Ludacris fails to top himself with "Release Therapy"

There's little doubt that Ludacris is one of the biggest rappers out there today. He has a huge career, best selling albums and lead roles in two academy-award nominated films, 2004's "Crash" and 2005's "Hustle and Flow." His booming voice gives his rapid-fire songs high-energy and a fast-pace. Despite high expectations and anticipation, Ludacris does not offer his listeners anything new with "Release Therapy," just consistent Ludacris material.

The intro-track, "Warning," sets a self-aggrandizing tone in the beginning of the album; Ludacris, troubled with the world, needs to release. "This album helps you to release cause life is irkin us all," he says. Afterward, Ludacris is playfully ridiculed by people he knew before his rise to fame.

The next song, "Grew Up a Screw Up" is one of the better songs of the album with a pounding beat and relentlessly direct lyrics but it delves into an all too familiar theme: Ludacris himself. Ludacris chronicles his youthful ambitions from his birth to later wealth. The song features Young Jeezy with sample lyrics from the late-Notorious B.I.G. repeating in the background.

The next three songs, "Money Maker," "Girls Gone Wild" and "Ultimate Satisfaction" are the album's main party songs. "Money Maker", overplayed on the radio, features a satisfying back and forth between Pharrell and Ludacris, but Ludacris, attempting a more original beat, delivers his verses haphazardly. In "Girl's Gone Wild" Ludacris's devious lyrics blend perfectly with the beats in the background, another one of the better songs on the album. Ludacris gives control to Field Mob in "Ultimate Satisfaction" which offers refreshing new voices and a great beat to the album, although the chorus becomes obnoxious halfway through the song.

The album's tone becomes more serious after "Ultimate Satisfaction" with "Mouths to Feed" in which Ludacris, accompanied by dynamic music in the background, conveys the passion and love he has for his family and his determination to provide for them. The lyrics in this song are the album's most vivid and memorable. " Listen, look I gotta feed my family by all means necessary/ Cause paychecks are comin up shorter than February/ Can't get a real job, I never finished school," raps Ludacris.

The next two songs turn to romance by blending R&B riffs by Bobby Valentino and R. Kelly with more easy-going raps from Ludacris. In "End of the Night," Bobby Valentino's choruses overpower and Ludacris's raps are sloppy, inevitably making it one of the weaker songs on the album. R. Kelly and Ludacris play off each other well in "Woozy" as Ludacris has a bigger role in "Woozy" and his raps stem from the song's beat whereas in previous songs he seems to be trying to rap over the beat.

Ludacris devotes the next two songs, "Tell it Like it Is" and "War with God" to castigating his former protégé, Chingy, who broke with the record label Disturbing the Peace after monetary disputes with one of the label's co-owners. Ludacris, Beanie Sigel and Pimp C & C Murder implore the men they know in prison to behave themselves in "Do Your Time." None of these songs are particularly extraordinary; Ludacris seems more interested in conveying his problems with Chingy than producing original, unforgettable music.

The album's energy picks up with "Slap" in which Ludacris targets the Bush Administration to depict his day-to-day frustrations and temptations. "Gas prices are way too high/ Rich people are way too fly/ And I'm where I wanna be in my life/ But why am I so behind./ Is it cause I'm wasting my time away?" raps Ludacris. "Slap" is not phenomenal but less generic than the previous three songs.

The main problem with "Release Therapy" is that it does not seem as if Ludacris is releasing much more than usual. The construction seems formulaic; the old winning combination of songs for parties, romance, feuds and social protest are all present but nothing new. While in "Release Therapy" Ludacris hasn't taken any steps backward, he has failed to move forward.