Ready

Trey Songz isn’t out to change the world; he just want to craft songs that are light, fun, and flirtatious. He’s a little bit R Kelly, a little bit Ne-Yo, and a little bit of whatever’s happening on the charts. None of which is a bad thing. “LOL :-)” and “I Invented Sex” are nothing but a good time — the kind of catchy, sweetened R&B/rap duet that has been around at least since Heavy D. and Aaron Hall made “Now That We Found Love.” Trey Songz is especially good when he’s moving slow. The songwriting teams behind Beyonce’s Irreplaceable” and Mariah Carey’s “We Belong Together” collaborate to deliver “I Need a Girl,” an acoustic-based pop song that is a new look for Trey and one of the strongest cuts on Ready. Still, the singer is better at playing sex symbol than he is the yearning boyfriend. The half-time jams “Holla If Ya Need Me,” “Neighbors Know My Name” and “Jupiter Love” are part bedroom ballads, part club songs, and Trey squeezes each of them for everything they’re worth.