rEVOLVEr by T-Pain: Review

By Peter Long

When T-Pain first came on the scene in 2005, both him and his sound was fresh. No one had ever heard anything like it. Some asked, “did this come from another planet? What is this?” Keep in mind, auto-tune was rarely used prior to the release of T-Pain’s first full length Epiphany. The music of T-Pain turned out to be the sound of a culture that was changing in many ways.

It was the sound of a fast paced, bionic world where anyone could record an albums-worth of studio-quality music and release it themselves without the support of a major label. It was the sound of the second-wave of club culture and techno, another genre music that was beginning to break out of the underground. In other words, T-Pain’s music was somewhat a precursor to fist-pumping.

Today however, the use of this suddenly decade-old technology has turned into over-processed garbage used by almost every artist from Kanye West to Cher. Auto-tune has gone from being creative to controversial with most musicians denouncing it as being inorganic and a tool, not a musical instrument.

T-Pain has become a caricature of himself (i.e. “I’m On a Boat”) and evidently he hasn’t gotten the message that: A. auto-tune isn’t cool anymore and B. 14 songs worth of auto-tuney goodness (his latest release entitled Revolver) is almost as un-cool as auto-tune itself.

The results came back from the test: auto-tune is on life support and Revolver is trash.
Speaking of unoriginality, how about a Lil’ Wayne guest spot? Weezy is featured on the first track titled “Boom Boom Pow Pow” where he spits stoic lines referring to the way he does things which, in case you were wondering, was “big, hippopotamus.” While Lil’ Wayne is becoming more unoriginal than auto-tune itself, I’m almost thankful for him making a guest spot on this album because…well…at least he’s more talented than T-Pain.

After the song entirely devoted to his favorite George Costanza quote (“It’s Not You, It’s Me”…oh come on, no one watches Seinfeld anymore? Oh, you watch Curb Your Enthusiasm now…that’s cool, it’s fine), T-Pain moves on to “Default Picture,” which tells the story of a guy completely transfixed on woman’s default picture on Twitter. I wish I was kidding. This is the kind of song that would make the listener ask him or herself, “is this real?” or “where’s my pistol?”

Without a doubt the best track on the album is “5 O’Clock” featuring Lily Allen and Wiz Khalifa. The presence of these two are integral to the song because they are far more superior artists than the man whose album they’re singing on, specifically Khalifa who covers up the weak skills of T-Pain as an MC. Allen does a superb job of giving the track its flavor and she blends with T-Pain surprisingly well.

In conclusion, T-Pain’s art has become banal and has run its course. What he should continue to do is produce and add character to other artists songs, that is what he is good at. The movement that he helped create has ended synonymously with Revolver.
Final Verdict: If your parents buy you this for Christmas, find new parents.