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Release Therapy

Ludacris - Release Therapy Audio CD

A fair review of the Ludacris "Release Therapy" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Ludacris reviews here, or go back to the Ludacris tabs.

Band: Ludacris
Title: Release Therapy
Rating:

Release Date: 2006-09-26
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Warning (Intro) 2: Grew Up a Screw Up - Ludacris, Young Jeezy 3: Money Maker - Ludacris, Pharrell 4: Girls Gone Wild 5: Ultimate Satisfaction - Field Mob, Ludacris 6: Mouths to Feed 7: End of the Night - Ludacris, Bobby Valentino, Bobby Valentino 8: Woozy 9: Tell It Like It Is 10: War with God 11: Do Your Time - Ludacris, , Beanie Sigel 12: Slap 13: Runaway Love - Mary J. Blige, Ludacris 14: Freedom of Preach

The Great Escape
The latest album Release Therapy contains all of Luda's charisma, personality, energy and efforts of prior albums with an increase of maturity and consciousness. Modern day Samson, after cutting off his braids Ludacris may have been thought to have lost his strength. Opening the LP with "Warning (Intro)" as a one verse insertion. Highlighted by horns accompanied by simmering slow track and galloping highs on "Grew Up A Screw Up" featuring Young Jeezy for hard edge hustler's theme. "Money Maker" featuring Pharrell is for the ladies and has exotic rhythms for a stripper's movement or lap dance. A perfect follow-up "Girls Gone Wild" target the ladies with upbeat dance tempo with the same effects produced by the Neptunes. Holding down southern roots on "Ultimate Satisfaction" featuring Field Mob with the 808 kick and instrumentation keeps the album from being a complete commercial/mainstream release as does "Mouths To Feed". For a sexual encounter "End Of The Night" featuring Bobby Valentino describes the goals for the evening as "Woozy" featuring R. Kelly will complete the mood with horn section. "War With God" challenges other artists that talk the talk to walk the walk that could have been a little deeper but still is a solid tune. Tales of incarceration life "Do Your Time" featuring Beanie Sigel, Pimp C & C-Murder contains stories of survival in the system. If one song could capture the title Release Therapy "Slap" expresses feelings of average people's frustrations topped off with a hard rock edge guitar solo. "Runaway Love" featuring Mary J. Blige is three talees of escaping troubles and problems of teenage girls that happens far too often in today's generation. As a more conscious effort and aim to add more subjects besides the norm, Ludacris had the perfect mixture for a complete release. .

Mediocre
But a good buy anyway if you can get it discounted. Not as hard hitting as Luda's other CD's like Red Light District. Has good songs like "runaway love" and "grew up a screwup". Just decent. .

Mediocre release
Ludacris has made two good albums in his career which are Back For The First Time and Word Of Mouf. Before you click no read it first. After Word Of Mouf he dropped back to back garbage with Chicken & Beer(his worst album) and The Red Light District(runner up). This album is a little bit better than both of them but its also not worth the excess hype around it. The Good: The intro is not bad plus its leads to one of the better songs on this album Grew Up A Screw Up. Jeezy's verse stunk to high heaven but Ludacris held it down. Then Luda teams up with Field Mob on the dynamite Ultimate Satisfaction. Tell It Like It Is, War With God and Slap is Ludacris at his best and for somebody who says he has no beef with T. I, this verse from War With God says otherwise: /Do like your song say(Be Easy) or shut the f*** up/. Runaway Love was alright even though its probably the reason why this album has so much acclaim. The Bad: Money Maker was a bad first single. Even though the beat is not bad its still a rank club single. End Of The Night(featuring Bobby Valentino) is a cheesy song for the ladies that is not as bad as the song that comes after it(Woozy) but its just as forgettable, Mouths To Feed is flat out boring and Do Your Time(featuring Pimp C, Beanie Sigel and C-Murder)is just a depressing as Mouths To Feed. The Ugly: Girls Gone Wild is probably the worst song Ludacris has ever made next to Hoes In My Room and he sounds like he needs to clear his throat badly. Woozy is the worst song for the ladies that Luda has ever made since Splash Waterfalls and R Kelly's hook that goes /but its cool cause I've always wanted to go down on a girl that reminds me of me/(????)is just as creepy as it is confusing. Bottom Line: Ludacris's Release Therapy is probably the most overrated album of the year next to Busta Rhymes The Big Dud. The songs that I mentioned in the good section are the only songs that give this album some replay value. The rest of this album is duller than an episode of Mad TV. Now you can click no.

