Trey Songz, Ed Sheeran need work on the ‘ nice guy’ issue
Is Trey Songz the “nice guy” of R& B? Think of the kind of playboy most in vogue in R& B today, and a specific character emerges. He’s callously dismissive, always on the road and interested only in expedient flings, from Drake’s promises to “call your ( expletive) an Uber, I got somewhere to be” to the Weeknd’s plans to “only call you when it’s half past five.” The stereotype doesn’t just apply to men either, with Rihanna’s Needed Me an anthem for “savages” everywhere.
Offering an alternative to R& B’s ominous bad boys is Trey Songz, an artist who famously proclaimed he “invented sex,” and who hasn’t strayed far from his brand of relentlessly positive sensuality his entire career. On his seventh album, Tremaine, Songz ditches club hits and star features, focusing almost entirely on straightforward, catchy love songs in the lane of his 2015 anthem Slow Motion.
Currently employing that same nonthreatening sex appeal to top the Bill
board charts with his new album Divide is Ed Sheeran, whose successful singles follow the same pattern as Songz’s, a mix of goopy love songs ( Thinking Out Loud) and vaguely edgy late- night tales ( Shape
of You). And where the sonic similarities between Songz and Sheeran end, the “nice guy” pervasiveness between their new albums begin.
Songz spends most of the album telling harmless boy- chases- girl stories with above- average gender politics, from bubbly lead single Nobody Else Like You to the album’s excellent Usher- channeling closer, Priceless.
But Tremaine falls into a similar trap as Sheeran does with Divide, portraying sensitive men trying to prove they’re special, while betraying hints of their toxic masculinity along the way. Many critics point to Sheeran’s disingenuous treatment of women on Divide, and many of
Tremaine’s most regrettable tracks sound as if they could’ve been written by Sheeran, pairing hints of guitar with cringeworthy wordplay that aren’t as kind to Songz’s partners as he’d hope.
She Lovin It’s bassline and strummed chorus are the closest Tremaine gets to rock instrumentals, enjoyable until the track betrays Songz’s questionable grasp of consent: “She lovin’ it / I know she say that she don’t, but she do.” Meanwhile,
Animal’s John Mayer- style guitars devolve into painful sung- rapped lyrics, two Sheeran trademarks, with Songz employing far too many jungle- themed pickup lines in his efforts to “prey” on his partner. And considering Sheeran’s recent inter- view in which he bragged about his sexual conquests with friends of his pal Taylor Swift, the Tremaine track # 1 Fan is a bit too on- the- nose, with Songz’s refrain “tonight I’m having sex with my No. 1 fan, so why am I so nervous?” sounding less like a euphemism for his partner and more like an account of sleeping with a groupie. While there’s plenty to enjoy in Tre
maine, Songz’s new album exposes one reason why listeners are drawn to his contemporaries’ darker tales of romance, from Drake’s distrust and Rihanna’s dramatics to the Weeknd’s doom and gloom. At least these stories, in all their messy humanity, feel more genuine. And that honestly is something that Songz and Sheeran, in all their efforts to present themselves as the perfect guys, aren’t able to deliver.