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Soul singer/songwriter Tweet released her anticipated third studio album Charlene, that was released on February 26th. Her last studio album It’s Me Again was released in 2005. Her new album has collaborations with producers/songwriters from her first album Southern Hummingbird like Timbaland, Craig Brockman, John “Jubu” Smith, and the main producer on the album is Charlie Bereal. Tweet is the main songwriter on the entire album, also writing collaborations with Missy Elliot, Nisan Stewart, and John “Jubu” Smith and many more.
The album starts with an intro called “Intro: Soulfully Yours, Charlene”, a great guitar melody from Jubu. The next songs are the singles “Magic” and “Won’t Hurt Me”. The fourth song from the album is called “Priceless”. The lyrics are saying the love he gives is priceless. Great instrumentation and harmonies. “Interlude: All I See Is You” flows so well going into the single “Somebody Else Will”. The song “Addiction” has a beautiful guitar melody, as well as the the percussion. There was great collaborative writing and instrumentation on “Neva Shoulda Left Ya”. It has a nice reggae vibe, with a great bass line throughout the melody. The guitar riffs on “The Hardest Thing” is so deeply gospel rooted with some amazing harmonies and vocals from Tweet. The lyrics are saying she made a mistake by leaving the relationship. The Hammond organ was a nice touch to “Get Whatcha Want”. Then it goes into “Interlude: Will You Be Here”. It was very surprising to find out Chris Brown was apart of the production and writing on this interlude. A very great transition to “I Didn’t Know”. There was something about “Dadada…… Struggle” that was very mesmerizing. It could have been the synthesized strings in the production that stood out, and added so much depth to the song. The lyrics in “I Was Created for This” are saying she was created to make music, and the last song on the album is “Outro: I Surrender”. It has a spiritual quality to it with just the warm electric piano, and guitar. Giving a great ending to the album.
From the beginning of this album to the end, it’s completely solid. The amazing musicians-guitarists Charlie Bereal and Jubu bringing those guitar melodies front and center on every song. Which opens up the melody and let’s the creativity shine through. Also, shows the dynamic chemistry all of these musicians/songwriters have created just like the first album. It is conceptually a great album that shows her growth musically, lyrically, and her influences in soul music. She makes it hard to critique when she brings such authenticity to soul, with her amazing vocals and ability to create such well written songs.
Charlene is available in stores now; also available for (digital) purchase via Prime Music and iTunes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOQ9q-SyFHY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X4nCdZZIxk
