Rolling R&B Thread 2007

considering that R. Kelly is the first/only 2007 R&B album I've bought (although I'll get Amerie whenever it drops stateside), I should probably ask what I've been missing. should I be looking into the Lloyd or Bobby V. or Rhianna or Tank or Ne-Yo or Musiq or Sunshine Anderson even if I didn't like the singles from any of those albums?

not the rihanna.

every lloyd song i've heard off street love begins by underwhelming me for approx 2 minutes, and then unexpectedly seducing me by the close - and then i listen to it again and pay more attn from the start, and it's still underwhelming-then-seducing! almost like the real structure is gradual build to a pretty (pixelcloudy!) intensity.

apart from 'get it shawty' which is one of the most amazing things i've heard this year. funny how the missy verse which sounded so rote on 'i'm really hot' works so well on it.

i will still defend natasha, i know she is a brat who is being obnoxiously squeaky just cos she can but it's not a million miles from lil' mama's galumphing one-cadence rap, and i find natasha herself immensely endearing, and her weird weird snaky dancing very riveting.

really feeling keyshia cole's 'let it go'

RTC, is "We Taking Over" even worth hating on, really?

It's kind of funny how Akon is drafted in for such a dread-laden (or "dread-laden") sub-Wyclef chorus. It's like
"You know I'm from Africa, right?"
"Is that one or two islands over from Jamaica?"
"..."

Yeah, he is totally doing the Wyclef howl, there, but the song has grown on me.

My enjoyment of "We Takin' Over" is completely in spite of Akon's presence (I usualy don't mind him, but that chorus really is awful). And it's not even so much anyone's verses that are great as it is what the beat does underneath them, the bells that come in during Rick Ross's verse, the dramatic beat drop and build up from Baby to Wayne, etc. I didn't like a whole lot of the TimbaHandz hits, but based on that song I'm convinced that Danja is brilliant on his own.

Rihanna's album is totally worth it...very little filler and lots of potential singles. I'm excited to pick up a physical copy tomorrow.

Speaking of, t/s: Umbrella with Lil Mama vs. Umbrella with Jay-Z vs. Umbrella - on piano

(ok, the latter doesn't have much of a chance, but it really shows how beautiful the song itself is)

Re "We Taking Over": I do like the choirs in the background. But that's mainly because choirs in the background is one of those never-fail "break glass in case of emergency" kind of tricks. Wayne's verse is good too.

i had no idea 'we taking over' was hated on so.

I don't hate it. It didn't strike me as the kind of track one would have strong feelings about.

The pedant in me wants to point out that W. Jean is Haitian, not Jamaican.

(One island closer.)

Yeah I know, that was kinda my point!

that guy doing umbrella on piano is great... i really like umbrella now. not sure why i didnt like it before. its great. i hope the rest of the album is as good.

not sure whats wrong with me listening to so much R&B again but what is ne-yos album like? im quite into because of you.

It's like the first one, except that the last three songs suck and there aren't any singles on par with "So Sick" or "Sexy Love". It's definitely worth a listen but probably not worth your $15.

'we taking over' is one of the big, critically acclaimed radio hits of 2007. and its beat annoys the living shit out of me, nonwithstanding any uninteresting raps, and like al says the effort thats gone into it. i realise that it's an unremarkable song in the greater scheme of things, and that i'm hardly nipping any brewing rap movements in the bud by registering my disdain, but still. hell yeah it's worth it.

despite him ruining elephant man's first badboy single, i still can't damn wyclef completely however much i wanna, cos that 'you know what it is' of ti's is apparently my favourite rap tune of the year. dont ask me how! all i know is it's just my crack right now, way more than anything off king.

really feeling keyshia cole's 'let it go'

"Juicy Fruit" with just a little "Don't Stop the Music"? Somehow the whole is slightly lesser than the sum of the parts (either that, or I was not in the right mood when I first heard it).

Fuck what I just said.

Keyshia could be Alisa Peoples' daughter.

should I be looking into the Lloyd or Bobby V. or Rhianna or Tank or Ne-Yo or Musiq or Sunshine Anderson even if I didn't like the singles from any of those albums?

Knowing what I know of you? No.

ok, but does that mean you don't like any of those albums or that you'd imagine I wouldn't?

You hate everything, obv.

The "We Taking Over" beat annoyed me at first, too, but I've made peace with it. I still only think the song is alright, though.

The latter, Al.

Actually, if you don't like "Umbrella," I retract my Rihanna statement.

haha i still can't decide if andy's being genuinely helpful or if he's taking a shot. i was looking to WADE IN.

... a lumidee single w/ pitbull on the old bubble up riddim? what year is this again?

Ne-Yo's album got some seriously hyperbolic love on Popmatters today: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/38886/ne-yo-because-of-you/

haha i still can't decide if andy's being genuinely helpful or if he's taking a shot.

No shot taking involved!

