On paper, Virginia's Trey Songz – AKA Tremaine Neverson – is the R&B Fifty Shades of Grey. Starting life as saccharine soul-fan fiction – his breakthrough track was a homage to R Kelly's soap opera Trapped in the Closet – he dolloped on overt sexuality and hit porn-lite pay dirt: a US No 1 album and three sold-out nights at the Apollo heaving with teen screamers, hysterically fantasising along to a song called, ahem, Panty Wetter. Factor in a sumptuous, lubricious voice and dreamboat looks – only exaggerated by a backing band resembling a troop of gnarled Nicaraguan insurrectionists – and you could be forgiven for racing to see Neverson's debut screen role in Texas Chainsaw 3D, just to relish his dismemberment.
The more tech-flecked tracks from his fifth album, Chapter V, though, place Trey as an intriguing poster boy for modernised R&B, merging traditional soul with Tinie Tempah's anthemic grime and ultra-catchy boyband pop. But, the ultimate tease, he makes us wait all night for those. His set is structured like a seduction: for the first third he plays the clean-cut courtier who "can't stop missing you". Then, having smooched his way into Hammersmith's pants with these dated 80s Alexander O'Neal pastiches, a raunchy video full of writhing flesh and Calvin Klein product placement marks his transformation into a groin-cradling boudoir toreador. He virtually raps out his hotel's address during Love Faces and promises us detailed carnal intimacy so loud "the neighbours know my name".
Things get uncomfortably sleazy when one "lucky girl" is invited on stage and "treated" to the sort of creepy frottage that would see Trey arrested were he to try it on the tube, before she is directed to his dressing room. But thankfully Chapter V's synth-smeared masterworks Never Again, Heart Attack and Simply Amazing bring two hours of teenage titillation to a vibrant climax. Finally some dazzling promise after so many filthy, formulaic shades of Trey.
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