Two years after the international smash Shock Value comes Shock Value 2. After various rumours about who would be featuring, the final guest is a slight let down. Miley Cyrus? Katy Perry? Drake? All blatantly trying to capitalise off the IT hype they generate. What happened to Beyonce, Lady Gaga and even, dare I say it, Rihanna?

Anyway, here it is.

Good tracks:

Carry Out.

Tomorrow In a Bottle (It is too long. I thought the end was near, but then another two minutes dragged on).

Say Something.

Morning After Dark.

Can You Feel It (Featuring the amazingly talented Esthero).

Ease Off the Liquor.

Undertow (A nice mellow track, plus more of Esthero’s lovely voice).

Long Way Down.

Marchin’ On.

The One I Love.

Average tracks:

Meet in the Middle (It would have been bad, but Brandy’s portion of the song lifted it from boredom).

Lose Control (Drags on, but is catchy).

We Belong to the Music (It started well, but then dragged on and on without building up to anything whatsoever).

Bad tracks:

If We Ever Meet Again (Another song that starts well but ends up dragging on forever through repetition. Katy Perry should have adapted to Timbaland, not the other way around).

Symphony (Nice, but the beat needed to change at some point, not continuous).

Notable guests:

Again, we have Keri Hilson and Justin Timberlake. However, newcomers like Brandy and Esthero make up for Timbaland revisiting the same ole same old territory. Drake, the current bandwagon. For tweens, there is Miley Cyrus and Jojo. For American Idol fans, there is Daughtry.

Singles or album? Get the album, if you can bear the dud songs in the first half.

A summary: the world’s obsession with making money. All our lives we strive to earn more and more, scared that one day we will lose everything. We see famous people living the good life, making us jealous and more depressed over our lives. We don’t discover our true selves because we’re too busy with dollar signs in our eyes. We exist but we don’t live.

To be honest, lately I’ve been almost obsessed with money. I can’t bring myself to buy/do anything that’s not cheap, even if I really want to, because I imagine my bank account dropping. I see celebrities chilling on the beach a few times a year, partying like there’s no tomorrow, and buying anything in the world without looking at the price tag, and feel sad that I haven’t been on holiday for almost five years and rarely buy myself something.

Can we be ‘happy’ without being rich?