I'm trying to wrap my head around the ideas that a) In My Own Words is anything resembling mediocre, and b) that Because of You is an improvement upon it of any sorts, and I'm not having any success at it.

I haven't played Because of You since I reviewed it and am hard-pressed to name a single song beyond the near-genius title track, "Sex With My Ex," and the J-Hud duet.

yeah, serious wtf. I wasn't crazy about In My Own Words but it had solid singles and a couple deep cuts I loved. this new one, I really can't be motivated to check out, "Do You" sounds like a complete dud of a single.

that's exactly how I feel about In My Own Words.

i never noticed before, but ne-yo's middle name is deliciously close to being 'chimera'.

(also his first name is nearly 'schaeffer', like the pen manufacturing company. and no one's surname is really smith. pen illusion everyman? he's playing with us, i call bullshit!)

anyway i was just about to say that soto's review was the one i felt closest to, and there he is. what might also be an issue with its various positive receptions is perhaps, how shall i put this, a desire to make some sort of stand for the basic elements of good songwriting in the face of cheap chart bauble pleasures. so, a lot of fetishizing of things like the album's 'solidity' and stuff. maybe i'm overdetermining. in any case yeah, i still think the first is lighter, fresher, younger, much more of its own thing than this one, which seems so thick with parody; the more he parodies others the more he parodies himself.

I fetishized the first album for those reasons of good songwriting and whatever (and still do), but the material was much better. This one isn't worth fetishizing.

I thought "Do You" was bad but Ne-Yo really sinks to a new low here.

Uh-oh, FAILED SEXY alert.

Really, though. Ne-Yo's not the one who should be embarrassed by that. At least he had good sense to steer clear of the video.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f14/snouts/bearminator.jpg

this bint, joy denelane & black buddafly = ficht nicht mit german rnb canon

so did any of yall make good your resolutions to check out t-pain's album? i don't think it's v good really, but this seems beside the point when 10 minutes into an album of freaky tales and various degrees of tipsy antics you come across t-pain's utterly terrifying "turns out i got hiv so now i'm gonna get drunk and kill myself" giant wailing setpiece LIKE WHAT WERE YOU THINKING MAN?!?!?!

the new adina howard lp private show is good stuff. 40 minutes short, and unfussily all about sex as usual, but with nice nonstop consistently competent 3rd party production throughout; by 3rd party i'm meaning the kind of modern but pleasingly indistinct dancey beats you found on, say, hilary duff's latest album, except adina has this experienced lady control over everything that stops you getting impatient like you do with younger fancies. in fact yeah, it's pretty much a teenpop album for the grown & sexy! i liked it.

really it's a classic example of the kind of generic-ass album i secretly love more than any other - the kind where i couldnt name you one cut from that you should make the effort to check, but when it comes to sticking a cd on for the duration you'll always pick over a demanding, peaks & troughsy major label big name one. this is not an easy skill tho! mariah probly managed it, but otherwise i'd reckon it's usually the preserve of random midrange latino urban stragglers like natalie / baby bash / rob g / frankie j / play n skillz / javier / cynthia lissette / jeannie ortega / paula deanda / happy perez, you name it. i love all those unassuming fuckers.

like, could you fuck with a whole album of stuff like this? hell yeah u could!

javier's one was just a great album full stop. al should check it, i get the feeling he's got a soft spot for this shit too. stuff like 'wassup' and 'is this love' are a way better bet than that new musiq soulchild or whatever.

and the frankie j with mannie fresh from last year, that was good too

lol @ the Amazon customer review titled "'Left Of Center' is Right Of Mediocrity!"

Baby Bash's "Suga Suga" is secretly the best song of the past ten years, but nobody knows this except for me and this one Mexican dude I went to high school with who had it coming out of his headphones for the entirety of senior year.

Oh yeah, and that Frankie J/Mannie Fresh is good, too.

Rob I want that Anita Howard album!

Freaky middle-aged Hillary beats!

I WAS THE ONLY ONE ON HERE REPPIN BABY BASH OR FRANKIE J, everyone laughed at meeeeeee

Okay to be fair I never liked Baby Bash. I mean, just on a visual level or something. Also anonymous R&B is good but I kind of draw the line at anonymous R&B with endless amounts of latin guitar. Next y'all be telling me that I should have bought Dante Thomas's album.

(girls always think "Miss California" is the best thing, it's always pandemonium on the floor)

Baby Bash looks like some kind of weird plush doll, and his album titles (Tha Smokin' Nephew, Super Saucy, Ronnie Ray All Day) make him seem even more surreal. "Suga Suga" was definitely a weirdly under-the-radar hit. It went top 10, but like The Reverend said, I know like one person who actually knew it and was into it. I was never crazy about it, but "That Girl" was one of my favorite R&B singles of last year. Mannie should do more R&B.

Actually "That Girl" by Maxi Priest is also kinda relevant here.