NE-YO v THE DREAM

is brainwasher going to be giving us some "lol white people like r&b" pseudo-forks shit here or something

there are albums that you just know ppl will recognize based purely on the sound coming from the speaker and this is one of them.

hes just talking about how he was talking it up and no one was paying attention for awhile

A-T-L-A-N-T-A G-A IS WHERE I STAY

I think I'm like the only frequent R&B poster who doesn't like the guy, maybe rtc too. I still think Tricky Stewart is pulling most of the weight in that creative partnership, the production >>>>>> the lyrics/melodies in most of their stuff.

rtc like him he was just having trouble writing about him

tricky only produced like half of the album, this guy named L.O.S. produced the rest

i think i might agree with that but a lot of the metaphors are pretty hilarious/great. like the whole idea of "luv songs">>>>>>>>>anything and every metaphor on "double up" that people were raving about

also now that Chris Brown has made like 3 songs that I genuinely like he's definitely my least favorite voice on the radio.

xpost - I was referring mainly to their for-hire work to other artists, although with The-Dream solo stuff I think I prefer the Tricky productions to the Los Da Mystro ones anyway.

i forget which song but dream even gets in a better sex planet line than anything on "sex planet"

actually 'sex planet' has a uranus joke scratch that

speaking of r kelly

what is with that raheem devaighn "customer" remix? did he really have the gall to say "I have some good lemonade"?

hahahaha I like that remix but I really hadn't had a chance to pay attention to the lyrics yet

alex I agree that prod.>lyrics, vocals whatever...dream is half production half personality, I think I just love all the "Ayys!" and "yezzirs" and all that

So I finally started listening to "Livin' a Lie" outside the context of the album, after several months of Matos raving about me how its the best song ever and me not really being that excited about it. And it is pretty great, but totally unconvincing after almost an hour of Dreamer making a dick out of himself.

Bmore OTM about Tricky Stewart being the stronger half of the partnership.

nah those melodies are totally a huge part of why the songs are great. songwriting is real important to his stuff.

living a lie is good but its not like some huge album standout or something

"Livin' a Lie" = single of the year.

melodies are great, I'm not a big vocal expert or really the type to care about lyrics, but obviously melody is most important so that's kind of a given... I really care of the melodies weren't there.

Not so crazy about the "ella"s though

Xp

really wouldn't care if*

crazy

i mean it's good but idk how one could think it's even that much better than "ditch that"

xpost to alfred

i cant think of anyone who doesnt post on ilm or who isnt constantly thinking about their village voice poll saying "this is the best song of the year" when that song is on.

its a great track but theres this thing where critics jump on to some random R&B and decide to make a huge deal about it in a weird way.

ultimate example of this

yeah, "Ditch That" is the sleeper. I only discovered it last week. All those key/tempo changes!

i cant think of anyone who doesnt post on ilm or who isnt constantly thinking about their village voice poll saying "this is the best song of the year" when that any song is on.

its a great track but theres this thing where critics jump on to some random R&B and decide to make a huge deal about it in a weird way.

Yes, because I never listen to R&B.

I never got the "Umbrella" love, but "...Lie" is the first track to make Rihanna sound like a human being.

deej, you know that's dumb shit, especially when I've got Mary's "Fade Away" blasting on my computer speakers now.

its not even that yr necessarily 'wrong' it just has a tendency to sound really disconnected w/ a hint of forced transgression

im not talking about whether you're a 'real' R&B fan or something stupid like that Alfred! i'm talking about whether you vote in critics polls

lots of xps: Really, Good Girl Gone Bad isn't any less innovative than Chain Letter was, and unlike the latter, not a total mess.

deej are you clowning critics polls?

really this is an excuse for me to lol @ the chicago reader

but all critics practice forced transgression!

haha wow, yeah, I (over)rated the Brooke Valentine album as much as anybody, but 1500 words about how it's a tragedy that "D Girl" tanked and a follow up was never released?

the first track to make Rihanna sound like a human being.

-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, May 1, 2008 12:46 PM (Thursday, May 1, 2008 12:46 PM) Bookmark Link

bullshit

lol did this dude just compare Brooke Valentine to Sly Stone.

Rihanna is simply a traditionalist rather than an innovator—Otis Redding rather than Sly Stone, High on Fire rather than Khanate.

hi im a critic :D

http://i27.tinypic.com/6eq2h1.jpg

bullshit

-- rev, Thursday, May 1, 2008

I'm a Ciara-Amerie man myself.

anyway rock critics jumping on an album by a fringe artist and making it a 'huge deal' so it's not really news. at least love/hate is good enough to deserve it.

btw wtf is this album officially called? Love Me All Summer/Hate Me All Winter? Love/Hate? LoveHate?

anyway rock critics jumping on an album by a fringe artist and making it a 'huge deal' so it's is not really news.

I'm not sure how Ciara qualifies as "human-sounding" and Rihanna doesn't.

i guess what im saying upthread, and this may in some ways be an untenable point but i think theres some legitimacy, is sometimes it just seems corny with echoes of 'hell hath no fury' when a bunch of dudes rally around some random R&B album track

anyway rock critics jumping on an album by a fringe artist and making it a 'huge deal' so it's not really news. at least love/hate is good enough to deserve it.

the dream isnt really a 'fringe artist'

I'm pretty sure he meant B. Valentine

Ciara's timbre is pretty cool, but her songs are written around this; with Rihanna I feel like the tracks are forcing her to be friskier than she is. She sounds forced.

deej, i meant fringe in terms of general rock criticism-- it's obv not the same as people making a huge deal out of the field but not the same as lil wayne either

oh i dont have issue w/ them rallying around the dream! i dont think thats corny. its a great album. i think its weird to pick an album track from it and be like 'this is genius!!!' when its yes a great track but not really a standout in an album full of standouts, i think maybe part of my problem is it sounds like when someone picks up on a single track like that that they aren't actually checking for the rest of the record

ok i agree with that

i dont mean to make it seem like im moving the goalposts everytime i say something, im just kind of thinking thru this thing out loud

Ranking the tracks:

"Livin' a Lie"
"Ditch That"
"Falsetto"
"Fast Car"
"Purple Kisses"
"I Luv Your Girl"
everything else

alfred doesnt actually like the album, he likes "traxxx"!!!