Colby O'Donis

Colby O'Donis has known he can sing since he was about three years-old, and the world at large has known it since he was ten, when he became the youngest artist ever to sign with Motown Records. Now he's nineteen, and it's obvious he can still sing, with the kind of easy richness that you're either born with or you're not. It's less obvious, however, that he can write good songs, or that his producer and label-boss Akon has a cohesive vision as to how they should be realized.

The lyrical weight of nearly every song can be boiled down to "I just can't stop thinkin' about you girl." The melodies and arrangements are equally generic, full of over-ripe arpeggios, flute presets, predictable beats, the occasional acoustic guitar that sounds like it wasn't even mixed into the track but accidentally dumped on from some other recording. Most of these songs recall the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, but nothing here is as memorable as any of their hits. Leadoff single "What You Got" and "She Wanna Go" are catchy, the latter anchored by O'Donis's strongest vocal hook, but there's nothing else to recommend on Colby O.

Twelve year-olds will either like it or they won't, a situation not much different from the one O'Donis was when he signed with Motown all those years ago and recorded a track for the Stuart Little soundtrack. If there's a Disney-esque a moral to this story, it's that it's hard to progress when everyone's telling you how great you are from such a young age.

—Nate Cunningham
09.25.08

Akon's claim that Colby O'Donis is the Kon Live label's "secret weapon" oversells this teen R&B singer with the pin-up face along with his pleasant, puppy-love debut. Besides cool crooner Colby's excessive use of the world "girl" in the boy band style, his voice is limited, or at the very least not challenged as it glides over one slick R&B production after another, all well executed but rarely memorable. Exception to the rule is the lead-off single and opening cut "What You Got," which features label boss Akon as producer and guest vocalist plus an inescapable hook that sounds close to Mario Winans' "I Don't Wanna Know." With Akon handling most of the production and leaving the rest to Colby they're both overstretched, something that wouldn't be as obvious if this 15-track effort ran ten and mercifully chopped, starting with the clumsy "Under My Nose" or the misguided Paul Wall team-up "She Wanna Go." The irony of choosing Lil' Romeo for "they don't want us together" number "Take You Away" was probably missed by this crowd but the tween set won't mind any of this. They'll find Colby's swagger, his slang dropping, and his smooth voice all very exciting and his hair gel perfectly applied. It's hard to ask for more from such fluff so expect the usual, up to and including the T-Pain guest shot. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide