The artist formerly-known-as-but-is-still-most-widely-known-as Jennifer Lopez is back with her eighth studio album ‘A.K.A.’.
Sadly it’s an uneven collection, filled with mid tempo dance tracks and many rent-a-rappers.
J-Lo has always been inconsistent, with some albums such as 2007’s ‘Brave’ completely missing the mark (and nearly the charts!). Unfortunately, it looks like ‘A.K.A.’ faces the same destiny, as it lacks a surefire hit.
First single ‘I Luh Ya Papi’ relies on a barely-catchy hook to attract attention. Second single ‘First Love’ is far better, but it’s an ominous sign that it is the only song on the album that J-Lo didn’t have a hand in writing.
Ms.Lopez is a big fan of appearing current, so it’s no surprise that she has roped in Iggy Azalea (‘Acting Like That’) and French Montana (‘I Luh Ya Papi’, ‘Same Girl’) to help out on ‘A.K.A’ with mediocre results.
Elsewhere, the title track is a solid 7 out of 10 whilst ‘Booty’ is downright trashy (what happened to the feminist J-Lo that we saw in the ‘I Luh Ya Papi’ video?). Its “big big booty” chant might be quite memorable, but it lacks the charm of other songs dedicated to such body parts (such as Shakira’s ‘Hips Don’t Lie’).
The album’s sole ballad ‘Emotions’ showcases Jennifer’s potential as a lyrical storyteller, but suffers when it comes to showing off her whiny upper registrar.
It’s not all bad news though. One song that we love unreservedly is ‘Let It Be Me’ with its Spanish guitar and musical flair. Radio will never play it, but it’s nice to see J-Lo let her hair down and not try so hard.
We also like ‘Troubeaux’, an old school R&B number with an alluring jazz influence.
It’s moments like these that are the most frustrating, as they remind us how good J-Lo was back in the day.
Instead she and her team continue to chase the sound of ‘right now,’ regardless of whether she can pull it off convincingly.
Download: First Love, Let It Be Me.
Brad Szmerling says
Oi vey…
auspOp says
Hey Anonymous #3,
It didn’t hit the top 100 here last week, but that could be because the digital edition was released on June 13 and the physical didn’t reach stores ’til June 20.
So she MAY see some chart action tomorrow.
The LP is languishing at No.153 (deluxe) and No.193 (standard) on iTunes as we type this, however…
The auspOp team
Anonymous says
where the hell did this chart in australia?!
Anonymous says
Love her movies and love her music
Anonymous says
I do also find her albums hit & miss track wise. I find myself enjoying her later albums and while I think her last album Love? was an absolute return to form. A.K.A is a mix of Old Skool J-Lo and Current J-Lo.
For me personally after a few listens I really enjoy it. Definately the standouts are Let It Be Me with it stripped back sound and you rarely hear J-Lo sing like this. Emotions is also solid but a more urban ballad.
Booty is gonna divide the masses it’s love it or leave it song. It’s fun and downright catchy. I agree it is hard to see a sure fire hit here but as a whole I like she has mixed it up and not just made 14 non stop party songs.
Highlights for me are: Let it Be Me, Emotions, Booty & Expertease.