Album Review: Nelly – M.O

As exciting as it sounds for all you hip-hop lovers out there, Nelly’s new album, M.O, wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. When it comes to listening to anything hip-hop/RnB related, it’s really hit or miss for me and unfortunately, this album was a miss. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved Nelly’s music in the 2000’s, not forgetting his incredible duo with the lovely Kelly Rowland in Dilemma and his other notable tracks My Place, Ride Wit Me and Just A Dream. They say new isn’t always better and listening to M.O has shown me how much I miss the old-school days where hip-hop and RnB wasn’t all about sex and getting high on weed.

Usually when it comes to listening to an album, I have an expectation for the first track to be at least decent but M.O starting off with Get Like Me was not an impressive start. The track itself has no originality whatsoever and I felt like I was hearing the same beat over and over again. The track features Pharrell Williams and Nicki Minaj but even them being in the song didn’t even alleviate how badly produced this track was. It just made it worse. It was frustrating hearing the bongo drums and consistent clicking and popping noises throughout the song. It just didn’t make sense to me at all.

Then came on the second track, Give U Dat, featuring rapper, Future. To put it bluntly, the song is about sex but the difference is I actually enjoyed listening to this track. Even though the lyrics were quite dirty and inappropriate, this song was much more lively and tolerable to listen to in contrast to Get Like Me. In all honesty, this would be a track I’d happily crank loudly while cruising in a car with some of my friends. Other catchy songs off the album were Heaven featuring Daley, All Around The World featuring Trey Songs and Hey Porsche. These three tracks would make perfect additions to any music playlist for Summer. They were obviously made for the people pleasers so for all you fans that love dancing, these tracks will not fail to get your groove on!

My favourite track off the album would have to be Walk Away featuring country-pop music duo, Florida Georgia Line. The reason why this song stood out for me so much was because of the fact I was able to connect with the track and feel the sad emotions that came with it. I also loved the added vocals from Florida Georgia Line because it really complemented the song well.

Towards the end, M.O just dragged on. It was tiring to get through the last few tracks because it just got to the stage where the music was just becoming so repetitive that it lacked flair and style. I began to lose interest once Ciroc & Simply Lemonade came on because to put it simply, it was just boring.

To be clear, M.O, was mainly an album I wouldn’t listen to again because 70% of it was just unenjoyable to listen to. Some tracks stood out here and there which made the album bearable at times but to be honest, if I were in a CD store and had to choose between M.O or a Nickelback album, I’d probably choose the Nickelback one. Chad Kroeger, you actually win this time.

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Jana Angeles

::: Renowned For Sound Music Reviews ::: Jana is a 21-year old student currently based in Sydney, Australia. Writing for Renowned For Sound has given her the opportunity to take a break from her university degree and job by being able to write what she is most passionate about – music.
Since the day she got her first iPod and a broadband Internet connection, these two things have shaped her music taste till this present day.
With her love for pop punk, indie and alternative rock music, it’s no wonder she’s known to be that ‘go-to’ person when it came to finding incredible bands with amazing talent.
She believes that one of the best feelings in the world is to find a song that just clicks with you and from this day, she has never stopped believing in that.