Hot on the proverbial heels of Christina Milian, Ciara, and Rihanna, comes the latest R’n’B popstrel du jour: Cassie.
So.Another day, another wannabe Beyoncé. Yawn.
The obligatory back story: Cassie moved to New York City in 2004, and it’s there that she hooked up with producer/artist Ryan Leslie. They started recording together. This partnership (strictly business, don’t’cha know) caught the attention of former Sony chairman and major league industry player Tommy Mottola , and a certain rap mogul by the name of Sean Combes (or P.Diddy, or Puff Daddy, or whatever the hell he likes to be called this week). Mottola was obviously suitably impressed. Immediately after hearing her demo, he’d signed her. Fast work indeed.
Next came signing to Ryan Leslie’s NextSelection production company. And, after that? Why, the practically mandatory nowadays “MySpace” method of self-promotion. Which-wouldn’t you just know it?- worked. The phenomenal number of hits to her site forced the record label head honchos to sit up and take notice. A bidding war ensured. The victor? Mr Puffy himself. Quelle surprise.
Cassie signed to Combe’s Bad Boy label in the spring of this year.
There’s no denying the girl’s been busy, but is the fruit of this intensive labour-debut album ‘Cassie’, released at the end of August- actually any good? Well, no.
Eleven tracks long and not a single track stands out. Not one. It’s generic at best, soporific at worst. In fact: plagued by insomnia? Stick this on. Guaranteed to have you snoring in seconds. Or your money back. It is just that dull.
So the girl can hold a tune and she sure looks purty. But then again the same can be said for every other female R’n’B lite artist out there.
Cassie is nothing new. And neither, sadly, is her album. Rather than sounding fresh and new, as one might reasonably expect, it sounds formulaic and tired. Quite a feat considering it’s her debut. From the very first track to the very last, one’s overwhelming emotion upon listening is apathy, for, in this most saturated of genres, there really isn’t anything left that hasn’t been done, that we haven’t heard before. We have reached an impasse. Sometimes it feels as if one is stuck in the musical equivalent of ‘Groundhog Day’. The same tunes, the same songs, rehashed, repackaged, and re-released. Again and again. On and on ad infinitum.
Of course it would have been nice if Cassie had been the one to break this cycle, but it obviously wasn’t to be. Oh well. Maybe next time, eh? And then again. Maybe not.
Written for Entertainment Wise
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