The purpose built next generation interstellar Dawn Richard thread

i wonder what it is about dawn that made diddy keep her around after the dissolution of dannity kane

Wasn't she the best singer out of everyone in Danity Kane? I mean there is nothing about her that screams "super star" but I think the pop/r&b audience are so use to big personalities that a straight forward singer may seem boring. Dawn isn't boring per se but maybe Diddy needed a "real" singer around Bad Boy since Cassie was the only female for a little spell after Danity Kane split up.

i really know nothing about danity kane or any of its members, but being the best singer makes sense

I never listen to a note of Danity Kane as I don't like the idea of 5 person singing group. I saw a video of her performing with Diddy doing "Last Night" waaayy back and assumed she was better than the other four.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGlhmDw7zhc

Danity Kane, anyone?

prescience from brainwasher!

well at least we'll be getting a Dawn solo album I guess.

― Put A Ring On It (The Brainwasher), Wednesday, October 15, 2008 2:39 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i'd love to hear a version of a tell tale heart where several of the songs didn't sound like they were recorded underwater

does 'blackout'-era britney have much crossover w/ this stuff? i'm listening to "radar" (love love love) right now and i could see the drama being pitched up slightly in a way that would totally fit w/ the 'LTTP sound'

"vibrate" is nuts

i'd love to hear a version of a tell tale heart where several of the songs didn't sound like they were recorded underwater

YES (i mean, i assume this will be the actual album if and when it emerges)

blackout's a good comparison point, i mentioned it in my LTTP review from the "constant surprising sonic thrillz" standpoint, but re: dawn specifically there's also that impulse to get drunk and curse and act out sexually running through it (though obv she's coming at it from a more controlled persona...)

Yeah she's interesting in that she's a controlled singer doing "unhinged" R&B - there are aspects of this album that remind me of K Michelle and Fantasia and J Hudson and Brooke Valentine in parts but it's mostly sonic rather than vocal.

This works for me though I'll have to think about why, can't come up with a neat explanation for it yet.

i'm still unbelievably pissed off that my chat w/dawn and kalenna has been lost to the vagaries of hard drive death - they said some really interesting things, esp re: their differing singing/songwriting styles, and both generally came across as totally smart and totally on it, and a bit like...necessary to keep diddy down to earth?

tim, you heard the last danity kane album right? if not, omg you need it. (i probably need their first one! never heard it)

I think I heard and liked the singles? I can't remember now if I checked out the album or not.

In my head I kind of just slot Danity Kane as halfway between Dream and Pussycat Dolls and keep forgetting that this is based purely on pop-cultural arithmetic rather than what they actually sound like.

it's not entirely offbase w/r/t what they sound like either

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd5lzwctwUk

that was probably one of my favourites off the album, which made a really great companion piece at the time to...blackout, as it happens - danja helmed a good chunk of it and most of the beats were rather great.

"bulletproof" is so immense, steel pistons grinding into motion

Love "Superhero"

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dawnangelique

any good?

booty in da pants

does 'blackout'-era britney have much crossover w/ this stuff? i'm listening to "radar" (love love love) right now and i could see the drama being pitched up slightly in a way that would totally fit w/ the 'LTTP sound'

― pop the s1ock (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, February 22, 2011 1:42 AM (15 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

um aside from multiple beats by Danja on both albums i don't really see any connection beyond urban-leaning pop and pop-leaning rap/R&B kinda meeting each other halfway. also lol @ blackout-era britney like that's some kind of defining touchstone of anything outside the ilx hivemind.

it's a defining touchstone of the pop genre, i think - almost certainly the most critically acclaimed of her albums

the popjustice crowd (and most top 40/pop fans I've talked to) generally consider it to be the best pop album of at least the second half of the decade, if that means anything

yeah i was exaggerating about it being a big deal only on ilm but calling it her most critically acclaimed album is i think pretty off -- on metacritic it's 3% lower than Circus, 5% lower than In The Zone, 11% lower than Oops -- it's only put on a pedestal in a very particular internet bubble.

Eh, Metacritic only analyzes initial reviews, not an album's long-term legacy.

yeah obviously there's a lot of nuance that it doesn't accurately measure -- i'm just saying there's this kind of assumption that it's universally regarded as the high point of her career that i don't think really holds water

Realistically though Dawn Richard is highly unlikely to attain any success outside of that internet bubble (or an overlapping one) so it's not so misfounded or misleading a point of comparison.

If I say "maybe Dawn Richard's album is gonna be the 2011 equiv of Chain Letter" it's no more ridic, really.

yeah who knows if DR has any commercial potential (although LTTP might have legs enough to set her up well, who knows), but Blackout being singled out as a comparison point over all the other dancey Danja-produced R&B/pop albums of the last few years seemed kinda arbitrary.

what other notable danja-produced R&B/pop albums are out there? (honest q)

i wanna know if the first 20 seconds to "let love in" are supposed to be part of the song or if it's part of another one - sounds absolutely heavenly

Really enjoying this but the shitty mixtape sound quality is really harshing my buzz. Why do these songs not sound louder?

'Sounds louder' is usually a bad thing imo.

i think he means the levels are quiet in an unmastered way that makes the whole thing sound less full/alive, which is a totally valid gripe and not at all an aesthetic thing.

"Hey" has not been singled out itt as a standout and that needs to be rectified.

what other notable danja-produced R&B/pop albums are out there? (honest q)

― Neu! romancer (dayo), Tuesday, February 22, 2011 10:42 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark

if we're talking stuff from when Danja was Timbaland's right hand man (and those should probably count since Danja had a huge influence on the sound of those records), Timberlake's FutureSex and Furtado's Loose. but i was referring to stuff heavy on Danja solo productions like Diddy's LTTP and Press Play, Keri Hilson's 1st album, Danity Kane's 2nd album, Katharine McPhee's 1st album.

