The purpose built next generation interstellar Dawn Richard thread

THIS FUCKING ALBUM.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN-LZ5BQoKI

I like that the mixtape's implied critique of Last Train To Paris is that it's too chilled!

also u&k - this track that apparently emerged last year but isn't on the mixtape

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

prod. rob holladay, who was responsible for most of the production on the dirty money lovelove vs. hatelove mixtape

is this where danity kane get a critical re-evaluation too? their second album was SO good. dawn always seemed like something of a creative driving force with them too. and they took their name from her imaginary anime character.

this is my most played album of 2011

It's so good!

the run from superhero (acapella) to the end is :O

actually...the whole run from intro (the fall) to the end is :O

^^^^

finally sitting down with A Tell Tale Heart and damn yeah, this is great. very considerate of the Diddy-Dirty Money folks to already start turning Last Train To Paris into its own little genre with the release of this and the Valentine's Day mixtape just a couple months later.

funny that I was the first person to mention this record's existence on ILM but like the 30th to actually hear it.

finally hearing her voice in isolation for extended periods of time is nice, too; the slightly raspy grain is a bit like Brandy but not too much.

talking of the LTTP mini-genre, did everyone hear the lektro black mixtape diddy did with felix da housecat that was meant to precede it (well, it did precede it, just by a year rather than a few months)? one of the most banging hours of music i've ever heard. http://rcrdlbl.com/2009/08/14/exclusive_new_download_felix_da_housecat_x_diddy_lectro_black_last_train_to_paris_mixtape

digging the version of "I Know" on here, too, you could slot this right in place of the album version on LTTP and get closer to an ideal Chris Brown-less version of the album.

finally hearing her voice in isolation for extended periods of time is nice, too; the slightly raspy grain is a bit like Brandy but not too much.

Brandy is a useful comparison point actually, in some ways this is like Full Moon if it was an album of straight bangers.

yeah i love this mixtape. Have to listen more but i think "vibrate" is my favorite

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!

dope:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgeO3sIIqkU

doper:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F_Ou9gX2Bw

I really wish there was a CDQ version of Tell Tale Heart... or at least one that isn't so compressed and muddy sounding

^^^

i thought this was just gonna be a prelude to an album proper but everything's gone a bit quiet on the dawn richard front? this is still amazing though

HE ON ME LIKE BUTTER ON BREAD
FRONT ROW WHEN I'M DOIN MY DANCE

official title is the prelude to a tell tale heart, right?

so sad you bumped this when I didn't have any dawn richard synced to my iphone

haha i totally relate, h8 it when that happens

where is dawn richard :[

― dayo, Thursday, 17 November 2011 22:39 (Yesterday)

The mixtape (which is my 2nd favourite album of 2011) is so good that it's hard for me not to think of it as her debut album.

― Tim F, Friday, November 18, 2011 12:45 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

sez wikipedia (sics all over the place):

The Mix-tape The Prelude to A Tell Tale Heart or alternate title: #ATellTaleHeart[9][10][11] was released February 7, 2011 on her official web-site. There are 15 tracks.[10][12] It called "the prelude to..." because there will be official debut studio album by Dawn Richard entitled A-Tell Tale Heart, which she is working on for past 3 years.[13] She is working with Trendsetter (producer) on few tracks for that album.[14][15] Celebrating the release of her mix-tape, Dawn Richard organized several club events. On February 7, 2011 at "Milan" club in Baltimore[16][17] and on February 12, 2011 at PHX – "Nightclub MIXTAPE PARTY RELEASE".[18]

Dawn has announced that her major solo debut project will be a broken up trilogy of albums entitled "GoldenHeart, "BlackHeart", and "RedemptionHeart". "GoldenHeart", the first of the trilogy is expected to be released late 2011.[19] On June 19, 2011 a buzz track entitled "Stuck On Mad" was released to the public. Followed by a release of a remix to Frank Ocean's Novacane. The remix which was co-written by songwriter Intyce, hit the net on June 21, 2011 and reached over 5000 downloads within a few hours. Intyce was enlisted as one of the writers for Richards solo debut.[20]

2011-present: Golden Heart

SMFU (SAVE ME FROM U) was released on the internet 31st October and is set to be on the first album.[21] This album is set to have an concept of a alter-ego named NEON. The concept has not yet been discussed.

― all i see is angels in my eyes (lex pretend), Friday, November 18, 2011 2:12 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i am d/lding "stuck on mad" and "smfu" now. no one mentioned them. and yeah putting together my EOY lists dawn ended up at #5, higher than i thought she would.

also she started following me on tumblr!

― all i see is angels in my eyes (lex pretend), Friday, November 18, 2011 2:13 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3EGWZtOWKA

^^ luv it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izlttiuc8GY

really feelin this too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhdTXp9Zdgo

not gonna go through all of dawn's tumblr lol but this is good too

http://concreteloop.com/2011/09/new-music-dawn-richard-love-wont-lose

think it's produced by the same guy who did the valentine's day mix of lttp?

i am d/lding "stuck on mad" and "smfu" now. no one mentioned them

brainwasher posted stuck on mad just upthread!

lol I think I missed that :/

SFMU is a jam though

album coming as soon as MARCH!!!

http://www.rap-up.com/2012/02/10/dawn-richard-preps-solo-debut-for-march-previews-new-song/

kalenna's mixtape drops on monday, too

http://www.ddotomen.com/2012/02/13/kalenna-of-dirty-money-chamber-of-diaries/

the dirty money fans have apparently abandoned ilx judging from the tumbleweave here i guess?

mixtape is worth copping? i'm with it

there is WAY too much ryan tedder on that tracklist for me to feel comfortable

so far I'm only interested in dawn

yeah it's great - some excellent beats, she's very charismatic, you wouldn't be able to tell ryan tedder was on it. only given it one cursory listen cuz am on double deadline and have to listen to other stuff today :(

Looking forward to this, but much further to the outskirts of the media ecosystem than you, Lex - keen to hear yr thoughts.

media ecosystem?

oh wait as in PR and shiz? lol, i haven't been PRed any of this, i hear about it through following dawn on tumblr and kalenna on twitter exclusively

i'm about to listen to the Kalenna in a bit, but I'm LOVING the new Dawn song. Much much better than #SMFU and December Sky:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESodEc4s8YA

so ethereal. she really is just perfect

SFMU is better imo, but this is a pretty nice album cut

http://soundcloud.com/warhol2012/black-lipstick-dawn-richard

^^ a jam

man, this new dawn shit is too dope

was the kalenna mixtape any good? i couldn't get a copy that would open on my computer, for whatever reason

it's excellent - dawn's is prob better but "matte black truck", "pain & alcohol", "love rock", "ladder" and "put it in a bag" in particular are stunning

although setting dawn and kalenna against each other is probably unhelpful, they're superficially similar but actually quite different

i think my review should go up on fact at some point

I like the kalenna mixtape well enough but I am on #teamdawn xp

stop trolling dayo

lol what?

setting dawn and kalenna against each other is probably unhelpful
― lex pretend, Wednesday, February 22, 2012 11:51 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I am on #teamdawn
― flagp∞st (dayo), Wednesday, February 22, 2012 11:52 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh right. sorry - I didn't see that, was an xpost.

she wore black lipstick color in the game/leather jacket on collar high couldn't see her face/she ice skated on my heart couldn't feel the blade/think I'm colorblind cause I'm bleeding black and gray

<3

i love how kalenna responds to getting dumped by drink-driving and blasting wu-tang on not one but two separate songs

driving in the rain with the music loud
cup out the window, swag on kanye
going the wrong way, listening to wu-tang
cuz i'm feeling like a white girl on cocaine
took three vicodin, i feel strange
pushing 100, hitting curves in the rain
you shouldn't drive drunk with love on the brain

can we add kalenna to the thread title btw? think two separate threads would be a bit pointless

also: she ends that song singing from beyond the grave!

haha yeah. what's the other song with wu-tang? can't remember how it goes

"matte black truck"!

