The purpose built next generation interstellar Dawn Richard thread

reminds me a bit of a Vespertine track

I'm not a fan of Vespertine but I can see what you're saying

A lot of this genre experimentation reminds me of what Dirty Projectors tried-- successfully, according to many-- on Swing Lo Magellan. Different playbooks but the same sort of hilarious cross-genre splicing. I like that Dawn and Druski do it so effortlessly, though, it feels like a single universe despite its detours

xps I've never been at all into Kate Bush or Tori Amos tho *shrug*

Also, last thing, sorry, but I ~love~ the lack of hooks. The albums works so well as a single listen because all the melodies are simpler, less showstoppy. The only hooky track imo is "Ode to you" and it's the low point for me, feels cloying instead of eternal

This producer is my favourite producer and I want hear everything he's ever done

I don't know of anything he's done outside of Dawn!

he won a Grammy, did he not?

xps I've never been at all into Kate Bush or Tori Amos tho *shrug*

you shrug like we shouldn't be talking about them?

druski interview: http://www.carltonjordan.com/2012/11/07/breaking-dawn-part-ii-how-producer-druski-helped-reinvent-dawn-richard/

personally I don't hear the tori comparison at all, the kate comparison I can maaaaaaaaaaaaaybe see with the caveat that it's only the sliver of her career when she was trying to be peter gabriel. (which I guess means it is really a peter gabriel comparison, which is obvious but I can see, say, some stuff on Melt being reference points)

xp ok so he was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Gospel Album category

you shrug like we shouldn't be talking about them?

― lex pretend, Monday, January 21, 2013 10:40 AM Bookmark

Did I say that?

it was just quite a dismissive shrug.

personally I don't hear the tori comparison at all

circa to venus and back? like, not the exact same sounds, but the way in which she uses those sounds - really out-there, WTF production, really effective emotionally, but you can't seem to trace it back to anywhere. inscrutable, as rev said.

You're reading way more into that shrug than was there.

i didn't know you'd even checked out much by kate or tori

Well, no, I haven't. The few songs I've heard by either haven't enticed me.

I feel like I could possibly get into Kate Bush at some point given the right conditions tho. I don't understand the appeal of Tori at all.

oh, that's what i thought. i guess i took umbrage b/c they both have such vast & diverse discographies that it seems a bit off to dismiss either on the basis of a couple of songs, but no problems

Yeah, I wasn't really trying to dismiss either artist or their fans. It was just an "oh well".

Hell, what KB album should I download right now?

I don't hear Tori in this, but listen to anything off "Goldenheart" except the clubby tracks and then listen to "A Deeper Understanding", it's uncanny (and that's a good thing)

Christ Rev listen to Hounds of Love and Sensual World right now

I'm not a Kate Bush fan myself but those records are impressive

I'd assumed the 'R&B Hounds of Love' thing was a vague parallel about overarching thematic content and/or dressing-up games rather than any musical similarities.

OH fuck I typed "A deeper understanding" and I actually meant the PG/KB duet "Don't give up", I was distracted by something

hounds of love and the dreaming

xp NOT THE SENSUAL WORLD NOOOOOO not even k8 fans love that one! apart from all-time classic "this woman's work" obv

I'd assumed the 'R&B Hounds of Love' thing was a vague parallel about overarching thematic content and/or dressing-up games rather than any musical similarities.

yes

NOT THE SENSUAL WORLD NOOOOOO not even k8 fans love that one! apart from all-time classic "this woman's work" obv

you mean The Red Shoes obviously (which I prefer to TSW). Lots if K. Bush fans adore TSW.

but also, i think rev would like aerial a lot (and maybe better: hardly any of the things that code as wacky)

you mean The Red Shoes obviously (which I prefer to TSW)

agreed! nearly updated the red shoes thread to talk about it but

Despite best-ever song "Sat in your lap", "The Dreaming" is an ugly record to listen to production-wise and has a lot of silly accents. I mean, I like it, but it's not really tangentially related to Dawn Richard xp

Lex OTM re Aerial that record storms

ok going with Hounds of Love

That is the correct choice.

I must confess that aside from "Aerial" (which I always forget about but is my actual favourite KB album) I suspect "Goldenheart" matches and betters a lot of Kate's stuff

anyone know what the sample is on "Northern Lights"? Those bleeps sound very familiar

I must confess that aside from "Aerial" (which I always forget about but is my actual favourite KB album) I suspect "Goldenheart" matches and betters a lot of Kate's stuff

!!!!

both artists include songs that drift and bob rather too much for my taste, but even if Kate Bush isn't in my pantheon -- I'm an admirer not a fan -- Dawn Richard's modest vocal and emotional range can't compete.

Dawn Richard's vocal range is pretty good actually (cf "Frequency") but even besides that I don't know why we are trying to say either is better because that is a) pointless and b) apples to oranges. Goldenheart is drawing from completely different reference points -- like, just to pick the most obvious, very little that Kate Bush has ever done has much conversation with R&B, at all.

(if we're doing the comparison thing, then you really have three choices, two that work and one that doesn't: TSW for sonic similarity, which works but only because it's also half a Peter Gabriel album; The Red Shoes for pulling in other sounds, one of which was theoretically mainstream [even though the remake of "Rubberband Girl" makes it pretty clear what she was actually aiming for was blues/even country) -- which works, even though the sounds are different and Goldenheart is way more cohesive in every way, even if you cut out the obvious filler; then Hounds of Love / Aerial / etc for being concept albums, which doesn't work because you could say the same about literally any other concept album)

yes exactly. I was going to write "It's like comparing Tom Petty to Merle Haggard"

Just because KB hasn't been influenced much by r&b doesn't mean r&b can't be influenced by KB tho.

true, but when you're judging an R&B album on "does this equal this Kate Bush album the artist might not even be referencing" it's losing the plot a bit.

plus, and everyone knew this was coming, every single female artist who is doing something "arty" inevitably gets compared to Kate Bush on rather flimsy reasoning. not that this is how lex meant it, or that Dawn Richard *didn't* intend it (though I've yet to see her show up in Druski or Richard's lists of influences.) but, I mean, this is showing up in more and more Goldenheart reviews with either the text or subtext of "it's sorta R&B but really it's more like Kate Bush, you know, ~*innovative*~!" which, yeah. also has the "no more loverman cliches and bottle service grooves!" thing going on.

no one's mentioned Angela Winbush, also good at projecting longing over aqueous synthesized tracks and hard beats.

I tweeted Druski asking him about other stuff he's produced and he tweeted me back with some stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7OO1ur8lPs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4lWMnynd9Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNyEBYKaUDQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-Fql5_NYg0

@ Rev that is exciting and I am gonna listen to them right now

Comparisons to KB began because this album sounds exactly in tone and production like The Sensual World
Which is totally crazy! because Dawn Richards and KB sing differently, write differently, have different schemes of producer-writer-performer hierarchies, and yet the similarities are so striking that it's Very Interesting

Three people I've played this for has exactly said "wow this sounds like Peter Gabriel" and specifically cited The Sensual World and "Don't give up"

So yes I guess Katherine this is one of those points of comparison that work

Just because KB hasn't been influenced much by r&b doesn't mean r&b can't be influenced by KB tho.

You haven't heard Kate's cover of Sexual Healing, then

it's been years since i actually listened to the sensual world but someone who checked it out based on my KB comparison said that the intros to "gleaux" and "heads we're dancing" are, like, nearly identical

haven't pulled out the latter to compare for myself yet

it was Katherine who asserted that, not me xp

I know I was joking
Her version of Sexual Healing is not exactly a masterstroke of genre synthesis