"hey" is amazing yes

ship otm

"runway" & "vibrate" are also the joints off this

i like how the art for this album could double as a los campesinos cover

kmt

:D

i feel like an asshole for loving "vibrate" the most cuz it sounds like the one that terius & los would've done

do we actually have the production credits for this? i couldn't find them the other week. "vibrate" def in the "promise"/"devotion" lineage

if anything i feel bad for loving the swagged-out ones so much. I'M ON MY SUPERMAN SHIT, WHIPPIN UP TOWN, BLOWIN UP SHIIEEET

that's why "runway" is the best -- bragging about her hair being real

NO HORSES UP HERE

exactly

they say they new guccis but i had em last year
i'm rocking everything that you really wanna wear

i also like to think that naomi campbell references in r&b have proliferated precisely because of her capacity for assault & battery with swarovski-encrusted blackberrys

do we actually have the production credits for this? i couldn't find them the other week. "vibrate" def in the "promise"/"devotion" lineage

haha, no longer feel weird for suggesting to kev k that vibrate kinda sounds like promise

props to Tim F for an excellent thread title that grabbed my attention and got me to listen to this, because I probably would've ignored it otherwise. listening for the first time now, and it's amazing!

I think I fell in love with her the second I saw there was a song called "Me Myself & Y" (not quite living up to the title, especially following up the excellent excellent "Hey", but still pretty good)

oh and now "Broken Record" is up next — poor lil "MMY", sandwiched in between these two motherfucking monsters

okay I realize that confessing this will probably make me public enemy #1 on this thread, but I still haven't listened to Last Train — just couldn't get excited about it, honestly. but if it's anywhere near Tell Tale Heart in terms of production and atmosphere/mood...

yeah TTH is very close to LTTP in sound and mood, definitely check it out. better late than never!

it's more of the same but that's welcome

Wow, this is really great.

Zahn isn't an artist who's been on my radar before. I'm going to check out some of his earlier work - he did a record with Dave Harrington of Darkside guesting on guitar, which seems like a promising premise for a collab.

did a sort of panel with her last month, what an lovely person she is

“Cerulean” is insane. Loving this so hard.

wowwww

she has a nice feature on a softer garage house number from luuk van dijk called "love you". on beatport and junodownload but afaict nowhere else, maybe spotify idk.

Dang the layers of woodwinds/strings/vocals on "Saffron" -- this is rather majestic stuff, but not at all stuffy or overwrought.

Just went back to 1 and "Vantablack" is stunning

holy shit crimson

This is the post-ECM jazz art-pop record we need right now. Soooo fucking good.

Agree Crimson is incredible.

for some reason this didn't interest me when the first few tracks were released but now i think they're fantastic?

This gets really good in the second movement!

Yeah wow, excellent record. Pop and num-nummy froth-jazz pulling one another towards something v deep and charming

really love the cover art on this

where's it at?

https://dawnrichard.bandcamp.com/album/pigments

heh. the cover photo. none of the press seems to say.

https://i.imgur.com/RXMYy7F.jpg

just a spot of ice golf y'know

Totally magical album

It's currently leading my aotd (day) rankings, although the Dry Cleaning got off to a v promising start that I've had to curtail continuing until tomorrow

I think the most magical thing for me is that I listened to and mildly enjoyed the first movement a few weeks ago, but listening to the whole thing was a revelation - as ufo says above, it just opens out and deepens to an unbelievable degree for such a brief album

Agreed, I stopped listening to the first movement because I was anticipating the album so much. Glad I waited. It's best taken as a whole, and it's wonderful.

Made me check out Sunday Painter by Zahn, which is also exquisite.

took me a few listens to notice how amazing Umber is

is it philistine to wish the vocals were a bit less treated

still this is very good

I feel the same about the vocal treatments. On the other hand, a more naturalistic treatment would further expose some of the lyrical weaknesses.

The vocals are very much part of the wash of sound, as on the Cocteau's Victorialand (in particular).

more background on the dozen things she's doing (a food truck?)
https://thecreativeindependent.com/people/musician-and-multimedia-artist-dawn-richard-on-creating-opportunities-for-yourself-and-others/

new single/twerk anthem "Bubblegum"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWyTq_9GdUA

oh hellllll yeah

I like those apparent "sell-outs" where the aloofness and left-field sounds keep the supposed hit song in its own elusive territory. Like creating a bridge and creating gaps at the same time. It's very credible. Retains her "aquatic" sound.
Only critique is that it's a bit over in an instant.

i am *really* enjoying this.

Dawn was great at the PopCon keynote, BTW; had a chance to chat with her almost by accident beforehand. A personable soul.

Uh...nobody posted this yet?

https://dawnrichard.bandcamp.com/album/the-architect

I'm listening to Goldenheart for the first time in a long time. Still holds up!

What else is worth hearing (and/or avoiding) in her discography? I haven't kept up with any releases since Goldenheart, including the jump to Merge Records.

Goldenheart is the one I would tell people to avoid, so not sure how valuable this will be to you. But I would simply proceed chronologically from there: Blackheart, Redemption, new breed, Second Line. I wouldn't avoid any of them, though Blackheart is probably my favourite

Haha I agree with all of that - Goldenheart is the one that feels most like a slog even though it has some fantastic individual moments. Blackheart is in many ways further out but it's better structured and sequenced. Then everything after that is a much easier listen though I don't think she has ever surprised as much again (at least until Pigments anyway) - this isn't really a criticism, there's very few artists who could maintain the kind of outward-expansion-trajectory which Dawn managed in the four years from early 2011 to early 2015.