i adore "warfaire", its sudden switch from mournful piano ballad into avenging fist of justice is one of the best moments on the album. WARFAIRE / ALL GOOD / RIGHT HERE / WHATCHU WANNA DO
its sequencing is perfect as well.
love "tug of war", sex-as-power jam set in space. "baby loooooooove is waaaaaaar" is such a sweeping melody, so much empty space in it too.
as rtc noted upthread the title track is about the only way the album could actually close.
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 22:35 (eleven years ago) link
Oh I get the idea behind all of dawn's military-relationship-complex epics, I just think they sometimes sound like they've only benefited from the precise amount of thought and effort required to allow them to be immortalised in lex all-cap lyrics posts.
― Tim F, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 22:39 (eleven years ago) link
i am not one to defend long albums in general, but honestly when you've only had a record for a week i don't think it's possible to say if all 16 songs earn their keep or are memorable or not. just takes a little longer for it all to sink in as good or bad, in my experience.
― big yansh theory (some dude), Tuesday, 22 January 2013 22:40 (eleven years ago) link
I'm with Al. I'm only lukewarm on Goldenheart—the songwriting sometimes seems thin, and at worst goofy, to me—but even the relatively short Armor On was loaded with growers, so I'm still hoping this will reveal itself to me. Well, maybe not hoping anymore, but at least not eliminating the possibility that it might.
― Evan R, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 22:45 (eleven years ago) link
Also, for whatever reason, I always prefer the back half of Dawn Richard albums to the front half. It's a bit confounding, but it gives them longevity, I guess
― Evan R, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 22:46 (eleven years ago) link
cosigning 'ode to you' adoration
casting a hex on 'pwt' criticism
― r|t|c, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 22:53 (eleven years ago) link
"Pretty Wicked Things" is one where I'm hesitant to be sharper than to say "it doesn't work for me" because I don't even really know why it leaves me cold (and it's been around for long enough that this isn't some first week snap opinon thing).
― Tim F, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 22:58 (eleven years ago) link
YOU CAN BE MY BLACK KATE BUSH TONIGHT
― jaymc, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 22:59 (eleven years ago) link
'warfaire' isnt so terrible on its own but it badly derails momentum and the sense of meandering that subsequently arises is dawn's great enemy
― r|t|c, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 23:01 (eleven years ago) link
yep
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 22 January 2013 23:01 (eleven years ago) link
presumably the people who like the second half better credit "warfaire" for ushering it in?
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 23:02 (eleven years ago) link
warfaire' isnt so terrible on its own but it badly derails momentum and the sense of meandering that subsequently arises is dawn's great enemy
― r|t|c, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 11:01 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
yeah this exactly.
I don't think anything on the album is actively bad.
― Tim F, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 23:04 (eleven years ago) link
i credit 'frequency' for that xp
― r|t|c, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 23:04 (eleven years ago) link
It doesn't help that "Warfaire" might be the worst case of Linkin Park Lyrics Syndrome on the album
― Evan R, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 23:21 (eleven years ago) link
a syndrome that exists to no one except you
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 23:23 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, that's fair. But any song written exclusively in accusations and declarations of defiance sets off that alarm for me. It's such a black/white worldview: I am strong but you failed me; you let me down and you weren't there for me, etc, etc, etc. Any song that positions the songwriter as the hero and an unspecified "you" as a scourge just isn't that interesting to me. Real relationships are more complicated than that.
― Evan R, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 23:50 (eleven years ago) link
hahaha i like "warfaire" y'all. one of the few hooks that immediately grabbed me.
album is finally opening up to me but it is a long sleepy thing
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Tuesday, 22 January 2013 23:53 (eleven years ago) link
xp srs question what did you think of "soldier of love"?
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 23 January 2013 00:02 (eleven years ago) link
it's called "warfaire," how subtle precisely do you expect it to be
― katherine, Wednesday, 23 January 2013 00:08 (eleven years ago) link
(fwiw I think it's one of the weaker tracks, but I also massively prefer the first half of the album, so what do I know)
"warfaire" and "goliath" were intended as interludes, too (see the original track listing)
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 23 January 2013 00:10 (eleven years ago) link
yeah but i always basically thought of "Intro (Call To Hearts)" and "Outro (The Battle)" as full-on songs too
― big yansh theory (some dude), Wednesday, 23 January 2013 00:13 (eleven years ago) link
It's such a black/white worldview: I am strong but you failed me; you let me down and you weren't there for me, etc, etc, etc. Any song that positions the songwriter as the hero and an unspecified "you" as a scourge just isn't that interesting to me. Real relationships are more complicated than that.
― Evan R, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 23:50 (Yesterday) Bookmark
you have much to learn young grasshopper
― r|t|c, Wednesday, 23 January 2013 00:35 (eleven years ago) link
i can only repeat what i said about 'pwt' and 'goldenheart' being the key tho, their very acknowledgement of fantasy itself (in an implied thwarting world of reality) frames the entire album and imbues these seeming platitudes with huge self-critical pathos
― r|t|c, Wednesday, 23 January 2013 00:38 (eleven years ago) link
and all the pretty little things that heldus together now are fallen talesturned to wicked little things that can'tseem to find the beauty in the bad
all love's lies, and which is the cruellest but that of the redeemer and his/her and your enjoined destiny? the song realises not only a specific sorrow but a greater one where all life's hero narratives become known to be as inescapable as they are ultimately invidious
"passion is the mob of the man, that commits a riot upon his reason", the girl done quotes it herself
― r|t|c, Wednesday, 23 January 2013 00:53 (eleven years ago) link
but what do love's lies have to say about meh vocal melodies?