3-1/2 stars -- Good, but really not much more than a contract fulfillment
But Release Therapy pretty much contains what we'd expect from Luda. Ludacris has been on the mainstream side of things for about seven years and he already has five albums out, which makes me wonder if this is his way of pleading, "WILL YOU LET ME OUT OF MY CONTRACT ALREADY???" And as far as released singles, it seems that the same thing always happens: first, there's the leadoff single (which goes without saying); then a month or so later comes two or three singles at once: one for the radio (in this case, "Runaway Love"), and the rest up for battle for the top spot on the Sucker Free Countdown.

Actually, I take that back. Many of the songs on here are storytellings, and fortunately, Luda is better at it than he used to be -- well, most of the time, anyway. He's fine when he tackles the topic of child abuse on the aforementioned "Runaway Love" (with Mary J. Blige). There are also a few more tracks that feature guest rappers that sound better than they usually do, like Young Jeezy ("Grew Up a Screw Up") and Beanie Sigel, Pimp C and C-Murder (the appropriately titled "Do Your Time"). But Luda's foray into gospel, "Freedom of Preach", is pretty okay.

If songs-with-a-message aren't your flavor, there are also several selections on here to bump to, especially the first single "Money Maker" (Luda even instructs you to do just that in the second verse). "End of the Night", the necessary song with Bobby Valentino on the hook, is also pretty good, as is "Tell It Like It Is", which discusses record label politics.

There ARE a few more slip-ups, though. "Girls Gone Wild" is fast-forwardable, and "Mouths to Feed" is hard to get into. R. Kelly's chorus in "Woozy" that features "I always wanted to go down on a girl that reminds me of me" is too bizarre to even try to figure out; and in "Ultimate Satisfaction" (with Field Mob), the second verse is the only part of the whole song that makes any sense (it's not very good, but it makes sense).

Still, as other reviewers have said, this is basically a "safe" Ludacris album, so if you already like him, pick it up.

Anthony Rupert.

I'm not impressed
Although every song on this LP is listenable, there is nothing spectacular about the album. For someone who tried his absolute hardest to beat out Janet Jackson for the top spot on the charts, Ludacris's "Release Therapy" is just average. Lyrically, production-wise, and creatively, it is OK at best. One thing that is commendable, though, Luda touched on a lot of sensitve issues in a very tasteful and mature way (such as Oprah, Chingy, and how hard it is to be famous). Ludacris has someone blowing his head up because he repeatedly speaks on how great of a rapper he is. Come on now. The innovation in doing that is where?
Luda is not a bad lyricist, but he only impresses me occasionally. It is important for a rapper to separate himself from the rest because otherwise he just becomes a drop in the bucket. What does separate Luda, though, is the fact that his voice is distinctive. He can say one word, and the listener immediately knows that it is him. Not to mention, he has a nice voice.
"Money Maker" was very successful on the radio and music charts, but it is one of his most lackluster songs in my opinion. The beat is alright, but the subject of "shaking your money maker" has been touched so many times that it's annoying. "Ultimate Satisfaction" is one of the album's highlights. In this song, Luda is letting his fans know that he can satisfy them. "Runaway Love" is an alright track. Mary J. Blige helps to give this track life, because it's a bit drab. Luda really could have gotten creative with this song, but apparently his aim was simplicity.
Honestly, I don't really recommend this album. I would suggest either listening to some of Luda's previous works, or simply awaiting his future releases.

Mikeisha's Top 5

1. "Woozy"
2. "Ultimate Satisfaction"
3. "Do Your Time"
4. "Grew Up A Screw Up"
5. "Tell It Like It Is"
.

You can see a complete list of all Ludacris discography, or go back to the Ludacris tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.