Today's R&B hits

If you are into R&B music and would like to get the new releases you will enjoy the most, here are some tips about the latest by the biggest names of the genre.

Bionic by Christina Aguilera. I had always seen Christina Aguilera as a bridge. She is the one who connects Madonna with Beyoncé because she is not afraid of innovation and has the vocal chops for power singing.

Now it looks like she has indeed accepted the bridge role wholeheartedly and has now also connected Lady Gaga to the grid. And I do not mean just by going platinum blond for the cover but also by channeling the music.

That is why I can say that Bionic must be the easiest CD Aguilera ever recorded. She just referred to the music of those three divas and came out with Bionic. This is also the most electronic album ever recorded by Christina.

Not much birit here. Truth to tell what she has in some cuts is actually robot vocals. Think Lady Gaga for My Girls featuring Peaches. She also goes all Glam and brand name namedropping like Madonna with Vogue. Then because she can really sing R&B she takes the Beyoncé route for I Am and You Lost Me.

Bionic is no epic production like Stripped or Back To Basics. It is just lightweight sounds. As she says in Glam, “Be superficial.” I can say that Christina is just having fun and she seems like the sort of girl who will do any sort of music when she is in that mood.

So prepare yourselves for the variety offered by the other cuts: Woohoo featuring Nicki Minaj, Elastic Love, Desnudate, Prima Donna, Sex For Breakfast, Lift Me Up, All I Need, I Hate Boys, Vanity and the single with the Lady Gaga video, Not Myself Tonight.

Raymond V. Raymond by Usher. Pardon me but all I can think of while listening to this album is Justin Bieber. I cannot seem to get over Usher being such an astute star builder and return to appreciating him as an artist.

Just think, he signed up this unknown kid found on the web and then turned him into one of the biggest pop stars today. So big in fact, there have been times recently when Usher’s Raymond V. Raymond was actually competing in dead heat with Bieber’s My World CD in the charts.

A shoutout. This is no Here I Stand. Usher has lightened up. He did wallow in heartbreak after a bitter break-up in that last album. Now with his ongoing divorce, he is determined to recover and maybe return to his old ways. I see this one as more akin to Confessions, which established Usher as an attractive, sexy and really smooth lover.

Check out There Goes My Baby for its make out mode. Pro Lover, Mars vs Venus and So Many Girls for the dance grooves. Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home) for its hook and the techno-spiced Monstar because it shows a hint of the new directions that Usher is looking at in the future. Also electronica?

Also included are Lil Freak featuring Nicki Minaj, She Don’t Know featuring Ludacris, Foolin’ Around, Papers, Guilty featuring T.I., Okay, Making Love (Into The Night) and the big single OMG featuring will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas.

Rated R by Rihanna. Rihanna is in a dark, dark mood and she is very angry. That is probably why she chose to title this CD, Rated R. It is so not only because it is by somebody with an R in her name but also because it has music that the kids need parental guidance to fully understand.

This is Rihanna’s own Here I Stand. Of course, all of us are thinking that this is all because of her sad experience with her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown. I tend to agree. That is why she sings lyrics like My new name is idiot. Ouch!

Rihanna’s personal hurt does affect the album in some way but she has wisely kept her music in the groove. This is why you can go from one cut to another just feeling the beat unmindful of how sad and mad her songs have become.

Best of the lot is the very infectious hit single Rude Boy. I hear Cold Case Love as the next seller. And if you want to wallow in the heartbreak Rihanna is feeling, you should be able to get into your mea culpa state easily with Stupid In Love.

The other cuts are: Mad House, Wait Your Turn, Hard featuring Jeezy, Rockstar 101 featuring Slash, Russian Roulette, Fire Bomb, Photographs featuring will.i.am, G4L, Te Amo and The Last Song.