Ventura (studio album) by Anderson .Paak

Great combination of sounds, great voice for R&B!

A return to form after the rocky Oxnard. Ventura is a fun, groovy and interesting record, representative of all the great alternative r&b from the 2010s.

Track Pick: Make It Better

Better than Oxnard but not great. 1.5 months after release, I only find myself coming back to tracks 1, 2 and 11.

From mdbaxter 05/21/2019 18:38

This album is a great combination of smooth melodies and realness. It concerns itself mostly with love but it doesn't share the sentiment of a lot of .Paak's previous work which has been mostly playboy-ish. Instead of moving "onto the next one", he asks "do you wanna make it better?" and "what can we do?". This type of thinking comes off as much more compelling to me because of its relatability. Real people don't have women falling all over them and they don't always have the option to move on from a relationship at the drop of a hat. They work through things and fix them.
The features have been significantly dialed back in comparison to his previous work. The total number is probably similar but he doesn't let anyone steal the song from him (except maybe Andre 3K). Most of them work seamlessly with .Paak.
I enjoyed the album throughout but found the middle tracks to be less great than the others. "Come Home", "Reachin' 2 Much", "Make It Better", "Chosen One" and "What Can We Do?" are the tracks that I thought were special with the Smokey Robinson-featured song being my favorite. I was seriously impressed with "What Can We Do?". I think it's one of the best posthumous features I've ever heard. It had to have been a challenge to make it sound so smooth.

From poppmusic 04/29/2019 00:37

While he stayed true to his gangster origins on "Oxnard", Paak lets himself have a lot more fun on "Ventura", sharing songs that really pinpoint those moments when you're at a concert and you just think to yourself, "wow, isn't music beautiful?" In practice, this is through songs with tons of jazz, soul, energetic rap, funky grooves, and sincere lyrics. This is very easy to listen to, very consistent and really enjoyable. Only two slight criticisms: the lack on one song that is clearly a classic or better than the others, and a little loss of inventiveness compared to earlier in Paak's career. More Songs in the Key of Life than Innervisions, so to speak.

Anderson .Paak saw his popularity grow in a short time with "Malibu" in 2016 and "Oxnard" a few months ago. The singer, rapper, drummer and half of the duo NxWorries is so productive that he comes back with a fourth album named "Ventura". Yes lawd! Black Music is being explored through all the decades at full speed. Once again, let yourself be convinced by Anderson Paak's peculiar tone of voice, his sense of infectious groove, and his talents as a drummer and producer on titles like "King James" or "Chosen One" with the sublime voice of Sonyae Elise. So yes, it's good and we are not at the end of our surprises when intervenes the conclusion named "What Can We Do" inviting the inimitable voice Nate Dogg, who died in 2011, for a duet at the top. We almost do not want to believe it so much it sounds unrealistic. As if our Nate Dogg passed the torch to Anderson. Paak and gave him the approach to reign on the current Californian urban scene. What closing this "Ventura" apotheosis.

8/10

Best track: "Make It Better (feat. Smokey Robinson)"

Fun, funky record, smooth from beginning to end.

One of the most promising artists of the decade finally comes through with the album we’ve been waiting for. This thing is soulful, funky, gritty, sexy, and even funny.

From LebowskiRams 04/12/2019 23:27

This is waaaayyyyy better than Oxnard