R. Kelly Looks Around Our Interconnected World And Sees Only The Lonely

ARTIST: R. Kelly TITLE: “Playas Get Lonely” WEB DEBUT: June 25, 2008

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: While I’m all for people calling out the fact that even people who have multiple communication devices can feel all alone–and, in some cases, even more alone than they might have had they just stuck with an old, Bell-provided corded phone for their communication needs–“Playas Get Lonely” feels like a bit of a misfire. R. Kelly apparently wallowed in the back catalog of Linkin Park (and Fort Minor!) during his recent trial, because this song starts off as a straight-up jack of Mike, Chester, and those other guys, from the sullenly plonked out piano chords that open the song to the “I look around and see so much emptiness” lyrics. At its core it’s a love song, but it’s one that says to its object, “Love me because I have nothing else”–even the line “I spend a couple of Gs when I’m bored” is sung in such a way that it should be lip-synced by an Intervention subject who’s about to confess a family-crippling shopping addiction. (And I have a nagging feeling that this song is some weird attempt at an “apology” to the world, which I don’t really want to entertain.)

WHERE TO HEAR IT: YouTube. Or here:

[Via Forkcast]