IF U LEAVE IMMA CRANK WU-TANG IN MY MATTE BLACK TRUCK, IN MY MATTE BLACK TRUCK
GOT MY RED CUP FILLED UP IN MY MATTE BLACK TRUCK, IN MY MATTE BLACK TRUCK

kalenna is basically the hotheaded yin to dawn's sensual yang

every time i listen to this mixtape i love it more - the desperate drunk final third is so EPIC

imma take my heart, put it in his hands
imma drop it low til i ca-can't stand
he all in my ear, now he in my head
and i'm drowning in the tears the patron gave me
love is in my lap, watch me throw it back
like a re-run, just call it a payback
my guardian angel, you stay close to me
they don't gotta know, but baby we got wings
hold on to my life
cuz we gonna fly tonight...

Didn't even know this thread *existed*.

Getting 'Chamber of Diaries' now, but Black Lipstick is wonderful and the most of either of their solo stuff that really FEELS like something that could fit into LTTP.

Kalenna's Feeling Good samples Avicii's 'Levels', right?

Hence the inverted title of "Good Feeling" as in the Etta sample from Levels that never actually appears in this song?

i have never heard "levels" and indeed i have never heard of avici

you've heard 'good feeling' by Flo Rida? It's the same sample?

It's the same sample. rather

haha i'm sure i must have heard it but not so much that i remember anything about it

can we add kalenna to the thread title btw? think two separate threads would be a bit pointless

― lex pretend, Wednesday, February 22, 2012 10:43 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

should prolly add Dirty Money to the thread title too tbh

xp, you'd remember the sample if you heard it, if not anything else about either track

me and Brainwasher were talking last night about how dope it is that Dawn's new stuff seems really in tune with a lot of underground music right now

Bah why is all of this (i'm assuming) amazing music coming out at a time when my internet has died.

Black Lipstick is fantastic but I'm halfway through the Kalenna and not really feeling any of it, although I've got as far as Matte Black Truck and that's pretty good.

"Matte Black Truck" is the first song to really blow my mind this year, it basically transforms to a completely different song within the coruse of 3 mins, and it manages to be both an assertive, convincing club banger and an incredibly vulnerable midtempo (I feel like letting my guard down/And giving my all to you/No matter what cost it is). AMAZING song.

Okay this really kicks in after the first interlude.

yeah it definitely takes off after "matte black truck", the first third kind of clicked for me afterwards

so "matte black track"'s instrument melody is basically outkast - slump, right?

which is itself probably some other song that i don't know about

Kalenna mixtape sounding fantastic on first listen (odd fixations on Kanye and cocaine aside). I love the way that Kalenna and Dawn both seem to be running with what I can only describe as the Dirty Money aesthetic - simultaneously ostentatious and brutalist and melodramatic, like the music's emotional center is also is its rhythmic center and vice versa.

IF U LEAVE IMMA CRANK WU-TANG IN MY MATTE BLACK TRUCK, IN MY MATTE BLACK TRUCK
GOT MY RED CUP FILLED UP IN MY MATTE BLACK TRUCK, IN MY MATTE BLACK TRUCK

― lex pretend, Wednesday, February 22, 2012 10:49 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

kinda sorta think this would be better than dawn's tape except that it has waaayyy to many random nonsense guests

I keep on getting distracted by name drops like weezy, drake

so obsessed with "Change" & "Black Lipstick" today

need to get ahold of this

"Matte Black Truck" really is such an astonishing song,

Its superiority vis a vis the rest of the Kalenna mixtape is partly because it is just so amazing, but also because (I feel) it's the moment where the album snaps totally into focus.

"Feeling Good", "The Ladder", "Love Rock", "The Morning After", "Pain & Alcohol" and "Party & Bullshit" (basically all the most Dawn-like moments actually!) are all pretty excellent. (obv a great batting average for a mixtape)

The rest I think can succumb to flashiness and brash(i)ness to varying degrees - "Put It In The Bag", "Go To Work" and "The Motto" still pretty good to great, "6000 Sistas" is irritating (as are the random nonsense guests). I suspect Kalenna (like Dawn) works best translating the Dirty Money vibe into a solo aesthetic, rather than trying to make 'Last Train To Paris' all by herself.

"december sky" has joined the continuous loop of "change"/"black lipstick"

FLY http://www.hulkshare.com/yc0w997or5gp

kind of ruptures the dawn/kalenna duality you guys are setting up. bangs, too.

"Change" and "Black Lipstick" (haven't heard "December Sky" or "Fly" yet) are so widescreen and epic it's ridic.

Each are an (increasingly rare) example of R&B borrowing liberally from dance music in the service of the forces of good.

Yeah but Last Train to Paris did that too, if in a different way and with different touchstones. "December Sky" and "Fly" are dissimilar to those songs, though. "December Sky" is more LTTP-ish and "Fly" is a Kalenna-style banger

oh, i just said that two posts up

'black lipstick' sounds like a LTTP cutout idk

u rong ¯\(°_o)/¯

it sounds like nguzunguzu with a vocalist

it sounds like it could be sandwiched somewhere in the back third's 'heartbreak' phase

Maybe as a tune, but I feel the production on "Black Lipstick" and "Change" are very different from anything on LTTP. More focused on lots of layers of percussion.

oh yeah totally

idk why it's not getting a lot of attention on the R&B thread but elle varner's 'go' is like r&b + idm (prob because I just don't have a good sense of what idm is)

in a recent interview Kingdom said he'd really like to do an album with an R&B vocalist as the credited artist (he said maybe Naomi Allen) and all of the production by the Fade to Mind crew... if this happens (I HOPE IT DOES) Dawn would be like the perfect vocalist imo!

xp I need to listen to her mixtape but I need to find and tag it first

Dawn would be cool for that, but I think I'd be more excited about such a project with Naomi as the vocalist.

I mean, not like I wouldn't be excited as fuck in any event.

and "Fly" is a Kalenna-style banger

I think we shouldn't ignore that Dawn has always done heavy bangers as well - it's not like anything on Book of Diaries bangs harder than "Superman" or "Runway". I don't think the duality is there, it more resides in their general songwriting approach - Dawn is very focused whereas Kalenna is all over the place (sometimes winningly so).

Yeah but Last Train to Paris did that too, if in a different way and with different touchstones.

yeah I was thinking that too - but as you say, different touchstones. There's something quite ostentatious about the way "Changes" bites from percussive house and "Black Lipstick" from drum and bass (and to a lesser extent miami bass - it reminds me of Janet Jackson's "Empty" slightly in this regard).

Whereas the LTTP dance influences are kinda more like current electro-housey R&B but done better and more creatively (esp. on stuff like "No Ordinary Love").

in a recent interview Kingdom said he'd really like to do an album with an R&B vocalist as the credited artist (he said maybe Naomi Allen) and all of the production by the Fade to Mind crew... if this happens (I HOPE IT DOES) Dawn would be like the perfect vocalist imo!

