So you might be forgiven for hoping that a man with a first-hand appreciation of the times when R&B stood for rhythm and blues (not to mention an education in classical music) might have come out with something a bit more inspired than his latest offering.

Lost amidst over-enthusiastic vocal effe cts, it is hard to recognise the soulful voice that landed him his Oscar winning role at all. A sad fact, since it could well have redeemed this record from what it is - essentially a collection of banal songs about bling, bitches and haters that makes one desperately wish this were some kind of parody. A sample (since he's so fond of them):

"Let me introduce myself, they call me Mr Foxx, known for making ladies scream and jumpin' out their socks..."

And with this introduction, Mr Foxx (actually Mr Eric Marlon Bishop, but that doesn't sound half as cool now, does it?) also introduces the egotism (and dubious lyricism) of modern day R&B - if we can call it that - that is to prevail throughout Intuition, his third studio album to date.

Much like its predecessor Unpredictable, Imtuition owes its credibility, by and large, to the dream team of hip-hop heavyweights (T.I., Lil Wayne, Kanye West, T-Pain, Timbaland, Just Blaze, Tricky, The Dream, Ne-Yo and Salaam Remi, to be precise), whose contributions, it has to be said, far outshine Foxx's own on the first half of the album.

Opening track Just Like Me featuring T.I. is perhaps the best example of this, and the very fact that this portion of the album is the most listenable speaks volumes about Foxx's attempts at popstardom. It is, without doubt, the production, samples and superstar friends that will make any of these songs hit-worthy - and there are some that certainly are, in particular The-Dream produced number Digital Girl. Blame It, too, is a decent, danceable club jam with garage and electro vibes, which give way at the end to a delicate, piano outro that sets the tone for the latter half of the album - a slower, altogether more soulful affair, beginning with the next track She Got Her Own.

It is here that Foxx comes into his own, when he dares to stray from the tired R&B clichés that populate the rest of the album and goes back to basics. Intuition Interlude is another delicately orchestrated, soulful ballad, but with little to distinguish it from the previous track, it is hard to get excited about it, and the rest of the album continues largely in the same vein. From this point onwards, Foxx slips into sickly sentimentality and cringe-worthy loverman crooning, typified by Slow, a (you guessed it) slow, seductive bedroom ballad resplendent with such romantic lines as "I'm 'a take my time with you cos your shit is the shit."

Without the buoyancy of his collaborators, the album rapidly loses momentum, to the point where closing track Love Brings Change sounds like it would be more at home on a Disney soundtrack. All in, it suffers from a lack of focus and direction. Maybe the main problem with Intuition is that, much like Foxx himself, it just doesn't quite know what it wants to be.

share:  Facebook | Digg | del.icio.us | more

Mercury Prize 2009 nominees