Timbaland - "Shock Value II" Review

image from Amazon

Artist/Band: Timbaland
Album: Shock Value II
Release Date: 12/08/09
Tracks: 13 (-1 for intro = 12)
Runtime: 55:44


Track Breakdown (All ratings out of 5 *’s):


1) “Intro by DJ Felli Fel” – No comment or rating. Intro’s don’t deserve the time their spent made.


2) “Carry Out” feat. Justin Timberlake – A song entirely dedicated to the simile of a fast food establishment. It’s got a lot of rhythm to it and I want to like it, but I really have to be sloshed to not focus in on how ridiculous the lyrics are. Clearly then, this would make a great dance club song. 4 *’s. I hope this song gets used for a Burger King commercial. It’d be the greatest thing for their public image since being branded “The BK Lounge”.


3) “Lose Control” feat. JoJo – Really not a great song. During the duet part, it sounds like both artists are trying to sing over the other one, and even during the verses it sounds like the beat is too loud. Easily skippable, and easily hateable. However, for the sake of acknowledging a possible niche market of teenage girls, I’m betting there could be a group that latches onto this song and makes it the next big thing. Regardless, crap is crap, and at most I give it a generous 2 *’s.


4) “Meet In Tha Middle” feat. Bran’ Nu – A fairly relatable song about how both parties in a relationship are wrong in their actions, so they should accept each other’s flaws and appreciate them more for their positive side, rather than play the blame game. Kind of a urban hip hop version of The Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out”. Only difference is, “We Can Work It Out” is epic, and “Meet In Tha Middle” is kind of just a filler song, a hair’s width above the not-skippable line, which is assisted by Bran’ Nu who really brings something special to the track. Her name is crap, but she seems hella talented. You may not go searching for this song when you put in the CD, but if you’re listening to it track-by-track, you don’t feel like skipping it. 3 *’s.


5) “Say Something” feat. Drake – Everyone loves Drake. I was actually on the fence about this song until the 2:30 mark when Drake drops the nice-guy, boy-band, cutsie stuff and straight up lays some early Eminem lyrics on the line. Timbaland’s verse was pretty good too, and if the whole song was Drake killing the mic without the weak chorus and weak bridge to the chorus, this would be a definite 5 * track. Unfortunately, it’s only 4 *’s. Memorable, but not perfect.


6) “Tomorrow In The Bottle” feat. Chad Kroeger and Sebastian – Hearing Nickelback’s lead singer sing to a hip hop beat is a definitely interesting sound. I know it’s cool to hate on Nickelback, and hey, sometimes they deserve it, but this is a pretty fun song. I have no idea what the lyrics mean sung by Kroeger, but he really brings something special to the table, and I’d take this song over 9/10ths of the Timbaland produced album, Scream, by Soundgarden/Audioslave singer Chris Cornell. There is one thing that really hurts this song and that’s a potential music video. Every time I heard Kroeger’s voice I thought of how painfully white and uncool it would be to see him trying to perform this. So until MTV screws this up by making a visual, 4 ½ *’s. People should check this out, if only out of morbid curiosity.


7) “We Belong To The Music” feat. Miley Cyrus – first of all, Miley Cyrus: BWAHAHAHAHAHA! No, in all seriousness, she’s certainly grown into a music phenomenon and is very talented at what she does. Also, she’s stated she’s going to be soon branching away from the kid-friendly stuff to be more overtly sexual, so it’s not as though Timbaland was teaming with The Jonas Brothers. Unfortunately for Timbaland, giving the majority of the reigns over to the featured artist may have worked wonders for OneRepublic, but it really puts you in Miley Cyrus’ shadow. This would have been a good track for Cyrus’ album, but for a Timbaland album it comes off as super weak as you’d think it would be. It tries to reminisce the fun of “Wait A Minute” by Pussycat Dolls and Timbaland, but fails pretty hard, as it’s just too centered around Cyrus. A generous 3 *’s, even though Timbaland album-buyers will likely crap all over it, and Cyrus fans will likely never hear it.


8) “Morning After Dark” feat. Nelly Furtado and SoShy – A really cool beat that has a lot of potential, but the chorus butchers it, and both Furtado and Timbaland are outshined by miles and miles by the unknown female artist, SoShy. SoShy + the beat is the only reason this song doesn’t get 1 *, and instead, will get 2 *’s.


9) “If We Ever Meet Again” feat. Katy Perry – Maybe it’s just because I don’t really like “Waking Up In Vegas” but I feel like I’ve missed Katy Perry. Apparently cherry chapstick and varying degrees of temperature went out the door in 2008 and were replaced by the next level, Lady GaGa. This song has ‘soundtrack’ written all over it, but if not given an extra boost by a romantic comedy, then I don’t see it going anywhere. 3 ½ *s.


10) “Can You Feel It” feat. Esthero and Sebastian – Play it in the really electric-music clubs and you may garner a reaction. But for people who like Timbaland for what he’s become known for, this isn’t for them. In fact, this song is pretty much garbage unless you like raves. But if you like raves, it’s great. So caught between one current and another, I have to give it 2 ½ *’s, which I typically give to possibly-skippable, mediocre, filler tracks.


11) “Ease Off The Liquor” – Even though it’s heavy on the electronica, I can’t see anyone liking this track. It’s very force-fed and “please like me”. 1 *.


12) “Undertow” – feat. The Fray and Esthero – The Fray rule this track, and if The Fray are King, then Esthero is the princess. Timbaland is the jester who gets tomatoes thrown at him. Timbaland doesn’t even do much on this track, but for his one verse that he sings, I say he needs to be hauled out. As a producer, he should recognize that he doesn’t fit in with the song, which is really, really spectacular minus his voice. 4 *’s.


13) “Timothy Where Have You Been” feat. Jet – Maybe it’s because I like Jet, and the original version of this song. Maybe, it’s because I was glad this album was over. But this song was pretty darn acceptable. It had kind of an old school arena-rock/rap feel to it. Almost like posthumous Biggie Smalls’ work, but lacking in the lyrics department. 3 ¾ *’s.



My Highlights:
“Tomorrow In The Bottle” is the highlight of the album, which I was surprised to find Nickelback attached to my highlights section. Honorable mentions to “Carry Out”, “Say Something” and “Undertow”. Check some of these tracks out on youtube, or lala.com to make your own judgment on if the album is worth the money, or if the individual tracks are worth the money.



Overall Rating:
The average of the star ratings comes to 3 *’s out of 5. However, I’m declaring inflation, and for big-picture analysis, am knocking off half a star, bringing this album down to 2 ½ *’s out of 5. I own Timbaland’s previous album, “Shock Value” (the original) and was always very impressed by it. The original “Shock Value” featured such hits as “The Way I Are”, “Throw It On Me”, and “Apologize”, but had so many great unheard tracks by those who didn’t delve deeper into the albums. You can go back into my track breakdown and see where each track went wrong, but I’m mainly going to put the blame on Timbaland’s own game, as he spent too much time working on the production music, and getting the entourage of back-up singers rather than writing his own lyrics and really caring about what he was singing about. This is a mediocre album, and I don’t see the point in people who aren’t impressed by the songs in My Highlights to buy this album. Save your money. Or put it towards something better like the original “Shock Value”.