Sure, but Dawn/Dirty Money seem better at swiping ideas from dance music than Kingdom is at swiping ideas from R&B - at least on the evidence of "Take Me". I'm not sure what Fade To Mind would really bring to the table that these guys don't already do themselves?

But it's not like I'm against the idea of this project or anything.

"take me" is wonderful. tim you're only lukewarm on kingdom anyway so why would you be excited?

i wasn't really trying to set up a kalenna/dawn duality upthread, more trying to delineate what distinguishes them from each other, and i don't think "fly" disproves any of it - of course dawn does bangers, but even then her bangers are all about how perfect and awesome she is, whereas kalenna's are all about getting crunk and out-of-control. runway vs club.

I've always liked Kingdom. "Fogs" was in my top twenty in 2010, and of course "Mind Reader" in 2009. But while "Take Me" is fine I don't think it's in the league of the great Dawn songs (or Electrik Red songs obv).

Yeah I think your delineation between Dawn and Kalenna there rings pretty true. Even Kalenna's ballads sound kinda out of control.

I like 'Take Me' but might prefer 'Girlfriend' which is the Kingdom/Naomi Allen track on the latest Nguzunguzu mix. Credited to 'NA'.

where's the latest nguzunguzu mix?

http://www.xlr8r.com/news/2011/12/check-out-nguzunguzus-transmusic

that "Gilfriend" song just sounds like an edit of Aaliyah's "Girlfriend" though, i don't hear Naomi

Huh. lou and I thought it was Naomi. :/

i'm really late on this but holy shit @ a tell tale heart

Still think the album is arguably underrated even by a lot of supporters, in a couple of ways but especially production-wise (perhaps due to the low quality slash non-existent mastering) - especially the initial run of tracks through to "Broken Record" the uncompromisingly machinic rhythmic approach is so startling and unique, and really underscores and packs weight behind Dawn's emotional intensity in its various guises.

your hall of shame thread title made people underrate the mixtape

the uncompromisingly machinic rhythmic approach is so startling and unique

i only really hear this on "bulletproof". and also "december sky", which is turning out to be one i really underrated initially as just ok, but it really is the MOST widescreen epic thing dawn's done

This Kalenna album really falls down the more melodic she gets, she's way better over harder tracks, neither the vocal presence nor the songwriting are really there with the ballads and midpaced songs. The Ladder is terrible.

Except Pain and Alcohol, which is wonderful.

I think "The Morning After" is great. Agreed about "The Ladder" which I listed upthread as good but must have misremembered.

But I'm not sure of your general principle here b/c "6000 Sistas" is the worst song by some margin.

"6000 sistas" = female WAKA

its monomania can be a bit much but i bet it sounds amazing when you're drunk. MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY COIN COIN GUAP

most unmemorable song is "feeling good" - i'm sure i remember "the ladder" as being good? it def all goes up a notch at "matte black truck", from there to the end it's pretty flawless

Sure, but Dawn/Dirty Money seem better at swiping ideas from dance music than Kingdom is at swiping ideas from R&B

Not really interested in Kingdom wrt this debate but I think part of the problem with the danceification of R&B is that singers and songwriters haven't really got to grips with how the artists should sing over it*. DDM aren't immune from this, one of the reasons I don't rate Ass On The Floor as highly as most people is because the singers don't really convince over the top - when they aren't singing the "madder than a motherfucker" but they don't really sound like they know what to do over that beat. You get these sort of fairly drippy, open "stirring" melodies that just don't convince up against the rest of the track, awkward halfway houses between ballad and dance banger.

Contrast to how effortless and at home Kalenna sounds over something like Matte Black Truck. Then again this may be all rolled in with post-Umbrella R&B - a lot of this stuff feels very different melodically from anything pre-2007 or therabouts, ballads included.

*This is weird given the entire history of DIVA HOUSE is pretty instructive here. Not saying R&B artists should be aping diva house at this point but it's a pretty good guide as to what kind of performance works and what doesn't.

Matt have you listened to "Black Lipstick" and "Change" yet?

(not that i agree with you about "ass on the floor" but...)

Yes, Black Lipstick is great. Dawn's own stuff is way better in this regard than either Kalenna or DDM.

it's my duty to inform you that there's a napoleon dynamite sample in the kalenna mixtape

The ballad/banger tension is a lot of what's great about "Ass on the Floor"!

And like half the DDM catalog for that matter.

Chamber of Diaries is hit n miss but i like it, kinda hits that Last Train To Paris vibe more effectively for me than Tell Tale Heart. although i'm kind of weary of all the superhero-themed lyrics on both tapes.

R&B mixtapes should come out with special "no-bullshit anonymous guest rappers" versions the way rap mixtapes have "no-DJ" versions

but then you would never learn about bo deal

lol some dude otm

that "Gilfriend" song just sounds like an edit of Aaliyah's "Girlfriend" though, i don't hear Naomi

ahaha oops! that was dumb of me. i obv had no idea that song existed. it's so good! the vocals on the nguzu mix DO sound a hell of a lot like naomi to me, though, and the tracklist credits it to "NA", which i assumed meant N/A before alex pointed out those are naomi's initials. and the souped up beat sounds like kingdom or girl unit. now i'm really dying to know what it is exactly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FelGsbxq6tM

I thought it was Kingdom/ER related too ¯\(°_o)/¯

Whoa. I didn't know that existed! New Aaliyah. Wow. Yay.

finally got around to the kalenna mixtape

"poison" rules

Preview of the new single

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1bdYextQeI

I have the biggest crush on dawn

(sorry for being male gaze-y)

This sounds excellent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vBVJKF_dGU

LOVELOVELOVE HERRRR! "i wanna be in a rainforest!"

also excited to hear the #smfu remix

also producer guy is v. cute

apparently dirty money is "finished" though which is totally heartbreaking

that sucks... not entirely surprising. they put a ton of effort (and presumably) music into making that album happen, wish they would stay committed to it but the fact that 'last train to paris' even exists is some sort of miracle i think, so i can't be mad.

presumably money**

dawn's not signed to bad boy any more and the tone of the last kalenna interview i read ("that part of her life is BEHIND HER and she is MOVING ON") did not imply that the end of dirty money was all that amicable

also producer guy is v. cute

― Peace (peaceful) (The Brainwasher), Friday, March 23, 2012 12:48 AM Bookmark

ayo

apparently dirty money is "finished" though which is totally heartbreaking

― Peace (peaceful) (The Brainwasher), Friday, March 23, 2012 3:49 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

quit while you're on top, imo!

judging by the new projects, still on top tho

I didn't know you pronounce richard like ri-shard as in shard of glass

wait what?

http://youtu.be/SMpyMFtmqKM

I really can't handle her dress, it's like sean young in blade runner

i feel like my perception has been altered in a deep way not experienced since i found out nancy whang's name is pronounced "wong", not "wang"

pro tip: even when a chinese person's last name is 'wang' it's still pronounced 'wong'

i wonder if that's actually "true" or just something that she's stylized like a pseudo stage name

I'm not gonna question somebody about the pronunciation of their name

she's from louisiana tho

true

she seems very sweet

this is almost like the time i found out o'so krispie's real name is not o'so krispie.

actually it's nothing like that i just felt like dropping an o'so krispie reference tbh

u'so krispie

this is sooooooooooooo good

"Heaven"!

only 2/3 through, but album of the year?

this is not on uk itunes >:(

it's not on any itunes yet

album version of "save me from u" >>>>>>>>> og versio

n

this last track! the production is incredible throughout and the tunes are a lot better than Tell Tale Heart, which I know some people will jump on me for, but I was never that hot on

so jellie of you right now

http://music.aol.com/new-releases-full-cds#/8

on uk itunes. bought on sight. with money! on the day of release! can't remember the last time i did this

i'm not sure how i feel about the pronunciation of her surname, "ree-shard" seems a bit hyacinth bucket

and everyone knows the correct status affectation in r&b is the r&b acute

heh, another sade ref in "scripture"

OMG I LOVE HER SO MUCH.

