thread of miguel

also it's not exactly the most masculine thing a dude could write

haha ok i get alfred's post now

apparently Kaleidoscope Dream and a lot of other albums dropped early on vinyl this week to make the Grammys deadline

i noticed a few months ago that he was selling the vinyl on his website and that it shipped a week early but i thought it was just some general incentive to get ppl to spring for the vinyl

I wld buy a copy on vinyl

Where's The Fun is great. The only bits I'm not sold on yet are the title track and The Thrill.

Fall into forever / just forgive me I was faithless

That's probably my favorite moment on the album

Will admit I feared the worst on hearing the outro to Don't Look Back but he never lets the aesthetic or the instrumentation overwhelm either the voice or the songwriting, both of which are by and large impeccable.

― Matt DC, Thursday, September 27, 2012 10:1

"Use Me" and "Don't look Back" both sounded great live Wednesday night. Not overblown or overwrought.

ftr there are some gems on that 33-song compilation rev posted upthread. "magazines" in particular, some others i can't remember. many of these are probably early cuts and he's still looking for his voice (figuratively, but literally sometimes - i'm almost posotive ne-yo is actually singing "hand it over"), but the quality is surprisingly good overall

a bunch of these are songs for other artists i had no idea he wrote

i think he was nominated for a grammy for a song he did with musiq... also he wrote some joints on 'raymond vs raymond' (including "mars vs. venus" !!)

"i feel the night approaching / the moon is calling me" on don't look back beginning sounds like night air !

Grammy nomination was for co-writing this:

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

"where's the fun in forever" is one of the best joints on here

was just thinking right now that it's interesting to me that he wrote everything here w/in a pretty pop structure... like for his "alternative," "live-driven" album the longest song on this is just 4:45. after hearing the "use me" & "don't look back" i would've put money on there being like one 8 min song or something.

also interesting to me is that i believe when he says that he set out to do something that was liked by tastemakers even if it didn't continue his career trajectory as a radio star and then he goes out and writes the biggest pop hit of his career, boosts his profile considerably with hipsters and the general public and probably has a few more on the way.

yeah i think his idea of arty or experimental is still really focused on hooks, melody, emotion, vocal performances, and just taking musical chances that can foreground those elements. which i love, very keyed in to what i like to hear. (xpost)

i am pretty curious to see if this album has the same kind of run of 3-4 big radio hits like the last one, and what those songs end up being.

yeah... i could see "drugs" and "how many drinks?" both doing pretty well at radio even if they don't come close to scraping "adorn" -- he should do big first week numbers either way tho

i think the song i'm crossing my fingers for single hopes the most is "Use Me"

after "adorn" did so well i've given up on predicting what songs have a shot at being a hit

the album version immediately turned me around on thinking that song had radio potential

i was definitely happy when they ran with it as a single after the EPs cuz i think it definitely had picked up some steam on the internet but i definitely didn't expect it to be his biggest radio hit ever

definitely

when i talked to him "adorn" was just starting to get radio play and he was saying that he didn't write any songs for the radio and i was sort of contemplating the idea of him disassociating from the major system and going indie or something, but that certainly isn't happening anytime soon now.

damn i definitely wrote definitely three times in that post

yeah i mean he had a lot of momentum off the last record but mid-level R&B stars are on such shaky ground these days, you can have a couple big hits one year and then just start shooting nothing but blanks for no real obvious reason, wouldn't have shocked me if he'd started slipping off the radar right now

yeah me either. he played me an early version of "how many drinks?" and i was like "ah well they've got that one at least, maybe people will think it's a lovely mmts song"

I'm still floored that "Adorn" hit #1. If he gets "Use Me" into the R&B top twenty I'll be ready to give all the credit for Miguel's A&R guys and promotion for the way they've finessed his exposure in the last eight months.

haha i wrote "somewhat" three different times in a somewhat important email a few days ago and was really pissed at myself about it, it happens somewhat more frequently than we'd like xxp

do you like adverrrrrbs
me too

"how many drinks" seems like the most immediate, most surefire choice, but again who knows. plus i really love that song...that's another thing you realize listening to that old collection of songs, he doesn't really take advantage of his amazing voice like he does with his songs these days

you know Second Album Syndrome? This is one where the artist gets it right: honing skills, sure, but also using newfound confidence to unearth new ones.

I'm still floored that "Adorn" hit #1. If he gets "Use Me" into the R&B top twenty I'll be ready to give all the credit for Miguel's A&R guys and promotion for the way they've finessed his exposure in the last eight months.

― taking tiger mountain (up the butt) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, September 28, 2012 10:41 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think this renaissance is pretty artist-driven. all the ADC stuff was very much his vision & all financed by him... ime he works with a pretty small team. "adorn" is certainly, like, he wrote a classic joint and pushed it himself initially before it really took off (his people may have suggested he write a final minute or maybe it already existed, who knows). but if he strings together multiple hits off this album it's genius shit on his part.

that jaheim song he wrote that won a grammy is dope. is his album worth checking out (jaheim's)? i really liked some of his early songs ("fabulous" in particular is a gem)

been wondering that myself. I havent checked his stuff for a long time.

anyone think this one is better than his first?

i think you and i are the only people who have spent a lot of time than the first, so it's kind of a moot point (too soon to tell for me but i am pretty high on the new one at the moment).

a lot of time WITH the first

i like the new one a lot too but my impression of it hasn't really changed since i first listened to it - i've listened to it about 5 times and my favorites aren't really changing from listen to listen like with the first, and i'm not really discovering new things buried in the songs to love, as i STILL am with the first. i think it's a fine follow-up though, much better than some of the other follow-ups i'd been anticipating by other favorite artists of mine over the past couple years

I've been busy all week and haven't had a chance to listen more than once, but I was under the impression most people think this is better than the first album? I think your perspective of the first album's reception is fairly skewed by your love of it.

no i know that people slept on miguel's first album. he wasn't on pitchfork all the time back then, so it's not surprising

yeah i don't think anyone really rates the first album that highly

It's not that I slept on it, it's just that I didn't enjoy it that much.

no i know that people slept on miguel's first album. he wasn't on pitchfork all the time back then, so it's not surprising

― la goonies (k3vin k.), Sunday, September 30, 2012 10:13 PM (27 seconds ago) Bookmark

*puts head on chin, leans forward*

;)

http://cdn.eurweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/michelle_obama2012-chin-on-fist-wide.jpg

first album both has more good songs and higher highs, though "adorn" might be his best song. new one is very good at what it aims to be, which is a breezy, pleasant 40-minute record, but it isn't the trip the first was

don't really think you're listening to it right if "breezy, pleasant" is what you're getting from it

maybe k3v downloaded a bad leak?

doubt it but i was talking more about the songcraft than the sonics, admittedly, which haven't grabbed me one way or another