The purpose built next generation interstellar Dawn Richard thread

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"...

Lol I found myself selling this to someone the other day like Kate Bush....Aphex Twin....Bjork ;_;

i was loath to go there with the björk comparison bc 1) it's kinda meaningless bc what does "björkish" even mean sonically, 2) dawn's been waving this influence at everyone for a while, but the vocal layering and weird clicky beats on "titans" and "projection" are really pure vespertine/medúlla-era björk

also can we talk about how dawn fucks around with her voice so much, and that sour snappy low voice she uses on "billie jean"!

I hear Prince's "Power Fantastic," Peter Gabriel's Passion soundtrack, none of the usual influences.

I'm not saying any of those comparisons were entirely apt.

also can we talk about how dawn fucks around with her voice so much, and that sour snappy low voice she uses on "billie jean"!

― lex pretend, Monday, January 26, 2015 3:07 PM Bookmark

This has been a hallmark to me since she started releasing solo material!

but not to the extent she does here - like, not just slathering on autotune like she's dressing up as imogen heap, but this huge range of what she does with her voice (both treated and how she sings)

I was thinking how damn PROG this record sounds and then you come and crack me up with a Passion of Peter Gabriel reference.

not just slathering on autotune like she's dressing up as imogen heap

this made me lol but is actually OTM about some of her earlier vocal tricks

i need to read more reviews of this album, it's literally been reviewed twice

workinonit

:)

Did you see this review, where the writer compares her to Cher--

After the recent reunion of Danity Kane and release of the band’s new album, it may come as a surprise to many that Dawn Richard is still pursuing a solo career. But listeners are in for an even bigger surprise as you soon realize that Dawn may be striving to be the new Cher of the Vegas strip but with an urban twist. Her new electronic-inspired alternative sound on her self-released album Blackheart is a huge change from what we’ve heard with Danity Kane and Dawn’s many features with artists from Bad Boy Entertainment.

...As a whole, the album is inconsistent. You cannot deny Dawn’s great vocal ability or the well written verses in the songs that do actually contain lyrics. The key to a successful solo career is establishing a definitive sound, so it’s a worry that Blackheart doesn’t have one. I wouldn’t call it an epic fail, but Dawn Richard could certainly do better.

http://fdrmx.com/dawn-richard-blackheart-album-review/

... what

The techno music leads “Calypso,” then Dawn’s hip-hop personality returns in “Blow.” This song, about the anticipation of success was somewhat confusing when being sung by an established artist like Dawn Richard. But when you factor in the heavy presence of instruments, digital sound and vocals, the song is pretty good.

This site doesn't have editors, I assume.

oh it's a student review, okay

C-

i didn't need to read that review, eesh

90% of dawn richard coverage in the past week seems to be about the danity kane punch-up and/or her plastic surgery or lack thereof, ugh

I can confirm that this is the perfect album for cross country skiing (which I suck at), just busting my ass through a beautiful snowy wilderness. Had to take on a big hill when "Warriors" came on. Killed it.

critics presumably saving their column inches for whatever insipid afrofuturism janelle monae drops in 2015.

::flame emoji::

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE

Mmmmhmm

If anyone wants to subsidize me holding forth "at length" about this album I am accepting briefs.

I only have boxers.

I have nothing.

i am prepared to enter into some sort of foreign undergarment hedging arrangement if you have appropriate collateral.

Nothing.

NOTHHIIIIIIIIIIIIING

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19LPgLKrgLE

It's actually really frustrating because this album, while amazing, is also 100% on trend in virtually every way and hardly anyone gives a shit.

i wonder whether people might finally concede that an album's critical traction is 90% to do with the right PR people now

Got paid yesterday so I finally bought this album today, listening to it on the big speakers and WOW, like, so many levels to this thing.

I'm not even sure that it's about "the critical traction of an album being down to PR" so much as it is the way that... artists get *established* within certain narratives within the critical discourse. And Richard's narrative has solidified so firmly into "reality show artist" that it's impossible for most critics to even conceive of her on another.

Like, you can be a TV Star or you can be a Serious Artist, but it's impossible for you to be both.

(And even with the few, FEW successful crossovers - Girls Aloud? - the critical narrative is around the management, the production, Xenomania, etc. rather than their input.)

Listening to this album, I do kinda feel like, if something like "Swim Free" came out attached to an unknown name, it would have FKA Twigs level of "What... is... this... ASTONISHING artefact!?!?!?" narratives forming around it. But people have already decided what her narrative is, no matter what record Richard puts out.

it's an album that certainly deserves the accolades tinashe and twigs have received (2 records i also love a lot fwiw)

Oh yeah, I agree with that - ties into publication demographics too; vast majority of sites that have covered her are gossip/celebrity sites. And if she's in that world why would the critical community pay attention. ..

I love the Twigs album too but her image was critbait from day one.

wait why are we talking about Dawn getting shut out of critical discourse when her album was reviewed on PF and most major label R&B albums aren't? if anything her critical presence is far bigger than the impact her records have actually made.