"Automatic" joins "Change" in the now I school every bitch who thinks she can mess with 4X4 house beats dept.

I mean "Faith" of course.

"Scripture"!!!

"Heaven"!!!!!

I need these new songs to appear on youtube so I can stop carpet-bombing my friends with them.

So pleased and weirdly parental-proud of Dawn right now. I adored #A Tell-Tale Heart of course but this really feels like an artist standing up and demanding attention.

so I can start carpet-bombing... Ugh why can't I type anything right tonight.

when "faith" explodes it's a real O_O moment

it is incredibly frustrating that constantly going on about dawn and kalenna has gained zero traction outside ilm

like what more do they have to do for everyone to realise that these two women are making the best music around atm?

i'm not sure how i feel about the pronunciation of her surname, "ree-shard" seems a bit hyacinth bucket

― lex pretend, Tuesday, March 27, 2012 4:34 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

she's from louisiana...

woah this is good

Stoked to hear this, is this an actual proper album?

it's a 10 song EP

graaaaah I wish the layout ppl had spent more than 10 min on the 'digital booklet' pdf

it's 40 minutes long...

yeah there's a bizarre thing happening in hip hop/R&B now where mixtapes and major label albums have gotten so long that if anyone makes an Illmatic-length album that would actually fit on vinyl they call it an EP

want to support Dawn and buy this but I just can't pay for MP3s... hope there's a physical copy soon.

wait it's only $6, I guess I can do that... :-\

this is the happiest i've ever been to have an iphone

it is incredibly frustrating that constantly going on about dawn and kalenna has gained zero traction outside ilm

― lex pretend, Tuesday, March 27, 2012 7:31 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

this was basically true for dirty money as well

yeah but LTTP was at least a moderately successful major label record with a hugely famous person at the center of it. the Dawn/Kalenna stuff lives or dies on whether it builds any kind of buzz outside that LTTP cult.

ladies and gentlemen, elektrik red

I think the last two years or so have really revealed a deep critical bias against female R&B acts in general

uh, Rihanna?

not really considering her R&B

i think it's more of a long standing critical bias against R&B that is just being slightly broken down at the moment more by male artists than female artists. but i mean beyonce had the #2 song on pazz & jop a couple months ago so let's not get carried away.

yeah, that's true...I should specify NEW female R&B artists. There's a circle of established ones who get a fair shake

it's a weird time for R&B in general, the critical response means nothing without the context of fluctuations in commercial fortunes. i mean who's the biggest new female success story of the last few years, Keri Hilson? and she's not exactly a household name.

non-megastar female r&b artists, i'd say - it'd be impossible for any critic to ignore someone as big as beyoncé, but i'm not expecting, say, brandy's forthcoming album to get much buzz outside of a small group of critics

i think a lot of critics and editors still don't quite understand how irrelevant "r&b" has become commercially (they see beyoncé and rihanna and extrapolate the wrong things), but their rationale for covering r&b/pop in the first place is because they're commercial phenomenona, and so you end up with them thinking that if a certain r&b artist is a commercial flop then they're not worth covering.

i mean who's the biggest new female success story of the last few years, Keri Hilson?

i'm still not entirely sure how/why this happened, btw. like...she doesn't have a noteworthy voice, she doesn't have a distinct or recognisable aesthetic or persona, she just has occasional enjoyable tunes. maybe that's it - she's so undemanding for fans, requires no real investment.

Keri is undeniably an underachiever but i mean i like her vocal tone a lot, she writes well and she's smoking hot, you could do a lot worse. depending on how 'new' you consider her J-Hud is probably her closest competition and she's more of a typical big voice sensation but even more underachieving as far as her actual recorded output.

R&B radio is maybe getting into that same zone as American Idol the last few years where the audience is so heavily female and so heavily invested in its male heartthrobs that a woman would have to be 2x as talented as Trey Songz to be half as successful as him

which is interesting given how pop radio has been so totally dominated by female vocalists

lol @ lex broadcasting my bitchy description of him on twitter as a compliment

oops wrong thread

my one only reaction to this right now is HOLY SHIT @ "FAITH"

Keri Hilson is in some ways the last vestige of a very different, money-flushed era of R&B. Tim and co spent forever manufacturing her into the perfect mass-market star (succeeding, but just barely).

I don't think labels have the interest in making big new R&B stars right now (look how long K. Michelle has been trying to release an album), and I don't think the media has any interest in covering them (most magazines couldn't even be bothered to review Melanie Fiona's fantastic new album). And for the Nikkiyas, Jade Alstons and even Jhene Aikos of the world, there just really isn't much of a support system.

yeah but i mean...those are Z-listers that wouldn't've even had a shot at any kind of audience without a hit single 10 years ago when R&B was really big business. at least now there's mixtapes and blogs and more of a live circuit where people that will never get a Def Jam release date can foster a following.

I don't know that this is a new phenomenon though. I mean, no media outlets had any interest in reviewing Shareefa's album! Or Algebra's!

i don't know much about algerba

"faith" would hit billboard w/ a major label push right?

All those songs on the Kelly Rowland album that kinda sounded like "Faith" didn't, so I wouldn't get my hopes up

oh i have no hopes

but either way that song is MASSIVE

'faith' feels like three songs mashed into one

There were songs on the Kelly Rowland album that sounded like "Faith"? Cause "Faith" is incredible and that album was boring as fuck, "Motivation" aside.

most of y'all will prob cringe a this but i'm most reminded of 808s & heartbreak

you are correct at the first part

the first part of 'faith' really reminds me of 'i hate that you love me'

yeah, me too -- the tone of the piano is the same

it really reminds me of that kelis EP... just a lot better

talking just about "faith", and kelis album, not EP

i'm allllllllll about "scripture"

I am so sad right now that I am working and can't listen to this over and over and over.

was kind of thinking how the little 'dance-floor buildup' a la we found love was not really necessary in 'faith'

xp yeah, but also in just how motorik the percussion is, just a kind of military stomp

like I'm not quite sold on the anthemic second half when the synths and kickdrum come in...but maybe that'll come

yeah the kelis album was what i thought of re: "faith" too

SORRY IF YOU THINK IF YOU THINK I'M AUTOMATIC
FUCKIN WITH THE WRONG TOY NO BATTERIES INCLUDED
TRYNA TURN ME ON CUZ YOU THINK I'M OPERATED
TREAT ME LIKE A DROID CUZ YOU THINK I'M AUTOMATIC

woah this is good

― art dealin' thru the west coast (tpp), Tuesday, 27 March 2012 11:56 (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ugh, it's not on amazon and i don't fuck with itunes

i think it leaked, someone kindly gave me a link on twitter.

aha, found it! thx

still wanna put my money on it tho

the percussion is really what makes this album

yes, but also the tunes + dawn

I take those two as a given tbh

just grokked the "pearls" reference in "scripture"

fuck itunes i paid for this and all songs will download except one!

ugh son

Just downloaded this, but can't listen to it yet (at a cafe and I have no headphones).

