Timbaland Turn-Off

"Bombay," built around a slinky South Asian melody and bhangra beat, spotlights Indian singer Amar working in her native tongue. Is it Hindi? Punjabi? Whatever it is, it's completely alluring -- until Timbaland shatters the exotic mood by interrupting her to profess his love (or is it lust?) in a robotic voice. "There's no me without you," he coldly drones. "Baby girl you make my dream come true."

"Give It to Me" is a swaggering posse cut that's a triumph of production but a failure lyrically, even with Furtado and Timberlake joining the fray. The subject: Storch. Well, that and Timbaland's own greatness. "When Timbo is in the party everybody put up they hands," Timbo observes. "I get a half a mil for my beats, you get a couple gra-a-aand." Oh, snap!

He returns to his favorite subjects (himself, Storch) on "Kill Yourself," which uses hissing high-hats, an angelic chorus and a minor-key melody -- along with a chanted chorus of "kill yourself, kill yourself" -- to signify that he's a scary/menacing guy who ought to be taken seriously. "I killed the game, I didn't even use a gun," he says.

Here, however, he's not killing much of anything. "Shock Value" is full of limpid R&B songs ("Fantasy," "Scream") and rock-rap collaborations that tend to fall flat ("Time" with She Wants Revenge). And there's also the inexplicable album-closer "2 Man Show," on which Timbaland talks and talks over Sir Elton's piano vamping, with a vocal choir chiming in to note about how much they're loving said show -- even though it sounds like an unfinished demo. "Don't it sound good to ya, don't you agree?" Timbo says.

We'll have to agree with Scott Storch on this one: No, not really.

DOWNLOAD THESE : "Release," "Bombay"