In his grasp, the respective genres end up sounding poppier rather than like true interpretations, but it's nice to hear an artist push his own creative boundaries-even if the source material is a bit watered down. From trap rap (“Goal Line”) to Latin-flavored pop (“No Rush”) to the percussive lands of go-go (“Cee Cee From DC”), it’s almost like a best-of but with all new music. Oblivion’s most unexpected feature is its mix of sub-genres that T-Pain chameleons himself into perfectly. Talkbox-assisted standout “May I.” Running like two passionate robots serenading a jazz lounge, it is the peak use of a computer to make the voice an instrument unto itself-nearly eight minutes of finesse that only T-Pain could pull off. But his ingenuity shines brightest on the Mr. Songs like “Straight” and “2 Fine” are low-stakes affairs that find T-Pain playing around with his assorted vocals, flows, and ad-libs-it’s genuinely fun.
While there may be a few seeds here, Oblivion settles mostly in his established wheelhouse. On the other, there’s the admittedly unreasonable expectation that one of Rap&B’s most influential artists would hint at the genre’s next horizon or, at the very least, his own. The selection is everything T-Pain does best: intoxicating computerized crooning mixed with gratuitous sex and flash. On the one hand, his ability to churn out earworms remains untarnished. Nearly every song sounds like it could've been a smash several years ago which is, both, admirable and disappointing. Instead, it finds him channeling the ghosts of past. The moment spawned a brief acoustic tour this year and, probably, a glimmer of hope that Oblivion would follow suit. The wave crested with his 2014 Tiny Desk concert when a portion of the world learned T-Pain can actually sing without digital assistance. It feels like a musical lifetime has passed since then, but nostalgia and excitement still follow him wherever he goes. His signature Auto-Tuned voice landed in the the Hot 100 over 30 times in a five-year period, and everyone from Kanye West to Black Eyed Peas adopted their own renditions. The charismatic “rappa ternt sanga” dropped his debut single “ I’m Sprung” in 2005, setting off the Midas touch era of T-Pain.