Beginning your album with a ballad type of track can be tricky. If you don’t hit the notes, and nail it, it could put a damper on the expectations for the rest of the album. Hitting the mark with track one, then immediately giving you the pop/dance/hiphop track featuring arguably the biggest female rap superstar, Nicki Minaj definitely pulls you into “Treat Myself.”
Meghan Trainer continues to show her versatility with “Funk.” Sounding like a Bruno Mars track, she delivers this with not so subtle undertones, giving her audience three very different sound tracks to open the album. After the onslaught of the first three songs, Meghan Trainer begins the conceptual sequence section of “Treat Myself.”
Starting with “Babygirl,” saying everything is fine, followed by, “Working on it,” where she is telling the story of working to better herself, continuing with a 4-on-the-floor driving track,”Ashes,” is telling you how much you are hurting her and why she has to work on it because, “Everything we had is in the fire burning to ashes.”
By the half way point of the album, I am asking the question, “Who hurt Meghan Trainer?” “Lie to me” give yet another glimpse into this growing relationship concept. Telling him to lie to her because it hurts to much, she is able to keep you engaged through this entire story. The acoustic sounding “Here to stay” is a great song to change the ear of the listener, who at this point has heard mostly dance and pop tracks(this continues with “Blink.”) “Here to stay” is defiantly the song, as a guy, I can gravitate towards if you were unable to connect with the rest of the album so far concept-wise. However, that shouldn’t be a problem as Meghan Trainer does a fantastic job of providing songs with content suitable for all audiences.
“Genetics” brings back the funky dance track with a feature from the classic Pussy Cat Dolls. Together with Trainer this combination creates the perfect dance track for woman, while at the same time sending the message, “I am the baddest because of my genetics and there is nothing you can do about it.” I’ll be honest, it was at this point, and for no reason at all, I shouted out, “you go girl,” while picturing both the music video and every girl dancing in the clubs singing this song. “Evil Twin” continues her strong effort and diversity, not better shown by directly following two dance tracks with a straight acoustic piano ballad on “After You,” featuring AJ Mitchell without missing a beat(pun completely intended.)
“Treat Myself” is an incredible project. At no point will you reach for the skip button or ask if the song has changed. She created an album showing her pain and struggles, while conveying it in a not necessarily gender specific way. Male and female listeners will be able to enjoy this album over and over. I may even have to treat myself to more than just one listen.
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