I enjoy most of the production on this with its southern soul vibe. Tracks like 'Da Game Been Good to Me' is great and one of my favourite tracks for the year. It's a fairly consistent album and I have to agree with most of the reviews I've seen. However, while I do enjoy Akon more than most, 'Hard as Hell' just doesn't really fit on the album as it sounds more like something Akon would have on his own project. It's an album you can enjoy from front-back but I don't love enough of it to give '4 Life' a higher rating. Best Tracks: Da Game Been Good to Me, Still on the Grind, The Pimp and the Bun, Used to Be

I'm surprised people are hating on this album and Bun B like his first two solo albums were classics. They each have their moments, but I find them to be very inconsistent. While lacking enough great moments, this is his easiest album to listen to from front to back, with twelve or so solid tunes. The weakest track for me is easily the T-Pain featured single, 'Trillionaire' - I'm not one of those autotune haters as such, it just isn't a very good song. But apart from that, you have some nice bangers including the best in 'I Git Down 4 Mine' which blends excellently from the previous track with "Bun B" chants. The DJ Premier produced, 'Let 'Em Know', is also nice and adds to a number of different sounds and different producers on the album which is around nine. Overall I find this his most consistent record with a few to go back to for years. Best Tracks: Chuuch!!!, I Git Down 4 Mine, Let 'Em Know, All a Dream

This is partly new material from R. Kelly and some old stuff. 50/50 to be exact - with tracks 6 & 9 being from 'U Saved Me' from 2004, 7, 10 & 12 being from 'R.' from 1998, and 'The World's Greatest' from the the 'Ali' soundtrack or the 'Chocolate Factory' bonus disc a couple of years later. While that's only six new songs, (some were meant to be part of the heavily bootlegged 'Loveland', that became 'Chocolate Factory'), one being a prelude and one a month or two old from the FIFA World Cup, all are quality and all add to the soul/ballad/build-up type of songs such as the well known 'I Believe I Can Fly' and 'Worlds Greatest'. 'Can You Feel It' is slightly more upbeat but maintains the same sort of uplifting feeling of the other tracks. 'I Believe' goes off! God damn! 'Heal It' and 'Victory' are other strong cuts that were from a planned album full of uplifting songs about/dedicated to Africa that the label didn't let him release. 'Sign of a Victory' and 'Fireworks' are both tracks inspired by the 2010 World Cup. While Kells has slipped off being able to make a consistent album, he still creates some great tunes and this is an example of it. If you enjoy tracks such as 'I Believe I Can Fly' and the 'U Saved Me' disc, then all the new songs should induce enjoyment on this album/compilation.

It hurts me to say this being the big fan I am, but this is fairly comfortably his worst album. Few redeeming qualities with few memorable songs. Robert said that he recorded 462 songs for this album. I'd say some of those probably came from the sessions for his previous albums, as songs like 'All My Fault', 'Wake Up Everybody' and 'Keep Searchin'' would sound right at home on 'Love Letter' or 'Write Me Back'. The first half of the album is its weakest with many songs feeling boring. It's more hip hop influenced and lacks high moments. Why do artists keep getting Lil Wayne for verses? That's for 'Switch Up'. From 'All My Fault', that I mentioned earlier, it gets better. 'Backyard Party' is one of the album's best, particularly for the "I feel like yeaah/I feel like wooah/I feel like yeaah/I feel like wooah" section that shows off R. Kelly's vocals. The bluesy 'Sufferin' is the album's highest moment in my opinion-it's worth getting the deluxe edition for it. Again it feels like somewhat of a throwback tune but from a different genre than what he created on the aforementioned albums. There's hip hop, blues, dancehall ('I Just Want to Thank You'), country ('Barely Breathin''), throwback R&B and contemporary R&B, hence the name 'The Buffet', but there just aren't enough great moments and too many forgettable ones. Best Songs: All My Fault, Backyard Party, Sextime, Sufferin

After the well-received 'Love Letter' album, R. Kelly has continued with that throw-back feel onto this album, after changing his plans to release 'Black Panties' and go back to his sexually themed lyrics. The album begins with a fast tempo track with Kells giving off a strong Barry White vibe. While 'Love Letter' was paying homage to the '60s for the most part, this album perhaps goes to the following decade with '70s R&B themes. Apart from a song or two like 'Clipped Wings', overall the production is more upbeat than Love Letter. Once again the vocals are brilliant, as we expect from R. Kelly album after album. 'When a Man Lies' is one such song, with the lyrics feeling a bit more like some of Kell's best ballads. As Love Letter had, this album contains a song that was written for Michael Jackson. 'You Are My World' is that song with R doing his best MJ impersonation and it comes off well, even pulling off the famous ad-libs - the two should have hooked up for a whole album together. Overall, there isn't a bad song here, and the consistency is what you want from an album. However, I think that it lacks the brilliant tunes that R has created in the past to take it to the next level. After this and Love Letter, I hope that Kells switches it up again and gives us some of those unique R. Kelly joints such as the Ignitions and Trapped in the Closest type of tracks on his next album. Best Tracks: Love Is, Feelin' Single, When a Man Lies, Believe in Me, Share My Love, You Are My World