The purpose built next generation interstellar Dawn Richard thread

I really haven't given the Kalenna mixtape fair time.

... okay listening to this now

I do like this song, but that quoted section is not particularly powerful or overwhelming to me? Furthermore, there doesn't actually seem to be any confusion or contradiction in that second verse; she basically is like "I want you like crazy, let's stop fucking around and get married so we can get back to fucking".

The more interesting thing to me is the declaration of strength through vulnerability; like, the whole song is a pleading "don't break up with me" monologue but everything still functions on her terms. She's deciding it's time for her to be vulnerable, she's willing to change if he changes, she can't fathom life without him so obviously he should marry her.

The song is summed up by:

I want you
You need me
So stay, baby

Everything else in the song speaks directly to this central thesis statement.

listen to "Poison," that's the standout imo

btw I like her voice a lot more than Dawn's partially because I feel like I can actually hear it rather than having it drowning in autotune (part of that is backing track arrangement smoothing out some of the edges autotune puts on vocals)

holy shit "Poison" is great btw

kind of also like the way the focus is so much on the cranking of wu-tang and keeping her cup filled up in "matte black truck" that even though it's just a threat in the song, kalenna's focus kind of wills it into existence, which foreshadows the entire final stretch of the mixtape in which she does get thrown over and fucked up

just relistened to 'matte black truck' and kalenna wasn't nearly as fierce as I remembered, or was made out to be itt

still a great song tho

the final stretch is "pain & alcohol"/"poison"/"the morning after"/"party & bullshit" dan - they're all amazing in quite similar ways, the first two are kind of secret powerballads and the last two spacey hermetically sealed trapped-in-your-own-head club joints

she sings the final section of "pain & alcohol" from beyond the grave, a trick i always appreciate

I mentioned this in my review, but I really like the way Dawn uses autotune. Just lots of layers of both natural and autotuned vocals that complement each other, like she's half feeling human and half tragic android trying to understand human emotion.

I pretty much think she's using it for better effect than anyone else tbh.

^^^

fierce is nowhere near the right word for "Matte Black Truck" IMO, I'd say she's closer to "imperious" than anything else

I really need to remember to go track these down when I get home

Also that stretch Lex just mentioned is def. my favourite stretch of Chamber of Diaries.

I didn't even realize dawn was autotuning!

listening to "the morning after" right now and it's just stunning - her UGHHHH after the popeye/spinach line, the "ayo technology" noises that pop up halfway through, the way it all pivots around her singing "i wanna feel like i've been with a rapper the morning after" in tones of anguish and desperation

and the way her voice suddenly switches from autotune in-the-club harshness to the sweetness of "hold on to my life" in "party & bullshit"

yeah, I totally didn't notice the autotune on Armor On... besides "Automatic," but it fits with the concept there.

WRT Chamber of DIaries, "Matte Black Truck" is far and away the best song... whereas Armor On is consistently stunning.

kind of saddens me slightly that its exclusion from armor on means "december sky" will always be overlooked

lex you are sad when anything gets overlooked

I feel the same away about "Stuck On Mad," which is secretly my favorite Dawn song.

Here's your shit you can TAKE IT IT BACK.... I don't want your love like that

yeah stuck on mad is GREAT

damn, I never heard that before! amazing.

I would not have foreseen that 2 of my favourite albums of 2012 would both include heavy use of autotune and also both include the word "cowabunga" in a track.

what's the other one?

Future 'Pluto', not sure which track, which is lame of me cos I've heard it 10-15 times so far this week.

It's on there somewhere though.

need to give that a proper listen myself

he says "i live a cowabunga lifestyle" on "truth gonna hurt you"

no complete j0rdan s. transcript, no credibility

I should have known J0rdan would know ;)

Seriously what Dawn and Dupri do with rhythm on "Heaven" and the outro is just O_O. Someone should book them a residency at the PanoramaBar.

druski

Argh Druski.

Haha I would have loved if it was actually Dupri though.

I like Armor On a lot but it *sounds* really poor.

look at her on the cover. she is a medieval paladin heading off to war on holy love's great crusades. dupri's 1472 production values weren't to come for another few hunna years. the fuck kinda sound quality you expect?

:D alright then

But, for real though.

maybe you have a bad copy?

The one off iTunes, so not a lift or anything.

ah okay. I think it sounds fine

The bass clips out on just about every song. I really want to turn it up loud but it becomes too distracting for me.

The strings at the end of "Heaven" are so epic.

yeah i really have no idea what issues anyone could have with the sound quality of Armor On. although maybe i haven't turned it up loud enough to hear the bass clipping? i dunno

could be an issue with your stereo? maybe not likely if you can pump other songs without clipping

just had a quick go-through on (nice) headphones - doesn't seem to clip at all, or clip anymore than similarly voiced R&B tracks from other artists

Will check it again at work tomorrow.

The strings at the end of "Heaven" are so epic.

yeah got a slight massive attack vibe from them

the bass in "automatic" gets me so hype

The whole record, well most of it, is very 90s coffee dance, in a good way. There's kind of a superior quality Tracy Thorn feel to a lot of it, although Dawn is a much more captivating vocal presence.

Yeah, there is definitely a coffee vibe. As you say, in a good way.

i have no idea what "90s coffee dance" means so i'm just going to assume it means the DNA remix of "Tom's Diner"