Akon

Senegalese-American ex-con Akon broke out with "Locked Up," a gloomy but thrilling paranoiac tail about drug running and jail time. Placed over a fittingly dramatic production worthy of 50 Cent, with a clamping beat, simple piano figure, and frightening slams of prison bars, the single set Trouble up to be a major success. Unfortunately, no other song on the album is nearly as gripping. The club tracks fall flat, most of the soul-searching moments feel forced, and the harder and more sexual tracks tend to be more silly than alluring. At its best, Trouble places you in Akon's turbulent world. At its worst, which is often, the album is excessively tedious. [Eighteen months after the album's release, Universal took advantage of Akon's multiplying number of collaborations, compiled several of them with remixes and unreleased tracks, and issued a bonus-disc edition.] ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi