J. Holiday - Back Of My Lac' Review
Posted by Patrick Robinson on 10.22.2007
J. Holiday's debut album. Will it put you to Bed or have you wanting more?
J. Holiday released his debut album Back Of My Lac’ early this October on Capitol Records. His name is both a testament to his deceased uncle (James) and his work ethic in that people around him have said that he records music so easily, it’s like being on a vacation (Holiday). J. Holiday also has a tattoo that says “God’s Gift” on it. He attests that this is because he is left-handed which he feels makes him more creative.
Is he truly a gift from God? Or another bland R&B singer who will quickly get lost in the shuffle of more recognized acts such as Ne-Yo and Trey Songz?
Tracks
1. Back Of My Lac’
2. Ghetto
3. Thug Commandments
4. Bed
5. Betcha Never Had
6. Laa Laa
7. Come Here
8. Be With Me
9. Suffocate
10. Fatal
11. Without You
12. Pimp In Me
13. Thank You
14. Fallin’
The album opens with the title track, which acts as an introduction to the man himself. A reflective track suffers from a poor hook,
”Sittin in the back of my Lac’
Smokin’ my dro
Sippin’ my yak”
As well as an unfocused approach as it jumps from topic to topic without really giving us any cohesive thoughts on any in particular.
Moving on, Ghetto seems really out of place after listening to the album as a whole. It’s a song about the troubles in the ghetto but due to the profanity and semi-gangsta nature of the track, it really doesn’t suit J. Holiday.
Continuing on this unfortunate trend is Thug Commandments. It’s slightly better than Ghetto but still feels out of place as J. Holiday goes through the 10 9 Commandments of the Ghetto. He’s talking about “snake n***** and snitches”, which again, feels seriously out of place once you’ve listened to the rest of the album.
Bed is up next and we FINALLY have a track worth listening to. Bed, according to J. Holiday is supposedly not a song about sex but with a hook like this, it’s hard to see otherwise to be honest.
”I wanna put my fingers through your hair
Wrap me up in your legs
And love you till your eyes roll back”
The song was written by The Dream who also wrote Rihanna’s Umbrella and the similarities can be noticed as you listen to the repeated echoing of ‘Bed’ throughout the hook. Ultimately it’s a step in the right direction as J. Holiday’s voice is quite a ‘gentle’ sounding voice and is much, much more suited to songs like this which deal with intimate moments in life rather than trying to make songs for the ghetto. The production is lush and fits the song perfectly.
Laa Laa is certainly the worst song on the album as it is a song about smoking weed with his girl. In what was probably meant to be a song about spending time with your lady, it sounds ridiculous as AGAIN it sounds utterly out of place on the album. The profanity doesn’t help as J. Holiday’s soft voice makes it sound forced and kind of childish.
Come Here is about slow grinding with a girl and you’re probably getting sick of me saying this, but it’s OUT OF PLACE. Someone with a more powerful voice, R. Kelly or Usher for example, could pull off the concept with ease. J. Holiday doesn’t have the strongest voice around and his slight lisp certainly doesn’t help and the song sounds like a teenager getting his first slow-grind at a school dance.
The second half of the album starts off what I feel is the truly enjoyable part of it. The second half of the album has no “thug R&B” songs and virtually no profanity. This provides a nice contrast to the awkward sounding songs from earlier. Whether or not the first few songs were forced upon J. Holiday for whatever reason is of course, unknown but regardless, the quality in terms of both lyrical content as well as raw singing ability increase tenfold with this latter half of the album.
Starting off is Be With Me. The production is handled by Darkchild and features a slow keyboard loop with a quiet string synthesizer in the background providing a somber backdrop for J. Holiday to sing about a girl that he wants, but who ultimately seems unattainable.
Suffocate is the album’s third single and is again written by The Dream who this time provides lyrics without an irritating repetition in the hook. J. Holiday flexes his harmonizing ability and you can feel emotion in his words as he laments a lost love. This is definitely one of the better songs on the album.
Soon after, Pimp In Me features beautiful production similar to Lloyd’s Player’s Prayer. Content wise, the song is also similar to Lloyd’s but again you can feel emotion in J. Holiday’s voice and is another of his stronger performances on the album. The song deals with J. Holiday wanting to quit the ‘game’ and dedicate his life to his one special woman.
Closing out the album is Fallin’ which features live instrumentals including a guitar and saxophone. It’s quite a change from everything previously but is pleasant and creates a nice reflective backdrop for the song. J. Holiday sings about how he has ‘fallen’ since his relationship ultimately fell apart. He goes on to say how he doesn’t want to pursue a relationship with other women and despite how the relationship ended, he still needs her in his life to go on. Again, the vocal performance is stronger and plays to his strengths making it a highly enjoyable way to round out the album.
The 411: Back Of My Lac’ can literally be divided into a ‘good’ half and a ‘bad’ half (with the exception of Bed in the first half). It’s not a groundbreaking album in regards to the R&B genre and there are certainly other artists who could have succeeded where J. Holiday makes mistakes, but it is still a highly enjoyable album to listen to. It’s easy listening and certainly, those that persevere through the first half of the album will be rewarded with the fulfilling second half. A solid, if slightly unpolished debut album from J. Holiday.
