The purpose built next generation interstellar Dawn Richard thread

I think this board seriously underestimates what a tough sell Dawn Richard is to non-converts. On the surface, her resume looks pretty dire. Danity Kane was not a well-respected band, and the Diddy association is a turnoff to a lot of people who haven't actually heard the DDM album (or who only heard that one moronic Skylar Grey single)

― Evan R, Tuesday, 10 April 2012 3:15 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think anything can be spun.

Weeknd fans who want to embrace this can convince themselves that she is busting out of the constraints of major label R&B and that Diddy wasn't smart enough to realise her genius.

― Tim F, Tuesday, 10 April 2012 05:29 (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"independent freedom"

please let me know other kinds

still absorbing this, but it's really impressive on first listen if maybe a touch overwhelming/ear-exhausting. I mostly stopped trying to track the stand-out moments halfway through, but as someone who found Goldenheart to be unrelenting, I really like how "Swim Free" is positively minimalist for her, ftgi otm re: The Deep, and I like that her pronunciation of "warriors" reminds me of Johnny Osbourne (pvmic).

Idk what difference it makes, but fwiw, A. Ryce's background is mostly in dance music.

writers from a dance background have been worse at r&b than writers from an indie background over the last few years, and the most insistent on setting up a new value system for it

I feel that.

tbh the strawman of "indie r&b" has been more about r&b as interpreted through dance values

by dance i don't mean, like, fun dance, i mean nerdy white boy dance

ha which is ironic given how indebted this album is to nerdy white boy dance

"nerdy white boy dance" critics have basically set up a kind of indie mindset within dance anyway so the differences can be difficult to detect sometimes.

Having said that the section of the review actually about the album doesn't strike me as nerdy white boy dance writing: it's very focused on Dawn's persona in these songs and frequently lauds her projection of strength.

are there any other reviews of this live?

I usually hate listening to music on headphones (for physical comfort reasons) but this album is such a revelation on them.

I think after 4-5 listens, "Calypso", "Swim Free", "Projection" are my early favorites.

There's also this one: http://pressplayok.com/review-dawn-richard-blackheart/

needed some time with the album before i came here to talk about it but i love love love it. it's so different from GoldenHeart, which I loved but still so Dawn.

Blow works way better in its new mix/in the album context.

I managed to rip an audio track from the video version of Tide I bought on iTunes, but not sure where it goes on the album. Is it just going to be a bonus track or is it being mixed into the middle of the album somewhere for the vinyl version.

(also...VINYL VERSION? Was there a vinyl version of GoldenHeart I missed out on somehow?)

castles is a fucking bop

jaw first dropped halfway through adderall i think and it's been agape ever since

also is the limited vinyl version with Tide being made commercially available or was it just for people at that listening session? the internet is suggesting the latter.

idk!

also haven't listened to the vinyl yet but when i do i'll let you knwo where "tide" lands

apparently according to her twitter there's no CD release for BlackHeart - just the limited vinyl. every 'era' gets a different physical format and GoldenHeart got CD.

reading through the old pats of the thread and vaguely disappointed about this

Dawn Richard / NEON ‏@DawnRichard
“@drewscotty: Heartillery will be on "Blackheart" Album #HEARTS. We made the song a lot darker to fit that theme.”album 2 already bein done!

cause as amazing as Noisecastle III's production on BlackHeart is, it sounded as though there was an earlier version of BlackHeart that was substantially complete before its release was put on pause for the Danity Kane reunion - it was originally supposed to come out in the fall of 2013, iirc and then got bumped so the recording of DK3 wouldn't stop Dawn from touring and promoting BlackHeart.

Which means there's an entire Dawn Richard/Druski album that disappeared into the ether and it included a song called 'Heartillery'.

Dawn's afrofuturism makes everyone else's sound rote.

Does this mean Redemptionheart is gonna be on tape? It better be full on jeep knockers if so.

"physical" works really well as an epilogue bonus track tacked on to the end btw - you can see why it wouldn't have fit on the album itself, but its carefree vibe makes it work in a similar way to "honey" off new amerykah pt 1

i really wonder whether it'll ever happen for her - not chart-wise obv but just critical success on an fka twigs or even tinashe level

She seems to get uniformly good reviews without much sense of critical momentum or gaining traction. Maybe you need a proper promotional machine behind you for that to happen and Dawn self-releases everything.

Given this sounds like a pretty expensive album to have recorded I'm kinda mystified how it even got made in the first place. Having been in Danity Kane can't pay that well.

"Tide" video is pretty amazing.

i am only halfway through my first listen but i am amazed by the production

I feel like the Tide video is getting a bunch of traction in the press

http://www.bing.com/news/search?q=dawn+richard&FORM=HDRSC5&PC=SMSM

^not all of its centered around the video, but there's enough here to feel like Blackheart's release is big news

You're seriously using Bing? I guess you could do that.

Lol my bad I forgot to never post in these threads

Okay, finally listening and yes to what everyone was saying above. Meaning this rules and all. Yeah.

my way of getting through goldenheart lately is starting it at "gleaux"

"levitate" was posted here without much comment but incidentally i really like "levitate"

god i hope "physical" appears on like redemptionheart or something

With Ned on this: I love this with all my heart.

i thought she was headed into diminishing returns with the last album but this one is pretty special

The detailing on this record is just some kind of next level!

I didn't get to hear it until I went into work today, but it just completely sucked me in and forced me to listen to it 3 times in a row, just to try and figure how it all fit together.

And I can't point and say exactly what the difference is, but Goldenheart, that was an album I had to work to understand and get my head around and get inside. Like, that album did not make it easy for me.

But Blackheart, despite the fact that it is just as out there, just as proggy, just as odd and strange and intense, this album is so damn moreish and "no, come in, have another listen, no, go ahead, listen again, you know want to" and every single thing about it pulls me deeper.

Damn, because now I want a physical copy because I'm so done with MP3s in 2015. :(

god "Choices" is legit so amazing, not just for an interlude

"Phoenix" isn't working for me as well as "Faith" did on Armor On. It's kind of...Ryan Tedder-ish. :(

yeah "phoenix" is def not the essential peak that "faith" was but it's less because it's tedder/sia-esque and more because it's not as undeniable a song. still works in context though.

i really want to include "tide" in the tracklist because it's just the most majestic thing ever, but it always feels completely sacrilegious to fuck with dawn's sequencing so i just can't.

god post-pinkprint and post-little red it feels so good to have an album that does the impeccable sequencing for you. dawn doesn't even make it complicated - crazy busy beats first, a period of calm, then the corny closing stretch, done.

"tide" (which i haven't really gotten into yet, but haven't listened to much either) and "physical" work well tacked on to the end of that for me

can't wrap my head around this at all but it's... incredible

People with vinyl! Is Tide a bonus at the end or...

This album! I'm trying to remember what day I get paid so I can buy it and let it ride roughshod all over every other album for the rest of the year. It's really the thing I needed right now.

listening to this on headphones is like going into a wormhole. i can't even begin to note down the details i'm blown away by because so many of them keep coming. the way "blow" holds back its electro riff til the final chorus...the tension as "adderall" transitions into "sold"...the moment she starts gasping on "titans"...the alien swamp breathing on "projection"...