ALBUM: DEPARTURE

Over the past week I've been listening and talking alot about Jesse McCartney's upcoming album Departure. Its Great. Really.

OK OK, I know right now you're thinking "WTF, FUEGO, WHY YOU BULLSHITTING ME?" much like the reaction of everyone I've been raving to over the past week, and I don't blame you. I've only just comes to terms with the concept of my favourite album of the year being a Jesse McCartney album.

From start to finish, the album is produced and written exceptionally .. minus the Sean Garrett produced/written doo-doo sandwich "Rock You". Clearly Hollywood have acquired the services of the best producers/songwriters in current pop/r&b to make this album a success and I gotta hand it to Hollywood, they A&R'd the hell out of this project. I guess you could compare it to the job Jive did with Britney's Blackout. I should also acknowledge that McCartney delivers every song quite well and puts his own vibe to them. With that said, I'd love to hear the original demo's.

The album features production/songwriting from The Dream/Tricky, The Clutch, MaddScientist, JR Rotem, Kwame, Eric Hudson and more. I'm surprised Danja didn't get a look tho.

MaddScientist steals the show for me with his intricately creative production on "Relapse" & "Freaky". The arrangement and progression of both songs is just brilliant. JR's "My Baby" is also quite incredible with its uber-MJ vibe, along with The Clutch's flawless songwriting on "Its Over" .. I could sit here writing about the technical/sonic brilliance of many tracks but I'll save it and let y'all check the album for yourselves. Departure is out May 20th through Hollywood Records.