Terius "The-Dream" Nash Solo Albums + Major Writing/Production Credits (Electrik Red, Mariah Carey, Ciara)

so far as far as favorite of his solo albums, I'm giving the slight nod to Love vs. Money, just due to the sweeping epic nature of it. must be my metal background but I tend to always pick those as the favorite.

all amazing though.

Hmmm... no love for Nivea - Animalistic which is the first all produced The-Dream album before his debut. But then again he was still finding his sound and it leaned towards crunk a little.

i thought about this, but didn't terius just do production on this, mostly? I was going for stuff where he also handled a fair chunk of the songwriting

my ranking looks something like--

Love King = Love Vs Money >>> Love/Hate = Basic Instinct = How to Be a Lady >>>>> Memoirs

sorry lex

first two are interchangeable for #1 depending on day/mood/etc.

Fuck yeah xp ilxor. I am completely with you. Love hate is great no doubt but the latter two give me much more pleasure at karaoke.

L/H = HtBaL > LvM > Memoirs = LK > BI

How To Be A Lady > Love/Hate > Love King > Basic Instinct > Love vs Money > Memoirs

food for thought, here's how these albums rank in sales:
1. Love/Hate
2. Mariah
3. Love Vs. Money
4. Love King
5. Ciara
6. Electrik Red

Genuinely surprised by that, thought even an underperforming Mariah album would blow all of these away sales-wise.

This has probably been discussed many times over, but Soundscan numbers on R&B and rap albums have always seemed especially iffy to me. It's been over ten years since I worked in retail or distribution, so maybe the situation is significantly different now. Then (and I'm guessing now), lots of mom and pop stores and small chains weren't on Soundscan. Soundscan attempted to provide "balance" by weighting sales at stores that did have Soundscan. Some stores were weighted up to 10. (Guess which stores were treated nicer by labels and distributors.) So, one copy of the self-titled Aaliyah album at Super-Weighted Retailer would count as ten copies sold, while sales at 10-12 (maybe) non-Soundscan stores weren't reported.

Memoirs was Mariah's lowest selling album ever, and it went gold, because, well, she's a superstar. Love/Hate was The-Dream's biggest album and it sold just a lil more than Memoirs.

I don't see any reason not to trust SoundScan numbers these days, it's more a question of how much is being consumed and listened to that isn't obtained through any retail channels.

xpost

One store where I worked was not a Soundscan store. We had a midnight sale for R., Aquemini, The Love Movement, Hard Knock Life, Black Star, Foundation. The store across the street, if I recall correctly, was either double- or- triple-weighted and was more of a rock store. (The kind of store where you ask them the price of the new KRS-One and the person on the phone asks you how to spell it.) They also had a midnight sale and likely sold around a dozen copies of Deserter's Songs or Soul Coughing or whatever, while we did several thousand dollars of business, primarily through those big rap and R&B albums. That's one example of how the figures can be out of whack.

(The KRS-One thing actually happened, btw.)

it's more a question of how much is being consumed and listened to that isn't obtained through any retail channels.

Definitely agree with that, but Soundscan, ehhh... *shrug*

yeah i mean i'm sure there are some interesting sales figure distortions, but aside from anecdotal evidence like that it's hard to even guess what the 'real' figures would be, and i have no idea what effect it would have on The-Dream's sales vs. Mariah's

All sales figures should be determined by Slim Thug.

ThuggaScan

i've recently got back into 'memoirs' - it is def underrated

i actually can't choose a favourite sorry

love king

Non-snark question: are there any dudes or ladies apart from Andy who got into the-dream with the first album and also think Love King is best?

im sympathetic to that point of view & consider it as good /better than much of his other stuff, & more consistent than love vs money ... but l/h still reins supreme for me

om some days i might agree with that - i think all these albums are really really close in quality, the best moments on LK are as good or better as the best moments on L/H and LvM, and where LK actually falls into last place is how ordinary its worst moments are (in this regard i definitely don't agree that it's more consistent than LvM, which doesn't have a bad track on it - like my least favourite track on LvM is "rockin' that shit"! which i adore!)

L/H is not exactly consistent either (fucking "falsetto", and i don't care all that much about "luv songs" or "mama"), actually i'm certain that LvM is most consistent for me.

i could agree that LVM is most consistent, cuz i don't really care about "ditch that..." and i'm sort of love/hate (ha) with "i love your girl". love king, no

om some days i might agree with that - i think all these albums are really really close in quality, the best moments on LK are as good or better as the best moments on L/H and LvM, and where LK actually falls into last place is how ordinary its worst moments are (in this regard i definitely don't agree that it's more consistent than LvM, which doesn't have a bad track on it - like my least favourite track on LvM is "rockin' that shit"! which i adore!)

L/H is not exactly consistent either (fucking "falsetto", and i don't care all that much about "luv songs" or "mama"), actually i'm certain that LvM is most consistent for me.