Instead, I am thoroughly enjoying the OG dropshadow booklet design.

the last minute of "Heaven", fuck! those strings and that ever more insistent percussion

HOW GOOD IS IT

http://dawnrichard.tumblr.com/post/20054589357/bombs-away-say-hey-what-did-you-say-shout-out-to

scroll down <3

OK, at home now listening to the album. At Automatic, seems like the track sequence is really perfect.

yeah it's sequenced really really well

I'm hanging in there for Faith and Scripture based on comments here, although it's still great to hear Black Lipstick and Changes again this way!

OK, well obviously, Faith is my new jam. But feel like I need much more time with this!

Just downloaded it. Preparing to listen.

People saying "Faith" sounds like Flesh Tone otm. Love that album, need to go back to it.

kinda sounds like it was inspired by the Jamie XX & Gil Scott-Heron/Drake thing to me

this album is too good

SFMU remix is so great

it has this sort of aftermath-of-the-war vibe

I love the persistent superman motif's in Dirty Money-related projects

superfluous apostrophe there

REFERENCE SUPERMAN LISTEN TO SADE should be the dirty money motto

'automatic' has that same sort of nonapologetic vibe of 'runway', it's great

wait, maybe sade is superman

It's interesting that Dawn runs with that superman/superhero/invincible/bulletproof narrative so much given I think a big part of her voice's appeal is how she can sound so much on the verge of tears while still singing really well. "Change" is an excellent example of the latter quality.

true, i'm finding it kinda hard listening to this in the sunshine thinking "jeez cheer up brandy"

jokes aside tho the record is impeccable

hope + pray for an extended version of 'heaven' somewhere down the line for the full quentin harris experience

oh i should hear this huh

i swear that's skepta's voice just before the drop on 'faith' as well

i'm kind of weary of all the superhero-themed lyrics on both tapes.

― some dude, Monday, March 12, 2012 3:13 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

seriously it was quite enough when dawn had "superman" AND "super hero" AND "bulletproof" but then kalenna came with "s on my chest" and i was like come the fuck on

I have so much room in my heart for all these superman songs

otm

I GO GRENADE
YOU GO GRENADA

I'm listening for the first time and I just got the irresistible urge to post that. Three songs in and this is unstoppable.

So apparently there are other records that people might want to listen to now this exists? Unbelievable.

Sort of feel that this sets a high-water mark for dance influences in R&B and reveals almost everyone else as a clunky hack in comparison. Things like actually getting the drums right and sounding like they go with the music and keeping that rhythmic interest running - the flimsiness of recent R&B drum sounds has been a minor bugbear of mine for a while. Also she's great at songs and melodies that sound like they actually fit with the music rather than awkwardly plonked on top of it. The huge Guetta-does-Jamie-XX drop in the second half of 'Faith' works because everyone concerned realises that big filterdisco choruses are something that needs to be built up to rather than the basic building block of pop. Icing not cake.

idk why anyone is surprised that dawn's preoccupation with superhero motifs is continuing on an album called ARMOR ON

she uses them in really interesting ways, too - feel like "bulletproof" is the key here, the whole idea of being made superhuman through love - you could hear it as another iteration of the sade obsession b/c it's an extension of the whole "soldier of love" imagery

otm

I'm not actually sure these are particularly interesting or original metaphors at all but they sound cool.

she uses them in really interesting ways, too - feel like "bulletproof" is the key here, the whole idea of being made superhuman through love - you could hear it as another iteration of the sade obsession b/c it's an extension of the whole "soldier of love" imagery

― lex pretend, Thursday, 29 March 2012 10:31 (2 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah, and not just love but love itself, a higher power never specific to the person that's given her cause to feel love (or indeed feel hurt; "you may hate me but i'm still free" in 'bulletproof')

like "you are my scripture", the way people don't worship scripture itself but as a symbol of the things it represents. or worshipping messianic figures as conduits and restorers of communion with gods etc

listening to 'bulletproof' again i think it's not just the sunny weather, i do have to cop to missing a little of the grit and rough edges of tell-tale heart and lttp here

the way "I GO GRENADE YOU GO GRENADA" actually makes me suddenly hunger to put on 'matte black truck' instead

should add there is however sufficient grit here to make any comparison to that kelis album thoroughly unjust

yeah, and not just love but love itself, a higher power never specific to the person that's given her cause to feel love

yup when she kneels in reverence on "scripture" the focus is on the feeling, not the "him" of the song.

"bombs" is maybe the only disappointment? "i'm bout to blow" just makes me wish she'd given us a full length HQ "superman".

kinda sounds like it was inspired by the Jamie XX & Gil Scott-Heron/Drake thing to me

is this in relation to a specific song or the whole thing

he was comparing "Faith" to "Take Care"

didn't expect that to be a popular notion but it was the first thing i thought of when i heard it

blimey, the drums on this whole thing!

After a first listen, I love love love "Automatic" and "Scripture" (the latter Rev had tipped me to before), and it seems absolutely dud-free. Not sure about "Faith"; I don't dislike it, but something didn't quite work for me. Same as the second drum pattern that intrudes in "The Battle (Outro)"; not bad by any means, but felt clunky, like another song was playing and they poorly meshed.

Really impressive album.

I love that this is apparently an 'EP'

Yeah Faith is really obviously and openly making use of the Jamie XX hook but in a very different way, and the rest of the album sounds nothing like it.

aside from faith right now i'm really loving "heaven" but mostly cuz it's this album's version of "love lockdown"

I kept on not making the connection that you were talking about "Take Care" and thinking "Jamie XX is a really odd person to invoke when it comes to housey R&B".

Sort of feel that this sets a high-water mark for dance influences in R&B and reveals almost everyone else as a clunky hack in comparison.

Yeah this is what I was getting at upthread. It's quite amazing that (to my knowledge) she and her one producer guy did all of it.

"Faith", it should be noted, is the only track not produced by Druski, so if it sounds a bit different from the rest of the album, that's probably why.

aside from faith right now i'm really loving "heaven" but mostly cuz it's this album's version of "love lockdown"

― J0rdan S., Thursday, March 29, 2012 9:57 AM Bookmark

Except the tune actually develops.

still would like more from j0rd on why this is 808's and dirty money

Rev - Thanks for that tidbit re: "Faith". It definitely feels like something apart from the rest. I think the drums are weakest on that cut as well.

I guess I'm a Druski fan.

I agree the drums are the weakest but the tune is one of the best.

I love the drums on the first part of faith

btw I'm just so happy this is actually an official release on itunes, I feared that this would remain in an unproduced label hell like tell-tale heart

I think I'd like "Faith" more if it was a stand alone. Doesn't really work for me in the context of the album.

Apparently it's #1 in itunes' r&b chart, as an independent release.

it is interesting that she seems to have a pretty good sized following. i guess that's more from danity kane than dirty money though?

