Music Review: Rokstarr (Taio Cruz)
Download: 
He’s a British singer that is, frankly, one of the most versatile performers I’ve listened to. I had the felicity to download a promotional “sneak peek” of his upcoming album, Rokstarr, which dropped sometime in November (??) in the US and has already come out October 12 in the UK.
Taio (pronounced Tay-Oh) is not your typical rap/r&b artist. Far from that, I assure you. It seems that one thing the British are doing better than the States (besides having kickass accents and generally being more educated and having a better health care system, among other things) is producing artists that blur the lines between one genre of music and the next. With Taio, he effortlessly blends his vocals, beats, and lyrics in a fusion that can only be described as dantechrapnb (dance/techno/rap/r&b, in case you didn’t catch all that).
It is common knowledge these days that what defines the 2000s as a musical era is Autotune, just like unfiltered electric guitar distortion that was grunge battled with bubblegum pop boy and girl bands for the title of 90s music sovereign. And the 80s. Oh, the hair. They sang from the hair. But 2000 is all about being perfectly on pitch.
The thing with Taio is, he knows this. He knows that everyone is using Autotune, and how tiring it can be to have to listen to it in every single song on the radio. He uses it, of course, but without the heavy-handedness of some Autotune aficionados of late coughBlackEyedPeasandKanyecough. There are some tracks that I can’t even tell if he is using Autotune or not, except when deliberately used for a robotic singing voice.
Rokstarr has the futuristic touch of techno and Autotune that both defines and redefines what it means to be living in this era of music. I’ll be blunt: those who do not like dancing will scorn this album. So you had better break out the subwoofer and your darkest sunglasses, because you will be blasting Taio’s tracks from beginning to end in your car, and feeling like a Rokstarr while doing it.
But enough with the preamble. Which tracks are worth it? Which tracks are worthless? Let’s go through this album track by track. For those of you who wish to listen to the album unbiased, download link is above, streaming link is below.
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He’s a British singer that is, frankly, one of the most versatile performers I’ve listened to. I had the felicity to download a promotional “sneak peek” of his upcoming album, Rokstarr, which dropped sometime in November (??) in the US and has already come out October 12 in the UK.
Taio (pronounced Tay-Oh) is not your typical rap/r&b artist. Far from that, I assure you. It seems that one thing the British are doing better than the States (besides having kickass accents and generally being more educated and having a better health care system, among other things) is producing artists that blur the lines between one genre of music and the next. With Taio, he effortlessly blends his vocals, beats, and lyrics in a fusion that can only be described as dantechrapnb (dance/techno/rap/r&b, in case you didn’t catch all that).
It is common knowledge these days that what defines the 2000s as a musical era is Autotune, just like unfiltered electric guitar distortion that was grunge battled with bubblegum pop boy and girl bands for the title of 90s music sovereign. And the 80s. Oh, the hair. They sang from the hair. But 2000 is all about being perfectly on pitch.
The thing with Taio is, he knows this. He knows that everyone is using Autotune, and how tiring it can be to have to listen to it in every single song on the radio. He uses it, of course, but without the heavy-handedness of some Autotune aficionados of late coughBlackEyedPeasandKanyecough. There are some tracks that I can’t even tell if he is using Autotune or not, except when deliberately used for a robotic singing voice.
Rokstarr has the futuristic touch of techno and Autotune that both defines and redefines what it means to be living in this era of music. I’ll be blunt: those who do not like dancing will scorn this album. So you had better break out the subwoofer and your darkest sunglasses, because you will be blasting Taio’s tracks from beginning to end in your car, and feeling like a Rokstarr while doing it.
But enough with the preamble. Which tracks are worth it? Which tracks are worthless? Let’s go through this album track by track. For those of you who wish to listen to the album unbiased, download link is above, streaming link is below.
( Collapse )
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