thread of miguel

his singing on "don't look back" is good tho

how prince is the title "kaleidoscope dream" btw? love it

Stay tuned: On Wednesday morning, August 1, SPIN will also be exclusively premiering a stream of Miguel's performance from an upcoming secret live show.

really excited about this, there's not tons of video of him playing live out there. especially the new stuff, if at all.

Wonder if Miguel is paying incredibly in-depth homage to Smashing Pumpkins by naming his multi-part digital album Kaleidoscope Dream.

lol i was listening to "use me" w/ the door partly closed while my boyfriend was in the kitchen and when i got up and went in there he said he thought it sounded like a smashing pumpkins song

Wonder if Miguel is paying incredibly in-depth homage to Smashing Pumpkins by naming his multi-part digital album Kaleidoscope Dream.

― Evan R, Thursday, July 26, 2012 11:45 PM (Yesterday)

that was my first thought too haha

"don't look back" >>>>>>>>>>>>

miguel's doubletracked vocals when the bass drops out on "use me" >>>>>>>>>>>

these new tracks are fucking stadium shit

we're gonna find out miguel's been bumping muse for the last six months or something

ok "Don't Look Back" just blew my mind

Yeah didn't grab as much at first, but it's good.

This guy has a gift for smuggling melancholy into unexpected places. "Use Me" is probably the saddest kinky sex song I've heard this year.

("Birthday Cake" doesn't count, because it is sad for other reasons.)

when he double-tracks the guitars on "use me" >>>

"Use Me" is probably the saddest kinky sex song I've heard this year.

he does sing the line "my pride is waving a white flag"

i hate myself for even bringing this up but anyone who dug the weekend's last two mixtapes should feel fucking embarrassed hearing "use me"

as well as in a more general sense

well yes that too, lol

right on cue Lex!

"Use Me" has a pathos that the Weeknd's songs don't, though. Abel is the predatory; Miguel is (at least for this song) the victim

word

Plus, Miguel knows how to use sound and space to complement his voice.

His productions consistently point outward, away from the self, as opposed to The Weeknd's insularity.

yup

"use me" really conveys the parallel nervousness and excitement of new sexual encounters/experiences imo. like you have this towering, expansive song & in the middle of it a guy singing "use me when you're taking control / with the lights off / i can just let go" and "it's the very first time / and i'm nervous / can i trust you, huh?"

tho he also sings from the other perspective as well & i guess it's up to debate which (if either) is him

It's songs that "Use Me" which have me give his songs queer readings.

*like "Use Me"

yeah totally

I was really engrossed by the sheer, uncompromising horror of those last Weeknd mixtapes (plus I think they sound great), but Tesfaye was never very interested in exploring his the roots of his monstrosity; he was just a ghoul. I love how Miguel, on the other hand, uses these small details to suggest the motivations behind sexual desires. He can use his voice to hint at the heartbreak the drives one-night stands, for instance, but its rare to hear a song that equates kinky sex to damaged goods as devastatingly (and as sweetly) as "Use Me."

that drive, excuse me. Gah, I gotta proof my posts better. Whenever I am on allergy meds I am typo city.

and he can makes kinks delicious (e.g. "Arch N Point").

ya good point

(I'm having trouble with subject-verb agreement too)

I was going to mention "Arch N Point" re: Miguel sad-kink

wow @ the "time of the season" interpolation at the end of "don't look back"

and jordan otm about the ryan tedder vibes but miguel wields them incredibly

from 4/12/12

https://twitter.com/MiguelUnlimited/statuses/190618069792604162

It's songs that "Use Me" which have me give his songs queer readings.

I don't usually speculate about artists' sexuality, nor do I really care about it—I have that sort of apathetic and maybe naive quality a lot of straight guys have where we just assume everybody is straight unless they say otherwise—but I kind of wonder if Miguel is just waiting for somebody to bluntly ask him about his sexuality so he can just give them an answer.

part of the questions about him stem from his look & image which is probably unfair but he definitely writes from a different perspective than a lot of singers

on the other hand a lot of his songs code as totally straight to me

Yeah, "Use Me" is such a passive depiction of sexuality, and he positions himself (for lack of a better term) as the receiving partner, which isn't a position that a lot of R&B singers take. Combined with his soft imagine, it just seems to me like if he's gay he's not even really trying to hide his sexuality.

But again, I'm the wrong guy to speculate. Songwriters can write from a wide range of perspectives, so I never would have suspected anything about Frank Ocean from his music along. (Actually, I never suspected anything about Frank Ocean even after seeing this on his Tumblr: http://frankocean.tumblr.com/post/24525846895)

he's explicitly denied gay rumours before, fyi - http://www.bet.com/news/fashion-and-beauty/2011/06/03/miguel-defends-sexuality-explains-his-electrik-style.html

which, like. doesn't necessarily convince me one way or the other. i don't want to be hem in the permissible modes of existence for str8 r&b dudes - more power to them for funky clothes and receptive narratives etc. like, Prince is the greatest and I could give a shit if he was ever actually queer or just played with the codes and imagery.

but still, i wouldn't be entirely shocked or entirely disappointed. he's also stunningly pretty, so... [Rev, back me up on this, please]

although now that I read that article, " “For anyone who questions my sexuality, the honest truth is I love women. I’ve always openly loved women." isn't realllllly a statement of "i am not queer" so much as "i love women openly" and do not comment on the rest of it.

Singer Miguel Denies That He's Gay
He thinks people should expand their horizons

^this is pretty amazing

although now that I read that article, " “For anyone who questions my sexuality, the honest truth is I love women. I’ve always openly loved women." isn't realllllly a statement of "i am not queer" so much as "i love women openly" and do not comment on the rest of it.

― twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Friday, July 27, 2012 5:33 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah i had this thought as well

It's a fun denial, and I'll take his word for it. But Miguel's whole career trajectory has involved catching up to the margins, working from the inside out. He started as an industry favorite in the safe Usher mold; then became a commercial act working on the periphery of a major label making slightly eccentric music, before embracing independent distribution models and nodding to outsidery trends with his free EPs. He's obviously very interested in breaking from commercial expectations, but he works with safety net; he's cautious about the conventions he upends. Now that the climate is suddenly a lot more inviting for urban artists who might want to come out, I wonder if he'll seize the opportunity.

When was he ever in the usher mold? His early staff seems more left coast hippie shit with Blu and Emanon etc.

He's always been a little bit of a weirdo, no? I mean even 'Sure Thing' is weird insofar as it's totally spare except for the screwed vocal hook.

I think it took so long to grow on me because I wanted to hear it as a pop song in context and it felt too anemic.