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
― friday goodness thank it's (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 21 January 2013 18:25 (eleven years ago) link
xps I've never been at all into Kate Bush or Tori Amos tho *shrug*
― The Reverend, Monday, 21 January 2013 18:27 (eleven years ago) link
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
― friday goodness thank it's (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 21 January 2013 18:28 (eleven years ago) link
This producer is my favourite producer and I want hear everything he's ever done
― friday goodness thank it's (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 21 January 2013 18:29 (eleven years ago) link
I don't know of anything he's done outside of Dawn!
― The Reverend, Monday, 21 January 2013 18:32 (eleven years ago) link
he won a Grammy, did he not?
― flag posts in the dust (Drugs A. Money), Monday, 21 January 2013 18:33 (eleven years ago) link
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/
― lex pretend, Monday, 21 January 2013 18:40 (eleven years ago) link
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)
― katherine, Monday, 21 January 2013 18:51 (eleven years ago) link
xp ok so he was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Gospel Album category
― flag posts in the dust (Drugs A. Money), Monday, 21 January 2013 18:54 (eleven years ago) link
― lex pretend, Monday, January 21, 2013 10:40 AM Bookmark
Did I say that?
― The Reverend, Monday, 21 January 2013 18:55 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― lex pretend, Monday, 21 January 2013 18:59 (eleven years ago) link
You're reading way more into that shrug than was there.
― The Reverend, Monday, 21 January 2013 19:12 (eleven years ago) link
i didn't know you'd even checked out much by kate or tori
― lex pretend, Monday, 21 January 2013 19:22 (eleven years ago) link
Well, no, I haven't. The few songs I've heard by either haven't enticed me.
― The Reverend, Monday, 21 January 2013 19:26 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― The Reverend, Monday, 21 January 2013 19:27 (eleven years ago) link
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
― lex pretend, Monday, 21 January 2013 19:27 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, I wasn't really trying to dismiss either artist or their fans. It was just an "oh well".
― The Reverend, Monday, 21 January 2013 19:29 (eleven years ago) link
Hell, what KB album should I download right now?
― The Reverend, Monday, 21 January 2013 19:30 (eleven years ago) link
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)
― friday goodness thank it's (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 21 January 2013 19:30 (eleven years ago) link
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
― friday goodness thank it's (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 21 January 2013 19:31 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― Matt DC, Monday, 21 January 2013 19:31 (eleven years ago) link
OH fuck I typed "A deeper understanding" and I actually meant the PG/KB duet "Don't give up", I was distracted by something
― friday goodness thank it's (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 21 January 2013 19:32 (eleven years ago) link
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
― lex pretend, Monday, 21 January 2013 19:32 (eleven years ago) link
yes
― lex pretend, Monday, 21 January 2013 19:34 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 21 January 2013 19:35 (eleven years ago) link
but also, i think rev would like aerial a lot (and maybe better: hardly any of the things that code as wacky)
― lex pretend, Monday, 21 January 2013 19:38 (eleven years ago) link
you mean The Red Shoes obviously (which I prefer to TSW)
agreed! nearly updated the red shoes thread to talk about it but
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Monday, 21 January 2013 19:38 (eleven years ago) link
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
― friday goodness thank it's (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 21 January 2013 19:39 (eleven years ago) link
ok going with Hounds of Love
― The Reverend, Monday, 21 January 2013 19:40 (eleven years ago) link
That is the correct choice.
― Matt DC, Monday, 21 January 2013 19:41 (eleven years ago) link
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
― friday goodness thank it's (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 21 January 2013 19:42 (eleven years ago) link
anyone know what the sample is on "Northern Lights"? Those bleeps sound very familiar
― Number None, Monday, 21 January 2013 19:45 (eleven years ago) link
!!!!
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 21 January 2013 19:48 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 21 January 2013 19:50 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― katherine, Monday, 21 January 2013 20:19 (eleven years ago) link
(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)
― katherine, Monday, 21 January 2013 20:27 (eleven years ago) link
yes exactly. I was going to write "It's like comparing Tom Petty to Merle Haggard"
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 21 January 2013 20:27 (eleven years ago) link
Just because KB hasn't been influenced much by r&b doesn't mean r&b can't be influenced by KB tho.
― The Reverend, Monday, 21 January 2013 20:29 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― katherine, Monday, 21 January 2013 20:36 (eleven years ago) link
no one's mentioned Angela Winbush, also good at projecting longing over aqueous synthesized tracks and hard beats.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 21 January 2013 20:39 (eleven years ago) link
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
― The Reverend, Monday, 21 January 2013 20:43 (eleven years ago) link
@ 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 WorldWhich 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
― friday goodness thank it's (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 21 January 2013 20:50 (eleven years ago) link
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"
― friday goodness thank it's (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 21 January 2013 20:51 (eleven years ago) link
So yes I guess Katherine this is one of those points of comparison that work
You haven't heard Kate's cover of Sexual Healing, then
― friday goodness thank it's (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 21 January 2013 20:54 (eleven years ago) link
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
― lex pretend, Monday, 21 January 2013 20:55 (eleven years ago) link
it was Katherine who asserted that, not me xp
― The Reverend, Monday, 21 January 2013 20:56 (eleven years ago) link
I know I was jokingHer version of Sexual Healing is not exactly a masterstroke of genre synthesis
― friday goodness thank it's (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 21 January 2013 20:58 (eleven years ago) link
pretty sure I've heard that cover, yes. and one stray cover falls under "very little" imo.
I can hear "Heads We're Dancing," sort of, but surely "Gleaux" owes as much if not more to the clapper trend?
― katherine, Monday, 21 January 2013 21:01 (eleven years ago) link
while we're on comparisons, there is something very obvious that "Tug of War" is evoking and yet I can't think of the name at all, and it's been bugging me for the past three hours.
― katherine, Monday, 21 January 2013 21:04 (eleven years ago) link