NE-YO v THE DREAM

yeah, i was talking to j0rdan earlier about a justified/lh -> fsls/lvm parallel

Except that L/H is much more consistent than Justified I think - basically Justin has never done an album that consistent.

in what sense does LVM not work as a concept album for you, tim?

Well, sure, it works as a concept album in the same way that L/H and almost every R Kelly album ever does.

But my point was less "hey this isn't a concept album" and more that when I'm listening to "Fancy" droop down into "Right Side Of My Brain" I can easily forget that the whole album isn't conceived on quite that grand and melodramatic a scale.

I mean, I like "Sweat It Out" heaps, but it's working in an entirely different register.

Actually the album is kinda like Donna Summer's Once Upon A Time in reverse.

(this would apply for "Mr Yeah" too if not for the awesome little coda)

"Fancy" droop down into "Right Side Of My Brain" I can easily forget that the whole album isn't conceived on quite that grand and melodramatic a scale.

i agree with tim here - in many ways i want to say that l/h isn't better than lvm because it doesn't have something quite like the "love vs money" -> "right side of my brain" stretch, and yet i also want to say that lvm doesn't stand up to his debut because the rest of the album isnt as good as that stretch. to me it's like, there are all these incredible songs floating in orbit around the more incredible concept suite, and it gives me this weird dissonance and it kind of pisses me off tbh because i can't decide whether it's okay that the rest of the album is only an "A" compared to the "A+" 'concept stretch'. obviously lvm is far and away my #1 of the year but when comparing it to l/h i have a hard time taking a stand. i need some time but if i had to use the left side of my brain (forgive me, i'm drunk) i would probably say that l/h is still better. but then again it's like trying to compare everything to a masterpiece so who even knows, it's not really fair. i love them both and A T L A NT A G A is where i stay imo.

well for me the "concept stretch" of LVM is 'love vs money' right thru to the end, so that's half the album there, and it works as in album of two halves: first half of what you'd expect done brilliantly, then it suddenly lurches into the really high-flown shit. obv got loads of love for L/H but there's no question in my mind that LVM is superior, both as an "album" and a collection of tracks.

"ilxor" wrong? shocking!

― autogoon crew for coldplay (The Reverend)

:'(

B-b-b-but lex agrees with me!

... are you guys gonna tell him or shall i?

i agree with tim here - in many ways i want to say that l/h isn't better than lvm because it doesn't have something quite like the "love vs money" -> "right side of my brain" stretch, and yet i also want to say that lvm doesn't stand up to his debut because the rest of the album isnt as good as that stretch. to me it's like, there are all these incredible songs floating in orbit around the more incredible concept suite, and it gives me this weird dissonance and it kind of pisses me off

otm. My attention drifts at midpoint, and those spongy synths on "Walking On The Moon" really annoy me (Kanye draws me back in, just barely). I love the first album, but forcing The-Dream to use their "hey!"s and unexpected harmonies over the course of a purported concept album exposed their weaknesses in a way that the weak tracks on L/H didn't.

As someone who finally came around to L/H after listening to LVM more, I think that LVM works more as a concept album if you don't already know The-Dream pretty well from his first album. It concisely sums up who the guy is so that the song suite actually means something in the context of the album. It's not as important that dude's got feeeeeeeelings as it is that THIS dude has feelings, the Kelly protege working extra hard for his seeming effortlessness. And so it's satisfying when he kind of collapses conceptually, but you don't need him to exert the effort if you're already familiar with him. (And I'm starting to agree that a few of the peaks on L/H really don't match up with anything on LVM for immediacy, but I like the LVM counterparts more anyway.)

Unrelated, is it just me or is he quietly singing along underneath Mariah in "My Love"? It sounds like he's reading her lines along with her, or maybe it really is an Autotune effect...

yeah, that might well be the case if you've come to it that way round.

i mean, this argument could go on forever - it's obviously subjective in the extreme as to how we as listeners bridge the gap in conceptual intensity that jordan talks about, to be able to read the album in its entirety. more often than not that sort of thing generally results in either just accepting half a product (and glossing over the rest), or conferring an intentionality onto the artist where there was none before, or straight-up rewiring his or her shit even. so yknow, while i do absolutely continue to believe in lvm as a concept album i'm also willing to concede the concept concerned as being somewhat more to do with me being so 3008 rather than, for instance, the-dream ever agreeing with me that 'walking on the moon' is necessarily shitty as a self-satisfied monied prelude, or with how i see him, or whatever.

i do prefer love/hate though, much in the same way that ne-yo will always be the correct answer to the thread question.

kinda wanna take issue with the idea that the album with (or that was supposed to have) the full title of love me all summer / hate me all winter ISN'T a concept album, but i know what yall mean and i'm sure yall catch my drift by now too.

