The good news is that with
Tomorrow, the Jamaican-born, Miami-raised singer
Sean Kingston has matured from the precocious 16-year-old found on his debut into the much cooler and natural 19-year-old found here. Musically, he hasn't evolved a lick. This means the highly polished, Island-flavored, hip-hop-influenced R&B of his debut is back, although this time the gimmicky ideas come off as more clever than cute. With
Kingston adjusting his swagger accordingly, his patois shouts of "What a gwaan!!" make the electro-disco "Fire Burning" much more charming than the
Flo Rida and
Black Eyed Peas singles it apes, adding a teen-driven, multi-culti flair that's represented by the slick dancehall avatar on the cover. The glorious "My Girlfriend" could be passed off as a nu-disco bootleg remix of some classic lovers rock track, and while the infamous Auto-Tune device is used frequently,
Kingston has it turned up so ridiculously high that it fits right in with all the other futuristic sounds. Right in line with the mash-up style,
Good Charlotte's punk-pop chorus is a drastic and fun shift during "Shoulda Let U Go" but special guest
Wyclef blends in much more naturally, bringing his mature tropical voice to "Ice Cream Girl" and making it sound like
New Edition hanging with
Robert Palmer. Anchoring it all are a humorous acknowledgement of his weight gain on "Face Drop," a handful of reggae-pop tracks that are bright and pleasant, plus some stripped-down, campfire-on-the-beach ballads where the waves roll in as the singer delivers his sweet nothings.
Tomorrow proves
Kingston can provide a whole album's worth of pool-side entertainment even without the "Beautiful Girls"-sized single.