Music Review: Keri Hilson

“You ever heard of, Keri Hilson?”

“Who?”

“Kerry Hilson!  She’s in Timbaland’s camp.  One of the best songwriters out there.  Keep an eye out for her.”

This was a conversation I’d had about a year and a half ago with one of the producers of Uptown Live.  Since then (and before), Keri Hilson has co-written major hits (including Britney's “Gimme More” and many songs penned under the songwriting group The Clutch), has been featured in music videos (Usher’s “Love in This Club” and Ne-Yo’s “Miss Independent”), and been featured vocally on major singles (“The Way I Are” and “Scream” by Timbaland).  She’s even had a major single herself.  Needless to say, I’ve been waiting for her debut, In A Perfect World, to drop ever since the teaser track “Get It Girl” came out over a year ago (not featured on this album).

The “Intro” starts with sparse percussion under a smooth “oo” that pans from one ear to the other before dropping a familiar Timbaland-style beat (but it could be Danja, his well known protégé who produced half of Britney’s Blackout album).  Most of this song sounds like it was written by a rapper, as one can see in the first lines: “I know you heard of me/ Intersope gave me a deal soon as they got word of me.”  Mighty cocky for the first words that come out of one’s mouth… especially after the non-existent success the first two singles that D. Kareem has never heard before.  But who knows, maybe she’ll back it up.

Does anyone else hear a hint of Rihanna in her voice?  Anyway, “Turnin Me on” was the breakout single (and by breakout, I mean the first one to break 50 on Billboard’s Top 100).  The lack of primary percussion (kick and snare) and the ominous brass punctuation build the tension through the first half of the verse.  Yelling male voices glissando an ascending scale (because glissando is obviously a transitive verb… glissando = starting on a note and sliding up or down in a linear fashion to a final note) in the background, bringing the tension to a peak just after the snare drum comes in.  These same voices syncopate a Southern-rap-type “hey” through the second half of the verse and add counterpoint to Hilson’s harmonized voice as it chants “turning me off.”  The “hey”s become more frequent through the chorus, almost hinting at Swizz Beatz (who produced basically all of Beyonce’s B’day).  In the second verse, Hilson gives us the same rhythmic catchiness while adding enough variation to keep it from getting boring.  Lil Wayne brings a great (if auto-tuned) verse, as usual.  It’s an okay song, but aside from his 16 bars, the only part I really like is the 1^st verse.

“Get Your Money Up” is a collaboration with two great female artists: Keyshia Cole and Trina.  The track starts out with 16^th-note clicks (almost like golf balls being clacked together) before bringing in an almost Neptunes-like hard-hitting synth.  The Swizz-like “hey”s come back.  And so do the yelling glissandos.  The writing credits get interesting because the only credits are Paolo da Don (producer of Chris Brown’s “Forever”… do people really write “da” still?), Hilson, and E. Hayes.  No mention of Cole or Katrina Taylor (i.e., Trina).  I love Trina to death, but aren’t rappers supposed to write their own verses?  Her 12 bars (not 16?) doesn’t seem to particularly stand out as her style, but she’s definitely not where she was (lyrically) when she put out Diamond Princess in '02.  Come to think of it, Missy Elliot wrote one of those singles entirely (“No Panties”).  Wikipedia credits these two ladies, which makes sense since Cole’s verse is markedly different from Hilson’s, but that would be a major faux pas to leave them out of the liner notes!  Also, I know it's the most catchy part of the song, but how the hell does "now lemme see your booty drop" fit into the subject matter of this song?!  I'm just sayin'.

“Return the Favor “ was a single (supposedly).  I think I heard it once.  Maybe (then again, I only listen to the radio in the morning).  Anyway, the intro comes in with what I would describe as electronic glitter.  Mayan-type flutes play descending scales over synthesized sparks in the background.  When the percussion and vocals come in, the song turns out to be half the speed that the intro implies, letting each hit marinate.  The first line of each verse is 6 (slow) beats, so the subsequent lines come in at a somewhat unexpected times (in the middle of the measure rather than the beginning).  She and Timbaland go back in a “Promiscuous”-type call and response (except they're actually singing).  The hook picks up the pace, but a kick drum on every beat replaces the usual kick-snare alternation, giving the first half of the hook a driving, dance-music motivation.  The second half of the chorus is uncharacteristically square for Timbaland (which makes it interesting in his context).  This song employs very little ad libbing (and it’s very faint, almost 3 minutes into the song), falling in line with the trend of R&B/hip-hop artists going for a pop feel.  Around the 4-minute mark, Timbaland starts breaking down the beat, and I thought he was going into Future-Sex-Love-Sounds mode and transitioning into a runoff interlude to close the song.  But no so: he eliminates the track element-by-element and finally fades out the synth chords over the last 43 seconds.  I just hope for the radio edit they faded it out around 3:40.