(the other thing is that sheer consistency is often more of an invitation to scry conceptuality at play than it is with just razzy rhetoric and the odd nod, imo.)

btw, why with the bobbie gentry lex?

(this would apply for "Mr Yeah" too if not for the awesome little coda)

Do you mean the part with the "* on my ella" refrain? I think that little section might be my favorite 15 seconds of anything The-Dream has done, ever

It does have that full title on the album cover, which I didn't even know until I actually bought Love/Hate. Though I don't think I could tell you which songs on there are summer and which are winter.

conferring an intentionality onto the artist where there was none before, or straight-up rewiring his or her shit even

Pretty much guilty as charged, I suppose, though it doesn't bother me to rewire for my own purposes since for me part of the fun is in cramming the album into the (usually somewhat pat) narrative I've made for it (and I do have to legitimately like the stuff first before I rewire it). But as soon as I get to "Put It Down" I feel pretty much in for the whole album, as opposed to L/H where I tend to skip around, starting on a different track each time and letting it play out (and usually stopping before "Livin' a Lie" for some reason, even though I like that song).

Wednesday, May 27:

NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: The-Dream, the Roots (house band)

he's terrible live

alright welp that clears that up see you guys l8r

http://i43.tinypic.com/359cosy.jpg

haha

yeah i mean his shortcomings as a vocalist become impossible to ignore when he steps outside the studio, but i still wouldn't mind seeing the Roots do up one of his songs with a dope live arrangement.

will watch the shit outta that

i didn't think much of him live either but afterwards he was def ill, so i gave him a pass

did you see him with the live band set up?

yup

he said he wanted a motorcycle and a helicopter in the stage show but they wouldn't let him

i just noticed another l/h 'reference' on lvm

on "take u home to my mama": "her titties like woooOOOOO/ her booty like woooooo"

on "luv songs": "she grab the high note *oooohh*/ i take the mid oooooh"

http://videos.onsmash.com/v/834Y39eZdnmqU8XC&res=800

gifs of all the unbelievably fruity moments where he's tryna make some personality happen are officially mandatory

haha cackling my azz off over here

can just picture hype williams all tickling him off-camera like, come on mr sulky face where's that smile i like to see, yeaaah there it is

are you serious hype williams directed that?

you appear to be surprised that h williams made a bad video in 2009

jus surprised at lack of fish eye

yeesh, terius' camp mannerisms and that awkward lift-one-foot-then-the-other 'dance'

pretty sure that is how I dance

it's okay as long as you're feeling it though, right?

dude's been working other gimmicks like milk bars, triple decker widescreen and obnoxiously monochromatic color schemes so much longer than he ever used the fisheye.

was gonna say, when's the last time hype used the fish eye

fish eye thing ws a joke btw

weak joke btw

so now that "My Love"'s cycle is over and it's officially gone down as The-Dream's first completely unsuccessful solo single, are y'all ready to admit it was kind of a dud or not

(not counting "Booty," just the first 4 that got videos and the whole big push)

commercially a dud, but still a dope song. there's so many great things about it - my favorite now is after the middle eight when the beat drops back in like a fucking bomb, im like \m/ every time

i don't mind it on the album but it never struck me as a potential hit, w/ or w/o mariah, just kinda glad to be vindicated on that. singles jukebox cru kinda pissed me off giving it a higher score than "rockin'".

yeah back when this dropped i was more into "my love" but "rockin that shit" is my shit now, 9 for that and my love's an 8

Al otm.

as a single it doesn't register strong enough as a Mariah hit or an R&B number.

This really begs the question of who is a worse dancer: The American Dream or Yeezy?

pretty sure even Kanye couldn't top the 'like a pony' move in the "Rockin' That Thang" video

Yung Phillinganes on the electric piano in the above clip should have chilled a bit.