Rolling R&B Thread 2012

Can't get into the new Jeremih song---his pseudo-rapping on it is just dreadful---but that ultra-Teriusy "Late Nights" track from a few months ago that never made any waves still pushes all the right buttons for me. Hoping his mixtape drops soon so I can enjoy it in the summer.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5uo2eZmF01rxlzpfo1_500.jpg

wtf kinda tumblr bullshit is that

just think its funny that gross rockist rap nerdery has infiltrated R&B discourse thanks to frank ocean and the weeknd. congrats

lol yeah cos r&b fans never ever made assertions like that prior to the scapegoats de nos jours showing up

Yeah this isn't really that different to people comparing say Jill Scott and Destiny's Child a decade plus ago is it?

Except that there's now no hard distinction sonically (i.e the old battle lines were drawn on an organic/soulful vs electronic/beat-heavy axis as much as lyrics/persona).

theres very much a diff i'm saying this is outsider rockism as opposed to old ppl rockism

Except that there's now no hard distinction sonically (i.e the old battle lines were drawn on an organic/soulful vs electronic/beat-heavy axis as much as lyrics/persona).

this also strikes me as a p notable change too!

yeah I was just thinking I suppose the difference is that the current distinctions are drawn as between individuals' relationship with (roughly) the same culture/aesthetic rather than as between two competing (and stylistically/arguably generationally distinct) aesthetics.

It's kind of like a fusing-together of the old authentic vs plastic division and the old innovators vs campfollowers division - the treatment of e.g. Frank Ocean is neither as another (say) Musiq Soulchild nor as another (say) Timbaland but a kind of combination of the two.

In some ways this kind of approach is harder to argue with (though that doesn't mean it's correct) because the protest "why shouldn't I want in-effect contemporary popular R&B with modern production and 'smarter' lyrics / subject matter?" seems more reasonable than "contemporary popular R&B is the very devil."

And you can attack the implied definition of 'smarter' as myopic and occasionally eye-rolly but outright objecting to stuff in that mould is difficult to justify objectively.

this tweet stuff is ridic good

sayin

holy shit @ "c 4eva" this is beautiful

"trouble" too

what other tweet tuesdays tracks are there?

http://soundcloud.com/dubose-music-group

^ they're here

Lead single from blackSUMMER'Snight forthcoming soon!

yessss

xp cheers

new brooke valentine official single - liking this on one listen, surprisingly lite and airy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzB5Cn0tGEU

um this new wynter gordon is kind of WOW

http://soundcloud.com/andygensler/01-stimela-by-wynter-gordon

looks like she's doing a dawn richard with her imminent EPs... http://www.billboard.com/news/wynter-gordon-goes-d-i-y-for-new-eps-exclusive-1007383752.story#/news/wynter-gordon-goes-d-i-y-for-new-eps-exclusive-1007383752.story

:-O Not what i was expecting at all...

Maxwell tour canceled due to 'vocal hemorrhaging' :(

Tweet, Mama's Gun-esque

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTbgTADYhl4

These have all been so good

Have we had opinions about the new R Kelly album yet? I haven't heard past the two singles and I'm curious what the verdict is.

wasn't a huge fan of Love Letter but it worked for what it was, and this feels like diminishing returns. love the MJ riffing on "You Are My World" though.

Only listened to it twice, but it seems pretty solid. With the 70s vibe its more of a sequel to Happy People than Love Letter, really. Given how terrible Kels' recent contemporary shit has been, I'm fine with him riding the retro lane a bit longer

i say this a lot, but i'd rather see black panties right now

I don't think this was posted elsewhere, but our first taste of black panties (ha) was really dire. "Its On" (sic) makes me long for that Mark Morrison song we were all laughing at last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr1VVtIABjM&feature=player_embedded#!

I was going to post about how amazing the Wynter Gordon song was before I got distracted by Miguel.

Matos quite likes the Kells.

wait a minute, how has "love letter" not being amazing been rewritten into the narrative without me realizing?

the song or the album? song was v good, album was fine, but "amazing" is an absurd word touse

an absurd word to use, not the absurd word "touse"

who you calling abtouse

i meant the album, tho obviously that applies to the song too. alubm runs out of steam toward the end for me but there are a ton of gems too, things like "#1 hit" and "lost in your love" are better than he's done in years

also i had no idea he had a new album, nice

the kellz is good, maybe not as whoa or noteworthy as love letter but def worth hearing - more "step in the name of love"-style midtempos than big lavish balladry. "believe in me" is kind of amazing, "fool for you" is prob my fav.

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

I like this random alt-soul EP I picked up. Really good production, but the singer seems kind of lobotomized and I'm not sure I've heard an altogether necessary cover of "Sour Times" yet. Best track, I think, is "Free" which kind of sounds like Dawn x uk funky.

http://soundcloud.com/chericoke/sets/x-coke/

is this the official point where there is no longer any point in posting things in the "kinda out there, maybe kinda experimental, maybe kinda pretentious modern r&b" thread instead of this one

yeah, maybe

errr, by Dawn i mean Druski tbh

the kellz is good, maybe not as whoa or noteworthy as love letter but def worth hearing - more "step in the name of love"-style midtempos than big lavish balladry. "believe in me" is kind of amazing, "fool for you" is prob my fav.

I think I could listen to R Kelly stepper tunes forever. "Believe That It's So" is so lovely, I just want it to keep going and going.

"Fool For You" is lovely, yes.

i worship "Step In The Name Of Love" but the newer stuff really doesn't remotely hit the same mark imo

Timothy Bloom, reliable jaw-dropper:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qmxPPMLII4

Also, don't want to dwell on it too much, but Ne-Yo just put out a shitty Euro-pop single called—I shit you not—"Let Me Love You." Sacrilegious.

wtf

the album after titling a song "one in a million" !!!!

also he's on that new timbaland song which seemed really soupy in that bad over-the-hill timbaland way

This stings that much more b/c he's been hyping his new album as a return to basics, true R&B record. He's doing that thing I hate where artists straight up lie about what their new album is going to be

(I actually sorta love his "One in a Million," though, so I can't complain too much about the title-aping, I guess)

Haven't heard this latest Ne-Yo track yet, but is the R&B trend in 2012 dropping a compelling single and then following it up with a shitty Guetta-esque club track? See also, Usher.