NE-YO v THE DREAM

people need to explain to me what's wrong with the song sounding like terius. since when is this a bad thing? los uses the same drums on EVERY song! i missed when dream singles were like huge leaps in r&b sonics. if we're talking about "fancy" or something then that's different, but all of his singles are just great 'normal' r&b like this is...

isntt there like a special thread for anticipating this album jus sayin

jordan otm, consolidation is kinda what we're all hoping for anyway i think

well also from a practical standpoint we are all v. familiar with two terius solo albums as well as his work with other artists so it stands to reason that the "we are surprised by this guy" phase of his career might be winding down....

"fancy" is a dope song but it doesn't have the same kind of sonic wonder as "rockin that shit", which was the lead single to the last album and a lot better obv.

anyway my beef wasn't that it "sounds like terius" as much as it draws on all the things that I love about him but all of the parts are kind of half-assed. it's like mixing your favorite colors and it coming out brown

^^this prolly means you have cheap paints btw

hahaha

a lot better than "love king", not "fancy" - to clarify

xp alright bye guys

"rockin that shit" = "so good" pt 2 fwiw

i understand kevin's point i just think he's wrong & that it's a great pop song

rockin that shit is a fucking monster tho ur right

yeah i mean i also listened to it once on laptop speakers i'm sure i'll have more thoughts when the album comes out

from the-dream's twitter:

Thank You all so much for embracing the single! the album is deeper and i push further but first things is first.

tell me what ya'll want next uptempo Slow, whatever the album is deeper than space!

also just realized the end of this song leaves room for an amazing transition a la take u home 2 my mama --> love vs. money

Not so much into "Love King". It sounds pretty but I like Terius in overawed-by-the-majesty-of-your-loving mode, here he sounds self-satisfied and entitled.

i was half wondering if it hasn't been pitched up or something, it seems very fast. gives it the air not of buoyancy but a sort of artifical giddyness, bolshily rushing so no one has to linger over the details that aren't there; quite unusual for him.

might eventually accept this working as some form of grand counterpoint on the album, but as it stands it's a bad teaser and a worse single. :(

gives it the air not of buoyancy but a sort of artifical giddyness, bolshily rushing so no one has to linger over the details that aren't there; quite unusual for him.

Yeah, it lacks the sense of pacing that elevates the (otherwise similar) "I Love Your Girl" - there's none of the space that in the latter song allows lines like "F*** that n****..." to leap out at you.

if i'm being creative, hurriedly blurting your big single out plays kinda badly with the scene set by endless twitrants about lack of recognition too tbh. "you should know me like that" and "you don't know me like that" all in the same chorus eh terius?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmulb_-bN5s&fmt=22

btw was there mention made of this lvm offcut upthread. it's kinda ridic but i've grown to like it - tricky's sudden bit of purple inspiration for the last 10 seconds really is worth the entry fee alone.

"rockin that shit" = "so good" pt 2 fwiw

Umm I think you have this backwards?

fwiw, when "Rockin That Shit" came out I dismissed it as standard Terius and I was as wrong to do so then as you guys are now

Dunno, I sorta consider the two songs to be as far apart from eachother as can be while still being "standard Terius". "Rockin' That Shit" is on the far other side of my humbled vs entitled dichotomy, and I loved it from the very first bar.

i think the final two choruses are sublime

rev i think you're wrong, if you wanna get objective it's prob because "rockin that shit" didn't (and still doesn't?) sound like anything he did before, but I can point to a cool half dozen dream-written tracks that this clearly knocks off, (and a non-dream track that we all love which i'm surprised hasn't been mentioned yet) most of which i probably think are better

(and a non-dream track that we all love which i'm surprised hasn't been mentioned yet)

what song is this

this is what I wrote about "Rockin' That Shit" on the singles jukebox at the time:

Dream-by-numbers. Springy toms, bouyant synths, dirty mouth to hide the stars in his eyes. Competent, but not as novel as he has been in the past. I can’t help but feel somewhat cheated.

It sure as hell sounded like "average dream" to me for a few months

i think tim's criticisms are much more valid than anything criticizing the sonics of the song

can you not dig "mr yeah" because it rips off the electric piano riff from "touch my body"? can you not dig "purple kisses" cuz it sounds just like "bed"? or "sweat it out" cuz it sounds like "purple kisses"? & anyway i totally reject the idea that terius has previously or should be breaking some sort of sonic ground with his singles.

tim, did you like "mr. yeah"? that's pretty entitled.

yeah, agreed that Tim's criticisms have more to them xp

are people who are knocking this song's sonic retreadiness gonna go to bat for "walkin on the moon" over "my love" because the former didn't sound like anything terius has ever done?

might just be me jordy but talkin about "blame it"

xp jordan that's not. the. point.

what's the point

can you not dig "mr yeah" because it rips off the electric piano riff from "touch my body"? can you not dig "purple kisses" cuz it sounds just like "bed"? or "sweat it out" cuz it sounds like "purple kisses"?

I prefer "Walkin' On the Moon" over "My Love" because the former is much more fun and has my favorite bit of melody he's ever come up with

you're strawmanning my point to the point where it sounds like i'm condmning anything that draws on shit he's done before, when all i'm saying is that this is a duller take on a lot of the shit he's been doing.

i'm alright w/ this -- i didn't much like "Shawty" or "Rockin'" at first but still recognized w/ both right away that they were going to be steamrollers for the next 6 months and wasn't surprised when i warmed to them. this doesn't have the same feeling, and i could see it getting scrapped for another single sooner than later, but i think it also has a little something in it that could make it huge if it does catch on at all. basically it feels thin but also way more fun than any of his other stuff in the same way that made "Take U Home" one of my favorites off the last record.

tim when you say "entitled" are you referring to his tone of voice or more the lyrics?

I think probably both -- his uptempo songs generally do come off kind of smug and impressed with themselves

ya idk this sounds kiiiinda children's music-ey to me. like for all its standard terius features it gets unusually naive results. there's a risk of your songs sounding innocent if they've all got upbeat staccato synth jabs and short repetitive melodies, but he usually pulls it off much better than this. it just sounds less sophisticated or refined to me than any of the other singles. k3vin k otm i'll be very surprised if i ever end up liking this half as much as 'rockin that shit,' but promises of going "deeper than space" are v reassuring.

tim when you say "entitled" are you referring to his tone of voice or more the lyrics?

Voice mainly (though the lyrics back it up). i.e. "Mr Yeah" may have a vaguely similar message but the feel of the song is so different, on that he's a very dedicated lover who clearly feels very deeply for the person he's singing too (hence the tender sighs "you can always come around..."), and the impassioned vocal reflects that.

The lyrics are important though I guess because the very fact that it's the first The-Dream song which is about girls generally rather than a girl perhaps feeds into how I'm reading it. It's the first time that dude hasn't at least pretended that he's only thinking about "you" right now.

"you" should know him like that

on my first few listens I was caught up in the rush of terius stannery, but you all are making damn good points

a bit upthread there's some talk of transitions - would love to hear this segue into something like "nikki (part 2)"

ok tim that's what i thought you meant, and pretty much agree - i used "annoyingly flat vocals" to mean something similar

this song is zzz guys sorry

so emotionally generic / empty

on the bright side, I was tempted to relisten to lvm and never noticed that ethereal bridge in the middle of sweat it out, it's like I'm watching ghosts walk through walls or somethin

deej you don't even like the-dream anymore so no shock there

btw you gave a "7" to young dro's "on fire"

yallllll

i'm just saying that he played the "psshhh over it!" routine already last year