Probably both?

well yeah sure but i bet a majority are holdovers from the former than followed her to the latter

was she the most famous danity kane member?

arguably Aubrey is the most famous DK member

hard to say, i mean she prob is now but there wasn't really a breakout star in the group at the time, although Aubrey O'Day was kind of a hot mess tabloid fav for a while and is now on Celebrity Apprentice (xpost)

IIRC at the time Aubrey and Aundrea were de facto "the famous ones" due to being on both casting seasons of Danity Kane's "Making The Band", plus I think Aubrey did Playboy...?

this is def the most inspiring thing from any danity kane member this week, narrowly edging out aubrey's impassioned defense of her creativity in last week's boardroom

there was an episode of 'celebrity apprentice' a few weeks back where the teams had to sell some car, and when aubrey got on she told this story about how her mom and sister were badly injured in a car crash and if they had been driving the buick whatever whatever with its airbag system and safety ratings, they would've been fine. she started crying, then they cut to an off camera interview where she revealed that the whole story was fake and that she was there to win.

lol j0rdan nobly taking the "watches the worst tv imaginable" torch right outta my hands

ha

lol since i don't have cable i usually find myself flipping around the major networks on some nights and multiple times i've stopped on some random cbs or abc show and after three minutes been like "smh this must be what it's like to be al shipley"

you bastard

minus having an adorable baby

still think this is aubrey's finest moment

http://www4.images.coolspotters.com/photos/37416/aubrey-oday-and-heart-on-my-sleeve-gallery.jpg

the last danity kane album was really good btw

dawn gave them their name fwiw, after a fictional anime character of her own invention

Aubrey's finest moment is looking like a political hobo?

what else would you pick! that image is hilarious

the DOG with the GLITTER BONNET and dyed pink ears

what else would you pick!

this is a pretty convincing argument

you just imagine the obama campaign staffers (this was from early 2008 iirc) suddenly seeing these pictures and being like "noooooooo"

is that dog actually alive?

yup. it accompanied her to a number of events around this time.

probably came close to dying of embarrassment

tis a crying shame dawn's major in marine biology doesn't influence her music to the same degree her comic book nerdery does

All my people gettin' down on the floor-ah
Stingin' beats like we're Medusozoa

i knew everyone was trying to think of something there but i still expected better

best i could do was a tilapia heart fwiw

whats the name of this album everyone is raving over? I am having serious problems with my Internet literacy or something...

armor on

cool thx

hurry up, we're dreaming

dawn gave them their name fwiw, after a fictional anime character of her own invention

― lex pretend, Thursday, March 29, 2012 2:48 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

<3

really wanna know what anime shows dawn watches

Just as ridiculous as the idea that this is an EP is that the 3+ min songs at the beginning and the end constitute an intro and an outro.

first incidence of this sort of thing i recall is e.badu calling the 12-track, 45-min worldwide underground an "EP" in 2003

I'm guessing there's some bullshit record company reason for it.

I don't think Bombs is a disappointment at all but it's certainly more, I dunno, route one banger than the rest of it. It's a big jolt though and feels totally necessary in the flow of the album (and the album flows really really well).

I think Faith fits well in as well - the thing with the whole record is how patient most of it is, a bit like a DJ mix, and by that point it's like "ah go on, you can have a peak-time banger".

DJ mix comment is otm - which is, of course, another interesting hybrid aspect to the dance/R'n'B genre play going on with the record.

I also like how she's grouped like songs together so there's a real "take you on a journey" aspect.

It is pretty remarkable that Dawn/Dupri 'get' house and what it can do so well (thinking esp. of "Change" and "Heaven")... As well as any house producer could have managed I think.

Rather than just whacking on a kickdrum, they've really thought about how to use house's little percussive flairs to enhance the songs in the same way that (obvious e.g.) Timbaland might have done with a stuttering triplet.

The irony being that Timbo doesn't get that.

I actually thought of 'Beats 4 Da Streets (Intro)' listening to 'Intro (Call to Hearts)'. Always wanted to hear more stuff done in the style of that Aaliyah opener, 90's r&b in full-dance mode, lover's jungle, etc.

i feel like other music is obsolete now

I actually thought of 'Beats 4 Da Streets (Intro)' listening to 'Intro (Call to Hearts)'. Always wanted to hear more stuff done in the style of that Aaliyah opener, 90's r&b in full-dance mode, lover's jungle, etc.

― MikoMcha, Friday, 30 March 2012 11:53 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Did you ever hear Janet Jackson's "Empty"?

That's the closest thing I can come up with as a precedent for Intro/Black Lipstick.

"empty" is the best song

otm

Amazingly, nearly 15 years old.

Armor On is afaict self-released so i think it being an EP is less a 'bullshit record company' thing than just wanting to prolong the anticipation for a proper DEBUT ALBUM with mixtapes and other minor releases, because everyone always thinks their first album is going to sell a bazillion copies like 50 Cent and doesn't want to drop an album until they think it can do that

the tone of the piano in SFMU remix just kills me

it's a song sung from the rubble

Cool, Empty is great! I never listened to that record besides the singles.

That album is amazing, breh

^^^

So many oversights. Downloading it now, especially after that track.

Velvet Rope might be my favourite Janet LP and 'Empty' might be her best track. You know, depending on the day of the week and more likely if it's winter.

man, this mixtape

"vibrate" is nuts

― pop the s1ock (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, February 22, 2011 1:13 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

one year! shit

wish so much she would release a mastered version of that mixtape

every time I see the title "SMFU", I feel like it should stand for *shaking my fucking uterus* or something

i'm kind of having trouble connecting with 'armor on'. of course i love dawn's voice, so i think i'm more impressed with the atmosphere of the thing - that's really the point of most of these joints, right? - than i am taken with the songs themselves. like the background vocals in "heaven" - that's straight outta LTTP (forget which song, drunx). maybe the problem's with me, that i'm holding it up to kind of an impossible standard, but the songs just aren't staying with me for whatever reason. given the quality of posters enjoying this i'm sure the problem is with me - i need to spend more time with this

i wasn't head over heels like most ppl on the first few listens ("faith" aside) but i think the songs really sneak up on you. a lot of the pleasures are pretty subtle.

i almost feel like this album is just waiting to be cut up by some great house DJs, that that's its primary aim even

I don't know that this is a new phenomenon though. I mean, no media outlets had any interest in reviewing Shareefa's album! Or Algebra's!

― Peace (peaceful) (The Brainwasher), Tuesday, March 27, 2012 11:57 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't know much about algerba

― internet somebody (some dude), Tuesday, March 27, 2012 11:59 AM (1 week ago)

btw http://sae.tweek.us/static/images/emoticons/emot-golfclap.gif

every time I see the title "SMFU", I feel like it should stand for *shaking my fucking uterus* or something

haha ME TOO, and i'm sure she meant it like that, or rather she meant the acronym as a portmanteau of SMH and FU

k3vin try headphones, the songs are there but not all are immediate, but this was blown open for me the first time i heard it on headphones. rtc otm that the sunny weather did it no favours either which was the one positive of last night's inexplicable rainstorm

(it's my album of the year now)

i am so fucking sitting on my hands right now

i'm kind of having trouble connecting with 'armor on'. of course i love dawn's voice, so i think i'm more impressed with the atmosphere of the thing - that's really the point of most of these joints, right? - than i am taken with the songs themselves. like the background vocals in "heaven" - that's straight outta LTTP (forget which song, drunx). maybe the problem's with me, that i'm holding it up to kind of an impossible standard, but the songs just aren't staying with me for whatever reason. given the quality of posters enjoying this i'm sure the problem is with me - i need to spend more time with this

― recent thug (k3vin k.), Tuesday, April 3, 2012 11:23 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

i'm with you, sounds good but hasn't really clicked for me. will give it another try today.

i am so fucking sitting on my hands right now

― TALiB KWELi SODMG (The Reverend), Wednesday, April 4, 2012 6:03 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh, go on.

also with kk & sd to some extent, i think it's less "trouble connecting" than it is the nature of the connection tho - 'armor on' is this haunting, austere, sacred, bleak vista that always impresses but doesnt necessarily engage you to fall head over heels outside the appropriate circumstances like the rest of the ddm canon maybe does

just a bit different is all

rtc otm that the sunny weather did it no favours either which was the one positive of last night's inexplicable rainstorm

― lex pretend, Wednesday, 4 April 2012 07:02 (7 hours ago) Bookmark

i once got caught in a torrential storm with 'make love to you' off lovelovevshatelove on and it was so perfect and overwhelmingly romantic i still sometimes think about it

like if a bad bitch had cropped up at that exact moment i would have walked away from everything and spent my every last penny whisking her off off on a plane somewhere vibe

She's certainly less um approachable than she was on #A Tell-Tale Heart for the most part. There's nothing as breezy as "Biggest Fan" or "Hey" for instance.

