thread of miguel

eh i said not 'entirely' -- usher's latest definitely has that problem for me, but if anything the whiff of desperation is stronger in his haircut than the album

big homie sold 69k this week

I also believe there must be another and more interesting way of framing this "r&b has gone eurotrash on us, wave goodbye" narrative that's circulating a lot right now. Just not sure what it is.

It's probably way to early to posit this wishful theory, but I'm beginning to wonder if the eurotrash R&B trend is on its way out. Chris Brown saw less return on his latest round of dance singles than his last round, and it's telling that Usher's "Climax" outperformed "Scream," which didn't do as well on the pop charts as Usher's previous dance singles either. (Chris Brown in particular got a lot less urban radio play for his new album than he did with his last one, so he saw diminished returns across two formats). Meanwhile, Trey Songz has had a nice singles run appealing primarily to urban formats, and Ne-Yo seems to be slowly but surely returning back to reality. I wouldn't be surprised to see all these artists trend a bit more urban and a bit less pop on their next records. But again, could be wishful thinking.

well, a year ago Ne-Yo was saying his next album would have no dance pop, now he's saying that's 50% of the album. and also the pop single's doing better than the urban single.

I've definitely noticed EDM-pop in general getting a bit less dominant. Nothing in the style has hit #1 since January.

xp Ah, didn't know Ne-Yo said it'd be 50/50. Most of the advance tracks I've heard from R.E.D. have been better than expected and decidedly urban-leaning, so I was hoping "Let Me Love You" was just a "Beautiful Monster"-ish outlier. But Tim McGraw is on the album so who the hell knows; it could be a Nelly record

It's probably way to early to posit this wishful theory, but I'm beginning to wonder if the eurotrash R&B trend is on its way out. Chris Brown saw less return on his latest round of dance singles than his last round, and it's telling that Usher's "Climax" outperformed "Scream," which didn't do as well on the pop charts as Usher's previous dance singles either. (Chris Brown in particular got a lot less urban radio play for his new album than he did with his last one, so he saw diminished returns across two formats). Meanwhile, Trey Songz has had a nice singles run appealing primarily to urban formats, and Ne-Yo seems to be slowly but surely returning back to reality. I wouldn't be surprised to see all these artists trend a bit more urban and a bit less pop on their next records. But again, could be wishful thinking.

― Evan R, Tuesday, October 9, 2012 10:34 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'll take it.

the Ne-Yo track on McGraw's own album is...interesting. He plays Faith Hill for all intents and purposes.

i'm sort of excited about that song not even in a train wreck way because the one with nelly is so fucking good

yeah i'm curious about it for the same reason i mostly don't mind Ne-Yo's pop stuff -- he has such a clean, adaptable vocal style that he can go outside R&B without as much inherent strain as most of his contemporaries.

on the McGraw album he's clearly exploiting memories of Lionel Richie-Kenny Rogers collabbs

didn't he write some songs for Lionel?

and Akon!

as in, Akon and Stargate were on that album (2008 or 2009?)

yeah Ne-Yo is definitely cut from an MJ/Lionel Richie/Babyface type cloth where leaning pop seems to come so natural that holding him to an R&B purism standard feels pointless

fantastic as ever on letterman

yup. keeps tweaking the arrangement, too.

one thing I've noticed that kind of sux tho, afaict he's never performed "Arch and Point" live?

miguel looks like he finished practicing his dance moves 5 minutes before he took stage

Great performance. Makes me want to go see him again live. Thursday night he's at that Morgan State Homecoming show in Baltimore that Some Dude mentioned: 2 Chainz, Miguel and Elle Varner

Why is the deluxe version of KD with "Gravity" and "All" added, $28.99 from Amazon US? Actually they're calling it "limited edition" so I guess that explains it.

it will only cost 29 dollars for a limited time

what song did he do - adorn?

yep

http://pitchfork.com/news/48163-watch-miguel-on-letterman/

Love the chain.

I like 'Use Me' but it seems kinda out of place on the album to me. Like a Depeche Mode cover slapped bang in the middle of an r n b album.

i don't think of "Use Me" as being an outlier in that way at all! if anything "Don't Look Back" sticks out more as not very R&B.

the D.C. grown folks R&B station, which usually only plays the occasional new joint by Maxwell or whoever amongst 70s and 80s stuff, has picked up on "Adorn"

Funny how "Adorn" actually makes more sense on grown-folks R&B formats

I'm actually starting to think I might like 'Use Me' more than 'Adorn'

I do.

me too

At least a third of the album is as much stadium rock as r&b and Use Me is especially so, but it doesn't seem particularly out of place.

I'll never be able to hear another bit of Coldplay style anthemic falsetto bluster without imagining how much better Miguel would be able to make it sound though.

When he goes for "stadium rock", he goes for stadium rock in the Purple Rain sense tho, tightly wrapped up in r&b. It's not like he's trying to be Coldplay or their ilk.

he makes stadium rock feel really intimate

like, just you & him in a massive stadium

ha otm!

When he goes for "stadium rock", he goes for stadium rock in the Purple Rain sense tho, tightly wrapped up in r&b

Oh yeah totally. The Coldplay thing was more of an aside really, like it suddenly occurred to me that Miguel would probably be the single artist most likely to take some drippy Coldplay type stadium ballad and make it amazing.

like, just you & him in a massive stadium

― lex pretend, Thursday, October 11, 2012

omg

Purple Rain was Prince's attempt at writing a Bob Seger song.

true story

i ain't judgin, if you do decide that you might be fuckin tonight
more power to you if you do decide that you might be fuckin tonight

^ this lyric is kinda radical

+ rap/r&b station here is finally playing "Adorn" in regular rotation

- it's the Wiz remix :(

wtf is wrong with the west coast man

not as many black folk as points farther east, is what it boils down to basically

i guess maybe! what's the station called?

kube 93

rube 93

lol

You do have to consider tho, that black people here aren't the largest group, or even the second biggest group, but the *FOURTH*, so if you have a station that only appeals to black listeners, it's not going to be successful. This wasn't a problem when rap & r&b were at the center of the pop consciousness, but now unfortunately your average white listener isn't interested in hearing a straight-up r&b song like "Adorn" and it's a victory that they're playing it at all. This is the first Miguel song they've picked up on, whereas Wiz has been a familiar presence on the station for the past couple years. I think they even gave "Say Yeah" some spins when it came out.

And it's like...Kube's top-40 sister station (also owned by Clear Channel) has gotten so whitewashed that literally their most-played song by a black artist right now ("Pound The Alarm") is number twenty-fucking-five on their playlist. So they've pretty much ceded the territory of even straight-up pop by black artists to Kube 93. Shit is depressing.

come to the east coast

east coast can suck my ass thru a straw westside 4 lyfe, fool

we have HOT97

def don't move to the east coast but i would say maybe leave seattle