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 multiculti 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. A humorous acknowledgment of his weight gain on "Face Drop" and a handful of bright and pleasant reggae-pop tracks anchor it all, along with 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 poolside entertainment even without the "Beautiful Girls"-sized single. ~ David Jeffries, Rovi