This ain't a problem for me perhaps because I've already primed myself for Dawn so much I'm happy to take her in full forbidding stone edifice as last remnant of a vanished alien civilisation mode.

xp underrated jam anyway, even in clement weather

yeah it's more the darkness on tell-tale heart is more, idk if ~relatable~ is le mot juste but a sense of something overwrought and ultimately monstrous bloodily at stake than armor on's more transcendent virtues

This is easily my favourite DDM-related release.

no offence but you have hardly distinguished yourself on matters ddm tbf

well maybe you have actually but not in a good way

xp underrated jam anyway, even in clement weather

― r|t|c, Wednesday, April 4, 2012 6:27 AM Bookmark

otm

yeah that's not saying much coming from someone who was not a 'ass on the floor' partisan! xxp

The original SMFU just clicked with me. It's still not as awesome as the Remix, but still.

Feelings!

(Hah I don't actually like DDM at all but really like both Dawn releases, her own aesthetic is distinct enough that I barely make the DDM connection any more)

Hah I don't actually like DDM at all

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/dc19124/snoop.gif

btw

http://www.factmag.com/2012/04/07/dawn-richard-armor-on/

a-yo

niiiiiice

Yeah that was totally awesome!!!

Rev is getting really trigger happy with the snoop.gif.

Nothing snoop.gif worthy about not vein able to stomach Diddy's atrocious rapping imo

imo if you don't like DDM what board are you even posting on

nice review btw rev

k3v otm

DDM songs work because of, not in spite of, diddy's rapping

Nothing snoop.gif worthy about not vein able to stomach Diddy's atrocious rapping imo

― Evan R
http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxozkjOUlo1r97gceo1_500.gif

SMOKE WEED LISTEN TO SADE

btw

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2012/04/dawn_richard_kalenna_dirty_money.php

(lol at me and rev having a mindmeld on the phrase 'greek chorus')

nice

lol at "For the album's fervent cult of patient motherfuckers"

thumbs up 4 the piece shipz

Great piece; and a good gateway to the joys of Dawn Richard for people who aren't already on the DDM train (i.e non-ilxors)

hey bigger fanbases have been built on smaller foundations than an album that almost went gold

That was great too sd

Loving this stream of excellent journalism on Dawn!

i really hope we can actually get some traction going on dawn and kalenna. i've had a few too many experiences of trying to talk about r&b to other music critics and when i bring up dawn and kalenna it's like they don't even hear the names, and then they say "so! the weeknd!"

and then i stab them

I think one of the potentials with Dawn is that her genre dabbling does provide an "in" for stabworthy people - you can sell it as "not just R&B" in a similar fashion to how The Weeknd or even The-Dream are sold to that kind of audience.

Although of course in truth what Dawn does with drum & bass, house, etc. is to make it function precisely as R&B sui generis and par excellence (though of course her own individualised take on it). So it's not meaningfully different from a 2002 tune with a pseudo-dancehall beat or a tabla.

One of the things I tried to do in my own review (i'm not sure how successfully) is to try express both the above points while not making them contradict each other, so each audience gets the point I want them to get. The difficulty with this is that 9 out of 10 readers only pick up on these things if you beat them over the head with it, so the more likely outcome is to end up falling between two stools.

Kalenna's probably a lost cause though - Chamber of Diaries is the kind of R&B that only gets critical traction if there's a hit (preferably a string of them). Not that I would object to "Matte Black Truck" being number one forever of course.

Tim, where is this review of yours?

Kalenna definitely is doomed to get less buzz in general but i hope peope itt aren't sleeping on her tape since DR's record dropped, "Poison" is so killer

I think it'll be up in a few days. Let's talk about the awesomeness of both rev and some dude instead.

Some dude totally spot on when he refers to Dawn's "heavily armored vulnerability". I think perhaps the most interesting aspect of the EP's uh "theme" is that the title "Armor On" is less about fortifying oneself for battle per se than it is about the possibility of being wounded - Dawn's "armor" is really scar tissue.

And yes "Poison" is great.

yeah i mean i make fun of the superhero/military stuff but i have come to respect the way it's woven into the whole thing and isn't just the repetitive employment of a cliched metaphor

I think the superman meme in particular does merit some fun-making. Especially the whole S on your/my chest thing.

I imagine one of Dawn or Kalenna jumping on this first and getting really mad each time the other tries to pass it off as her own.

lol it is so totally Dawn's

^^

also i think people into the new wave of **dark & moody* indie r&b or w/e could find something to like in dawn's stuff

lol it is so totally Dawn's

I'm inclined to agree of course.

It'd be more amusing though if Kalenna concocted it and then Dawn started using it (to the point of nearly building her entire persona around it) before she got a chance to.

I do wonder what they think of each other actually. Has there been anything juicy post DM breakup?

I think this board seriously underestimates what a tough sell Dawn Richard is to non-converts. On the surface, her resume looks pretty dire. Danity Kane was not a well-respected band, and the Diddy association is a turnoff to a lot of people who haven't actually heard the DDM album (or who only heard that one moronic Skylar Grey single)

xp Dawn (at least publicly) seems totally cool with whatever happened and Kalenna seems more bitter about it.

I think this board seriously underestimates what a tough sell Dawn Richard is to non-converts. On the surface, her resume looks pretty dire. Danity Kane was not a well-respected band, and the Diddy association is a turnoff to a lot of people who haven't actually heard the DDM album (or who only heard that one moronic Skylar Grey single)

― Evan R, Tuesday, 10 April 2012 3:15 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think anything can be spun.

Weeknd fans who want to embrace this can convince themselves that she is busting out of the constraints of major label R&B and that Diddy wasn't smart enough to realise her genius.

though if they didn't realise how LTTP was hugely sonically innovative...

if kalenna goes down the "go to work" route enough, that could sell her from a character (rather than beats) perspective in a similar way to how nicki and WAKA cross over to non-rap audiences. we'll see what her official material sounds like if/when it emerges. have to say i am slightly disappointed that dawn and kalenna don't even see each other as allies in the vaguest sense.

anyway yeah anything can be spun but apart from our own articles that doesn't seem to be happening on anything like last year's initial weeknd level. i blame whoever the fuck the tastemakers and gatekeepers actually are.

re: armour, what you all say is true of course but what i love about the way dawn uses that imagery is how armour is less of a protective necessity and more of a badge of honour, and a natural development of being in love; she makes becoming superhuman via the process of love sound like an organic process. there's def a religious association at work here - echoes of how the concept of armour is used in a scriptural sense.

Weeknd fans who want to embrace this can convince themselves that she is busting out of the constraints of major label R&B and that Diddy wasn't smart enough to realise her genius.