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 23 January 2013 01:00 (eleven years ago) link
I really liked it. I guess there's a similar lyrical motif there, but Sade doesn't finger-point in that song. Anyway, I think Dawn can sell that kind of imagery pretty well sometimes, too, but I feel like she really exhausts it on this one
― Evan R, Wednesday, 23 January 2013 03:09 (eleven years ago) link
since when is finger-pointing a flaw?
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 23 January 2013 07:49 (eleven years ago) link
http://instagram.com/p/U3_ECjLvLB/
― twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Thursday, 24 January 2013 18:11 (eleven years ago) link
Top 10 R&B albums on Billboard
― twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Thursday, 24 January 2013 18:12 (eleven years ago) link
Does Goldenheart even exist in a physical format?
― HAPPY BDAY TOOTS (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 24 January 2013 18:13 (eleven years ago) link
it apparently does
― lex pretend, Thursday, 24 January 2013 18:19 (eleven years ago) link
yes but only at FYE with two bonus tracks
and FYE doesn't exist in Canada.
:(
― twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Thursday, 24 January 2013 18:21 (eleven years ago) link
one of the bonus trax is "wild n young" which we all have already, the other is apparently a remix of "northern lights" called "nlx" - haven't heard it though, don't think it's emerged online yet
― lex pretend, Thursday, 24 January 2013 18:23 (eleven years ago) link
she had just been talking about NLX hadnt she? in some interview...?
― flag posts in the dust (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 24 January 2013 19:02 (eleven years ago) link
xpI got this on CD from Amazon (US)--fwiw, it sounds pretty fucking great on bigger speakers. I'm not sure what I would have thought if I'd listened to it on headphones first.
― rob, Thursday, 24 January 2013 20:53 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.allmusic.com/album/goldenheart-mw0002449362
nice work kellz :)
― lex pretend, Monday, 28 January 2013 12:00 (eleven years ago) link
seconded!
"Tug Of War" sounded great to me while doing the housework (housework is a good pairing for Dawn, I attacked the vacuum cleaning with an unusual amount of all or nothing vigour), it helped to think of it as part of a darkness-into-light trilogy with the next two tracks rather than the part two of "Warfaire".
― Tim F, Monday, 28 January 2013 12:11 (eleven years ago) link
seriously like why is "warfaire" there? "tug of war" makes so much sense following straight from "frequency" - both sex jams that feel like dawn's fucking somewhere in the middle of space amongst the stars
I DON'T GIVE A FUCK NOWI'M GONE BE ON TOP NOW
― prolego, Monday, 28 January 2013 14:27 (eleven years ago) link
dunno if this happens to everyone else, but when "Riot" starts I think Ne-Yo and Pitbull's "Give Me Everything."
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 28 January 2013 14:31 (eleven years ago) link
congrats dayo, you're a "message board wag"
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/01/behold-dungeons-dragons-rb/272535/
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Monday, 28 January 2013 18:39 (eleven years ago) link
this reminds me that I was going to offer cash to any of you pros who could get all of the following words into a review: strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, charisma.
― rob, Monday, 28 January 2013 18:43 (eleven years ago) link
lmao!! xp
― 乒乓, Monday, 28 January 2013 18:46 (eleven years ago) link
haha that is excellent
― Bel-Air the Fresh Prince, sitting in a chair (DJP), Monday, 28 January 2013 18:49 (eleven years ago) link
lol probs to this editor on a completely disingenuous subhead
Diddy ex-affiliate Dawn Richard's fantastic full-length debut, Goldenheart, follows in the unheralded tradition of black musicians drawing emotional power from Tolkien tropes.
― d'eejban (J0rdan S.), Monday, 28 January 2013 18:53 (eleven years ago) link
props*
just gonna post that here for posterity
http://i.imgur.com/vKaczXd.png
― 乒乓, Monday, 28 January 2013 18:53 (eleven years ago) link
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 28 January 2013 14:31 (4 hours ago) Bookmark
katherine upthread nailed it with 'moves like jagger' (and in truth i really wish she hadn't)
― r|t|c, Monday, 28 January 2013 18:56 (eleven years ago) link
Dawn incites a riot like it's a tedious but necessary admin task that she might as well get out of the way before concentrating on something more interesting.
I've not been particularly motivated to go back to this over the last week or so although I do actually prefer Warfaire to Frequency. That middle section leading up to 86 doesn't really leave an impression on me at all though.
― Matt DC, Monday, 28 January 2013 19:21 (eleven years ago) link
idk it's not really focused on working on eurodance banger terms though, it's an r&b album track (not a single) that appropriates dance signifiers and interprets them through dawn's worldview
for me they're a welcome and necessary expansion of the frame dawn explores the themes of this album in - opening out from the internal personal/private by showing how the same often platitudinous emotional constructs power life outside (LET'S riot, WE gleux), or more specifically clubland with the semiology of club redemption (djs saving lives) dressing for battle, warlike build and release, and the subsequent legends told to inspire the future and rewrite the past
i'd probably agree this sort of thing worked better on armor on but then that was a much more upfront record in personal terms than this is, which gave it a degree more specificity and oomph
― r|t|c, Monday, 28 January 2013 19:55 (eleven years ago) link