Danja strikes again on Hilson’s newest single, “Knock You Down”.  The track begins with airy, vamping synth chords in unison with a kick drum on every quarter note, Kanye West’s voice rhyming 4-bar teaser over the building tension before the first verse.  The vocal range of the first verse is surprisingly low, showing the depth of Hilson’s range and separating her sound from Rihanna much more distinctly (as if she hasn’t already).  Hilson uses “crunchy” 3-part harmonies (i.e., not your typical major/minor chords) to create variation in the multiple iterations of the same theme in the hook (i.e., she’s doing the same thing twice, but she changes what’s going on in the background vocals to give it a different flavor).  In typical Ne-yo fashion, the second verse focuses on the day-to-day details of the love situation.  This is why I idolize his writing.  Ne-yo’s verse features significantly more background-vocal embellishment than Hilson’s verse, which is appropriately sparse.  West's verse is okay.  Nothing sticks out as clever to me, and his clever word play is my main attraction to his work.  When the adlibs come at the end, I notice the difference between the aduible auto-tune on Hilson’s voice and the lack thereof on Ne-Yo’s voice.  It’s a great song, but the glaring void for me is the lack of harmony between the lead voices.  There is a call and response, that works very well, but I was hoping for a run or phrase together.  This makes it sound obvious that they weren’t in the studio together.

“Slow Dance” was exciting for me because it’s Hilson’s first primary writing credit on the album (does that mean she wrote it and the producer built the track around the melody as opposed to the other way around?  The producers got the primary credits for every song so far.).  The intro takes me back to the 80s (in the ballpark of “Computer Love” by Zapp and Roger).  Or maybe it’s more 90s (R. Kelly with Public Announcement or Teddy Riley)?  The single-tracked background vocals definitely give it a throw-back feel, and it’s a style that screams Missy Elliot to me.  I see Ciara doing this song.  The bridge breaks down to just the percussion, first in unison, then in haromony (so ’90s R&B).  There’s a very Timbaland-esque beat-box breakdown as well.  Turns out Timbaland’s protogé, King Solomon Logan, is the producer (with Timbo co-producing).  He doesn’t have any other major production credits, so we welcome him to the world of heavy hitters.

The intro to “Make Love” sounds like a Christmas song with the chimes synched with dreamy, echoey pads and with the super-slow tempo.  What I thought was just a vocal intro is actually the chorus.  I think this could be a single.  There’s really not much to this beautiful ballad, but there’s plenty of room for her to show off her extended Beyoncé-like runs. 

“Intuition” uses Middle-Eastern-type sounds in a hip-hop context.  Although the 4-beat (one-bar) loop gets a bit repetitive (in fact, the track doesn’t build or break down as it goes through the format of the song for the most part), Hilson’s complex vocal arrangements keep it interesting and help to demarcate the different sections of the song.  With the short instrumental loop, the 4-bar verses (followed by 2 separate 4-bar pre-choruses and a 4-bar chorus that repeats once with more vocal parts), I get the feeling Timbaland and she wrote this in about a half hour.  My favorite line: “It’s gon’be you, babe; it won’t be me."

We love the first verse of “How Does It Feel”: just vocals brass.  The full instrumental comes in with a predictable(-yet-hot) Timbaland instrumental.  The percussion sounds eerily similar to Missy’s “Shake Ya Pom Pom” (another Timbo production).  The hook is so close to being hot, but the phrasing in the second half feels a bit weak to me.  Hilson arranges fabulous harmonies in the bridge featuring cascading scales and not-so-predictable harmonies.  I can see this being a single as well.

