Jeremih - Jeremih (CD)

All Music Guide

There's more to Jeremih's debut album than "Birthday Sex," a bedroom ballad that became a major summertime crossover hit a la J. Holiday's "Bed." Outside of the startlingly direct delivery of its title and the stuttering effect that comes into play whenever Jeremih sings lines like "I know you want to cryyy out" and "Girl you know III" a twist on theDream's oftdeployed stammer "Birthday Sex" is a basic but ingratiating slow jam built over Mick Schultz's gently rocking lullaby beat, rather "Bed"like. Schultz, who met the singer in college, produces the whole album. Despite being a mere upstart who takes many cues from the hottest popsavvy RB producers running, including Tricky Stewart, Carlos McKinney, Danja, and Timbaland, he supplies his partner with a set of backdrops that covers all the bases, from lowslung Southern trunk rattlers to glossy Euroflavored pop. Jeremih's charmingly sly voice, somewhere between One Twelve's Slim and a young Raphael Saadiq, is hard to not like, especia...lly when he tempers his cockiness with a little sensitivity best heard in "Break Up to Make Up," the song that also bears the album's sharpest hooks. - Andy Kellman, All Music Guide Read more Less