Akon: Freedom

Akon should consider a commercial tie-in with a leading polish manufacturer on his third album. (Not that the obscenely successful R&B singer and producer needs help shifting copies: he has sold more than eight million albums in four years.) Everything on Freedom seems impossibly clean. Scrubbed-up lyrics signal a transformation from libidinous hardman to sensitive lover (see 'Beautiful') while the ultra-smooth, ethereal productions suggest that Akon has discovered the dubious pleasures of Euro-house. All the slick surfaces can distract from the tremendous corniness of songs such as 'Sunny Day', featuring Wyclef Jean, but you have to admire Akon's precision-guided hit-seeking skills.