Tomorrow - Sean Kingston

Sep 18, 2009 02:09 pm

Sean Kingston, the refreshing teenage voice behind summer 2007's ubiquitous charmer "Beautiful Girls," again draws from the pop/ rap/reggae/doo-wop vein of his self-titled debut.

The good news is that with Tomorrow, the Jamaican-born, Miami-raised singer Sean Kingston has matured from the precocious 16-year-old found on his debut into the much cooler and natural 19-year-old found here. Musically, he hasn't evolved a lick. This means the highly polished, Island-flavored, hip-hop-influenced R&B of his debut is back, although this time the gimmicky ideas come off as more clever than cute. With Kingston adjusting his swagger accordingly, his patois shouts of "What a gwaan!!" make the electro-disco "Fire Burning" much more charming than the Flo Rida and Black Eyed Peas singles it apes, adding a teen-driven, multi-culti flair that's represented by the slick dancehall avatar on the cover. The glorious "My Girlfriend" could be passed off as a nu-disco bootleg remix of some classic lovers rock track, and while the infamous Auto-Tune device is used frequently, Kingston has it turned up so ridiculously high that it fits right in with all the other futuristic sounds. Right in line with the mash-up style, Good Charlotte's punk-pop chorus is a drastic and fun shift during "Shoulda Let U Go" but special guest Wyclef blends in much more naturally, bringing his mature tropical voice to "Ice Cream Girl" and making it sound like New Edition hanging with Robert Palmer. Anchoring it all are a humorous acknowledgement of his weight gain on "Face Drop," a handful of reggae-pop tracks that are bright and pleasant, plus some stripped-down, campfire-on-the-beach ballads where the waves roll in as the singer delivers his sweet nothings. Tomorrow proves Kingston can provide a whole album's worth of pool-side entertainment even without the "Beautiful Girls"-sized single. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide