After six years out of the public eye, the beloved rapper and singer T-Pain dives back into the spotlight with his upbeat and energetic comeback album: Oblivion.

The title track, “Who Died,” jumps right into the album with a fun, rhythmic party anthem. It is reminiscent of his older work, with large autotune influences, but edges into unfamiliar territory with a more contemporary beat. The lyrics “somebody tell me who died” repeat many times explaining that T-Pain is indeed back.

T-Pain recruits singer Chris Brown for the second song, “Classic You,” a thoughtful and reflective song about T-Pain’s past lover. The song seems formulaic, but Brown’s vocals in the chorus redeem the otherwise lazy attempt. The third song, “Straight,” sounds new for T-Pain, and seems like a missed opportunity.

In “That’s How It Go,” T-Pain brings in a prominent saxophone sound, one that seems to set apart this braggadocious song about T-Pain’s rambunctious life from the other formulaic songs in the album.

The fifth song, “No Rush,” really takes a turn from the rest of the album with heavy electronic influences and dance vibes that seem right out of a Calvin Harris track. This song was very catchy and seems to be underappreciated in the album.

Coming in at nearly eight minutes, “May I” is a slow, thoughtful and overall creative song filled with original sounds mixed together from instruments such as acoustic guitars and digitally made beats. This is a very relaxing song to listen to and is one of my personal favorites on the album. It gets a little boring towards the end of the song, but starts out very strong. He repeats the line “one more chance” many times throughout the song which reflects on his missed opportunities in his love life—but also his singing career.

“I Told My Girl” and “She Needed Me” fall back into the more contemporary hip hop sounds and seem to fall through the cracks of the album, as they don’t really provide any new sounds. “Your Friend” is another melancholy and reflective song about T-Pain’s past. It seems that T-Pain misses his past by the way he reflects on his life. These songs disappoint compared to other tracks.

“Cee Cee From DC” is a big stand out in the album as it has a very retro, jazz-like hook that leads into an upbeat and positive song. I really liked the song as it felt like a throwback to older rap songs from the ‘80s and ‘90s. This song was one of my personal favorites and stood out to me as a highlight

T-Pain dips into his rapping talent and recruits Blac Youngsta in “Goal Line,” a lively rap duet that sadly sounds like many of the popular rap songs of today. This song has a catchy beat but falls into the trap of sounding like the majority of new rap songs today.

In “2 Fine” and “That Comeback,” T-Pain teams up with prominent vocalists Ty Dolla $ign and Ne-Yo for two powerful and defiant statements about T-Pain’s return to the spotlight. Although these songs are not as prominent as other tracks in the album, the messages of the songs are a memorable part of the album.

The comeback album ends with a melodic and smooth beat. Although at some points the songs sound formulaic and derivative, T-Pain show’s his musical talent by mixing in some new sounds to produce fun music. I wasn’t expecting much from this album, but it seems as though T-Pain took some risks and they definitely paid off.