O

CD AUDIO SIDE: Entire Album

DVD SIDE: * Entire album in Surround Sound * Exclusive interviews with Omarion * Footage from MTV’s Diary * Video for the first single "O" * Free "O" Remix Ringtone download access

Two years after teen heartthrobs B2K threw in the towel, Omarion, their vocal center of gravity has resurfaced with his solo debut, the aptly titled O. Despite such high wattage producers as the Neptunes and Rodney Jerkins, the toothsome singer sounds much the same as he did when he fronted the boy band, except some of the tracks are a little racier than the stuff his former outfit put out. That's not necessarily a bad thing, especially when you get lost in the ardent yearning of a track like "Slow Dance." But it's not the love jams that shine here, it's the more winsome, autobiographical stuff like "Growing Up," which tries to explain the break-up of his band, the lighter than air "I Wish," and the brazen "Never Gonna Let You Go (She's A Keepa)," which feels like it was pulled right off a Commodores album from the roaring '70s and features some wicked back-up verbage by Outkast's Big Boi. --Jaan Uhelszki