― Tim F, Tuesday, April 10, 2012 12:29 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

it's funny because that's totally going to be the narrative when it's really just that right or wrong she didn't want to sit and wait in line behind French Montana. it's kind of a shame that Bad Boy is so focused on rebuilding their rap roster right now because Diddy could've made Dawn and Janelle and Cassie the front line of an artsy R&B movement.

it's kind of a shame that Bad Boy is so focused on rebuilding their rap roster right now because Diddy could've made Dawn and Janelle and Cassie the front line of an artsy R&B movement.

It'd be awesome to see this happen anyway (though as a business model French Montana and co. probably offer a better return on investment)

i dunno, pretty girls are still more bankable than dopey stuffed animals last time i checked

http://www.radiostreetbuzz.com/wethebuzz/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/French-Montana1.jpg

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16486-armor-on-ep/

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

scanning diddy, brandy, and drumnbass there belatedly reminded me of the existence of this and its overlooked relevance here

duh

not an unreasonable surmise that mario winans had a strong even maybe dominant hand in the lttp vision imo

"sounding like she's watching her lover's execution" from tim's bit there is spot on

grousing about the mastering quality of tell-tale heart always seemed like a failure of imagination when 'bulletproof' sounded so much as if dawn was pouring out her devotion to you holding a pillow over your head as your life ebbed away

lol

lol I didn't peg you for a lo-fi authenticist xp

that brandy track is one of my faves off of press play

it is my fave off press play full stop

1. last night 2. thought you said

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

btw it occurred to me last night how strange it is that no one's drawn a "i'll be missing you"-"coming home" link.

emotional puffy songs really are the best thing ever.

jaw is agape at that youtube btw

yeah the inadequacy of didy's emotional tenor in emotional puffy songs invites the listener to color in the lines with their own xp

otm!

I don't think that quite applies to "Coming Home" tho. He really does sell that one all the way.

erm if anyone has press play in 320 i would be v appreciative if you could let me know?

fucking hard drive crash leaving me without 90% of my music collection, i can't even bear to open the 90s r&b thread because of this. anyway press play is, remarkably, not on the internet :(

idk if mine is in 320

Armor On is on Spotify now

so... this is great, huh

btw it occurred to me last night how strange it is that no one's drawn a "i'll be missing you"-"coming home" link.

― The Reverend, Friday, April 13, 2012 11:55 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark

if my piece wasn't pegged to Dawn and Kalenna i probably would've gotten into my Sad Puffy timeline, post-J. Lo "I Need A Girl" weepers and all

I know it's a style but I do wish the autotune was dialed down on this

i don't think i even really noticed it just because it's so much less ubiquitous on Armor On than it was on Tell Tale Heart

armor on and the second half of chamber of diaries are still getting better and better for me - such rewarding listening

if my piece wasn't pegged to Dawn and Kalenna i probably would've gotten into my Sad Puffy timeline, post-J. Lo "I Need A Girl" weepers and all

― some dude, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 18:55 (42 minutes ago) Bookmark

yah i'd been musing over this myself in compiling 90s bad boy r&b remixes

like even in less specific terms though there's clearly a sense of grand dramatic sweep & attraction to melancholy in how the mary & faith albums were framed that's traceable all the way to ddm

We need a 90s Bad Boy R&B Remixes Poll.

you should put one together alex

not a quality judgement but i've listened to chambers way more than armor tbh. i like the messiness of it, it's engrossing

i like how even when she's reeling off some pretty iffy lines she's still got the presence to make them work - diddy should really have kept her on even if he wasnt fucking with artsy r&b

yeah i really wanted to write about Chambers partly because i felt it was unfairly getting the short end of the stick, however predictably, in this thread, when it's on it's really fucking good

chamber suffers praise-wise from not really clicking into gear until "matte black truck" but from there on in it REALLY clicks and rides through to its logical conclusion in a really engrossing way. it seems a much riskier proposition than armor on in some ways, kalenna really overtly relies on ~swag~ and just about pulls it off.

god i just realised how amazing the power-play and emotional conflict and lust/security confusion in the second verse of "matte black truck" is - like every line's meaning is undercut or switched up almost immediately - this song is the tru part 2 of "ass on the floor"

you the motherfucker i need
put it on me
i ain't got time for games
you gon put the freeze on me?
get on your knees
nigga put this ring on me

lol lex, recently it seems like every time you write something about lyrics and then post a snippet of what you're talking about, I wonder if you lost the c/p you meant and accidentally replaced it with some banal nonsense you intended to ridicule

That bit is pretty powerful in the song though Dan. If you haven't heard it you really should.

the biggest problem is that I remember to look for/check things out when I'm at work, where most of the sites that host mixtapes are blocked

oh god the video on Youtube has the horrible bedazzled lips thing going on, ugh

I dunno, "get on your knees" --> "put this ring on me" is slick!

I was sort of with Dan on the whole autotune thing but actually I've grown to love how it means her voice completely sinks into the warp and weft of each track, especially on the last couple of songs when you can't really tell how many Dawns there are singing over one another and which bit is Dawn and which bit is synth half the time.

don't suppose anyone ever came across a matte black truck NO DJ higher than 128/160?

the first sexual "put it on me" => the second demand for commitment "put this ring on me"
"freeze on me" as in freezing her out/giving her jewellery/giving her a ring
"get on your knees" as violent (sexual?) order then as (violent) demand for love, which sums up the way kalenna's approach to love is inextricably linked to displays of temper and violence and demonstrations of her power across the whole mixtape

I really haven't given the Kalenna mixtape fair time.

... okay listening to this now

I do like this song, but that quoted section is not particularly powerful or overwhelming to me? Furthermore, there doesn't actually seem to be any confusion or contradiction in that second verse; she basically is like "I want you like crazy, let's stop fucking around and get married so we can get back to fucking".

The more interesting thing to me is the declaration of strength through vulnerability; like, the whole song is a pleading "don't break up with me" monologue but everything still functions on her terms. She's deciding it's time for her to be vulnerable, she's willing to change if he changes, she can't fathom life without him so obviously he should marry her.

The song is summed up by:

I want you
You need me
So stay, baby

Everything else in the song speaks directly to this central thesis statement.

listen to "Poison," that's the standout imo

btw I like her voice a lot more than Dawn's partially because I feel like I can actually hear it rather than having it drowning in autotune (part of that is backing track arrangement smoothing out some of the edges autotune puts on vocals)

holy shit "Poison" is great btw

kind of also like the way the focus is so much on the cranking of wu-tang and keeping her cup filled up in "matte black truck" that even though it's just a threat in the song, kalenna's focus kind of wills it into existence, which foreshadows the entire final stretch of the mixtape in which she does get thrown over and fucked up

just relistened to 'matte black truck' and kalenna wasn't nearly as fierce as I remembered, or was made out to be itt

still a great song tho

the final stretch is "pain & alcohol"/"poison"/"the morning after"/"party & bullshit" dan - they're all amazing in quite similar ways, the first two are kind of secret powerballads and the last two spacey hermetically sealed trapped-in-your-own-head club joints

she sings the final section of "pain & alcohol" from beyond the grave, a trick i always appreciate

I mentioned this in my review, but I really like the way Dawn uses autotune. Just lots of layers of both natural and autotuned vocals that complement each other, like she's half feeling human and half tragic android trying to understand human emotion.

I pretty much think she's using it for better effect than anyone else tbh.

^^^