

The Way I Are: Keri Hilson, DOE and Timbaland come together with some trance-esque sampling for this dancey uptempo trackIt's the kind of thing you'd hope to hear on the dancefloor to get you going and shows the promise of being a fat single!

2 Man Show: With Elton John, something I never expected to see on a Timbaland album. My expectations were of some sort of a duet but Timbaland has rather used the expertise of Elton as a classic pianist and some clever gospel style vocals from an un-named female group to bring about quite a chilled out track, few vocals but quite ambient if you're in that kind of mood.

Oh Timbaland- had to give this one a mention because of the fantastic Renault advert sampling throughout.

Comparatively speaking you couldn't rate this album next to that of another artist because it's not all Timbaland. His experimentation and collaboration with such a diverse collective of artists sets this apart from anything else in the R'n'B Sector. Not sure if I am right in pigeon holing it in R'n'B to be honest because of the fusion of genres, but that is what sets this album apart from most of the junk around at the moment!