“Alienated” almost sounds like a square Timbaland production, but it turns out this is the work of Cory Bold, a producer most known for his remixes (who just happens to be a major hottie).  The first part of the verse is actually a bit hard to hear/understand.  She’s singing a two-note melody and speaking it at the same time (think bridge of Janet Jackson’s “Feedback”).  It’s a cool effect, but the instrumentation is a bit intense with the buzzing pad under her voice.  Feels like a more hip-hop version of a Gwen-Stephani-sounding Lady Gaga track except instead of having a chord-heavy bridge, it has more of an instrumental breakdown under her a whispery, echoey chant. 

“Tell Him the Truth” almost sounds like a throw-back R.-Kelly-produced track.  It starts out rather sparse but very electronic.  In fact, it’s surprising sparse production for an artist associated with Timbaland.  This is a very sincere, vulnerable song, so it’s appropriate sparseness.  No whispers of Rihanna in this song (because I kind of hate her in ballads… I’m looking at you, Ne-Yo, for letting her sing “Unfaithful”).

Timbaland stamps this song from the first second of “Change Me” with an alternating 8^th note vocal technique (in rapid succession, she sings one, he sings the other).  Through Keri’s first verse, I wasn’t impressed by the song (except for some cool vocal layering).  But this is the first time I’ve heard Akon have any semblance of range or exert any effort in singing.  The high notes come out rough, but his verse works surprisingly well.  I’d hate to hear him attempt this live, though.  The song definitely grew on me after the first listen, but I think it’s a far-from-perfect match for Hilson's vocal style.

For some reason, “Energy” was the first single.  It’s definitely different from anything else on the album.  Neither Hilson nor anyone else in the Timbaland fold had any input on this song (not even the arrangements). The track is produced by the Runaways (whose members, as individuals, have written and produced a plethora of successful pop songs from the early 90s through current).  It sounds like a JoJo song (or someone else equally more pop).  I’d say, if you like Jordin Sparks or Katharine McFee, you’d probably enjoy this song.

“Where Did He Go” is in 6/8 meter(!).  The verses are almost percussive, Hilson’s voice singing quick syllables before slowing down the end of the line.  The pre-chorus features an interplay between the lead vocal and two separate and distinct background vocal parts in the same line.  This interplay creates the illusion of voices coming at the listener from different perspectives (paralleling the disorientation of a major break up).  Standing in particular contrast to “Intuition”, this track ebbs and flows through the song’s format.  The first verse has percussion under a guitar, and the chorus brings in a signature Timbaland deep buzz while the 2^nd verse keeps the buzz, loses the guitar (for the first half) and continues the percussion.  Hilson’s layered vocal arrangements add to the instrumental ebb and flow. 

“Do It" is the Bonus Track (iTunes marks the album as a “Bonus Track Version”, but there’s no non-bonus version).  This song interpolates the sample as “Doin’ It” by L. L. Cool J (from “My Jamaican Guy” by Grace Jones).  It comes off as a smooth dance track with long, airy synth chords over a driving beat (never underestimate the importance of well-placed shakers).  Again, this song sounds like Ciara’s style, especially the rap towards the end.  I could see this song being used in a hip-hop dance class.

I liked this album well enough.  Her collaborations were well-chosen, and she’s working with some of the hottest producers out there.  The best thing about it is that it showcases her singing, arranging, and writing abilities and establishes her style as an artist in the pop/hip-hop world (even if it does blend into other artists’ styles at times).  The worst thing: the tracks didn’t download in order!  I had to keep the liner notes (great photography, btw) open the whole time to make sure I was listening to the tracks in the correct order (this may have just been my iPhone acting up, thought).  There were a slew of tracks on this album that were almost there for me, but for one reason or another, I couldn’t fully commit to giving them a full-on stamp of approval on their own.  All in all, she’s a very talented singer, and it’s a good album.  I’m curious to see where she goes from here.

(I’m taking this opportunity to plug “Numba 1 (Tide Is High)” by Kardinal Offishall ft/ Keri Hilson.  Liked it so much that I put it on my NYE mix!)

Suggested Tracks:

Return the Favor

Knock You Down

Make Love

Maybe:

Get Your Money Up

Slow Dance

Intuition

How Does It Feel

Change Me

Where Did He Go

Do It

Click here to check out my review of the Ting Tings.