― lex diamonds (lex pretend), Tuesday, January 18, 2011 3:43 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ha yeah see i disagree wildly w/ most of this obv -- rockin that shit >>> walking on the moon, my love, etc
and falsetto & luv songs are 2 of his best ever

def

All his albums are totally consistent, but LK doesn't have the peaks of the first two.

lol disagree

terius is the kind of dude where we all love him (or in al's case can at least admit he's written several songs he likes/loves) but i basically think you are all completely insane when it comes to what his best qualities/individual songs are. except tim f, feel like that dude knows whats up

well i'm generally with you ("Bed" aside) in thinking the Los shit is usually his best

"my love" is my favourite terius single!!

what i love about it and "walking on the moon" is how naturally terius's own twist on those particular single types seemed to come - perfect examples of the generic-but-distinct (sui generic!) commercial r&b song i love. their equivalents on LK are a bit rote. "falsetto" is just incredibly annoying, i don't actually enjoy terius's falsetto that much.

All his albums are totally consistent, but LK doesn't have the peaks of the first two.

YAMAHA

you did admit that "bed" was growing on you last time we talked about it tho iirc! but yes los >> tricky, at least when it comes to dream collabos

jordan s has also expressed this opinion

xxp

except tim f, feel like that dude knows whats up

― fruit of the goon (k3vin k.), Tuesday, January 18, 2011 3:54 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

ha but you explicitly disagree w/ some tim f positions here

YAMAHA

― lex diamonds (lex pretend), Tuesday, January 18, 2011 1:58 PM Bookmark

"Fast Car" >

I find it difficult to remember the nuances of our different positions except those that have been crusaded most vociferously or consistently (deej thinks "Walking on the Moon" is the worst song ever; Lex is on some anti-L/H contrastannery etc.)

haha. i guess i dont think its the worst song ever -- its more that its so close to being the exact kind of dream song i like, but then it fails at this, which makes it feel like more of a disappointment than his best stuff

fwiw this explains why i love the kris menace/emil version (i may have said this upthread)

feels like more of a disappointment than his objectively WORST stuff, i mean

i dont like 'my love' cuz its just kinda boring to me, which feels less offensive

i'm listening to "my love" right now and it's just such an irresistible confection of a song, it makes me totally melt.

i always had an idea to poll dream + los vs dream + tricky

los has all the best joints on l/h
i'd give tricky the nod on lvm
lk is all terius pretty much tho so w/e

my order of Dream albums is LvM, LH, then LK.

really close between the first two but LVM starts hard, builds to a fever pitch, then cools out...feel like you takes you through the largest gambit of emotions. Love/Hate's not too far behind, just think the highs are slightly lesser.

i always had an idea to poll dream + los vs dream + tricky

los has all the best joints on l/h
i'd give tricky the nod on lvm
lk is all terius pretty much tho so w/e

― hard as a markers (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, January 18, 2011 7:47 PM (8 minutes ago)

ha i've had this idea too but thought i'd get some eyerolls, anyway yeah it's los for me by quite a bit. even though dream does most of LK by himself i feel like the standouts for me (like "FILA" in particular) are him basically doing a los impression so

and plus los has "turnt out" and "yamaha" too iirc

ok this is just to get the tricky/los division straight in my own mind (i've never been as bothered about it as you guys) -

tricky - i luv your girl, nikki, she needs my love, falsetto, ditch that, mama, rockin' that shit, sweat it out, take u home 2 my mama, love vs money, love vs money pt 2, fancy, right side of my brain, mr yeah, hit it on the road, panties to the side
los - shawty is da shit, fast car, playin' in her hair, purple kisses, luv songs, livin' a lie, walkin' on the moon, my love, put it down, love king, yamaha, nikki pt 2, abyss, turnt out, veteran, priceless

that kind of surprises me, lots of songs i think of as going together were produced with different people. draw for L/H, tricky wins LvM, los wins LK (duh)

Yeah I wonder how meaningful the distinction really is when, like, tricky produced "rockin' that thing" and los produced "abyss".

"rockin that shit" is los

wait no it isn't

hold on - my world has just been turned upside down

man

i thought about this, but didn't terius just do production on this, mostly? I was going for stuff where he also handled a fair chunk of the songwriting

― ilxor, Monday, January 17, 2011 8:23 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

In the Wikipedia entry (yeah I know) they don't give the writing credits so I would assume he wrote most/all of it. But then again I don't know Nivea's songwriting prowess. I think it should be included, but I guess you can consider it his Dream Street of his canon. Best to leave it alone if it is not up to par with the others.

Most of my favorite Dream songs both for himself and others are with Tricky.

tricky overwhelms los with his comparatively immense body of work w/ dreamer but los has a better batting average

^^this

yeah no it won't be stan v hate either way. i agree doesn't quite seem anonymous as such but nor am i entirely sure if that's not just solely because it doesn't bear (or bother to bear) the rictus of the despo modern age

Man, this song... <3

https://www.audiomack.com/song/3lxi/black-magic-1

love the chorus. sounds slightly demo-ish to me? like I feel like it could be easily improved a little

just discovered this recently, 2011 Terius/Tricky collab with a Warped Tour band:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cB7_Wonxso

"Madness" was pretty raw tbh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEY0p0IWfnM

if yr still hating on (individual songs from) latter day the-dream youve gone too far imo

randomly my gf has really gotten into the dream lately and i've realized that these days i think lvm is superior to l/h. i used to not care about the "cohesiveness" or whatever but now from a safe distance the latter is just a much smoother, more pleasant listen

uh thats contradictory, i'm talking about lvm

Baby
I hope you save a little pizza for me

I don’t really “read” “music criticism” any more, but what is terius’s stature among those in the know these days? prompted by plying HTBAL on repeat for the past week or so… are the kids even aware of this era or do they just know him as the beyonce guy?