Southern Hummingbird
Tweet
Elektra
Despite saddling herself with a name that conjures up images of Warner Bros. cartoons rather than the sexier image that I'm sure is her intention, Tweet manages to create some sweet sounds on her debut Southern Hummingbird. There's no doubt she's got a nice, sultry voice and when it's used the correct way, Southern Hummingbird becomes better than your average girl R&B album.
Things start off nicely with "My Place" where Tweet layers a falsetto whisper over an undulating beat and a catchy repeating chorus. Unfortunately, next up is "Smoking Cigarettes," a song that finds Tweet repeating the names of all the cigarette brands she's been puffing to take the place of a man. This gimmick makes the whole song repetitive. It seems like Tweet and her producers had only half a song to work with and needed something to fill up all that space. Vices are used to far more creative purposes later in the album on "Drunk," as Tweet sings that she'd rather be inebriated than think about her latest heartbreak. I think we can all relate.
The album is co-produced by Timbaland and rapper Missy Elliott, who discovered Tweet. Elliott is featured on "Oops (Oh My)," which sounds a lot like the songs Elliott performs on her own albums. Along with "Boogie 2nite," "Oops" is one of the few songs on Southern Hummingbird that provides danceable beats and lyrics. Most of the other offerings are slow as molasses. On some of these supposedly romantic ballads, Tweet comes dangerously close to inducing sleep rather than passion. But she did the right thing by hooking up with someone as talented as Elliott. Southern Hummingbird represents an artist on the way to becoming something unique in her own right.
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