The purpose built next generation interstellar Dawn Richard thread

I'd have said Blackheart was way more of a crazy beats showcase than this, but the songwriting on Redemption isn't so much weaker - in terms of immediate hooks and straightforward melody it's her best album yet - as pared-down. When you look at the lyrics it's actually surprising how few of them there are - much of it is way more incantatory than narrative or even poetic (eg "Black Crimes" going to another level when she abandons actual words, "LA" being such an epic even though the structure is just chorus-verse-chorus-repeat central lines til end). Her Tori-like enunciation adds to this feel too, even on more narrative songs like "Hey Nikki".

could not disagree w/ matt more... this album (key final chapter of the unified triptych more accurately) is literally all in the songwriting

I've never cared or paid much attention to the unifying concept of the trilogy but there are fewer vocal hooks or lines sticking in my head than any of the previous albums, and when there are they're mostly in the closing stretch. I've listened to this six or seven times now and maybe there are subtleties that the production is currently overwhelming.

When you look at the lyrics it's actually surprising how few of them there are - much of it is way more incantatory than narrative

This makes more sense to me right now.

Yeah I don't think the "beats are the point" here, it's more just that Machinedrum's production style tends to build up and then showcase the beats during what either are or (but for Dawn's intervention) could have been instrumental choruses, whereas Dawn's work with Druski, with some exceptions, would largely set up the beat and let it run through the track, and her work with Noisecastle III tends to be all over the place (ironically, "Black Crimes" tries exceptionally hard to fit in seamlessly with Machinedrum's sound).

Dawn is sufficiently flexible as a songwriter that she can work with and around these disparate sonic structures, and I think this tends to result in Redemption's songs being more sinuous and lithe, certainly less full-bore/full-tilt than Goldenheart, and also less wired than Blackheart.

But the other aspect of it is simply that these songs are already much more reflective to begin with, even something like "Love Under Lights" is pretty ambiguous about what kind of emotion she's wanting to broadcast or evoke. So whereas on Goldenheart it always felt like Dawn was out ahead of the production, here it's like the production sets up the mise en scene and then she's in the middle of it in a sort of negotiator's role. Our we celebrating? Mournful? Nostalgic? The fact that (I suspect) she's also chosen to place her voice a bit further back in the mix only adds to this vibe. I'd readily concede that there's nothing here that knocks me sideways like the "Sold" component of "Aderall/Sold" - rather, the songs-as-construct approach you head on while it's now Dawn's character and narrative that approach from the sides. I think this is a strength of the songwriting rather than a weakness; as if Dawn thought she needed Machinedrum's relative obviousness production-wise as a counterweight to her own increasing nuance.

Anyway if I had to choose the pick of the bunch it'd probably be BlackHeart by a whisker (or Armor On, if that's an option), but that wouldn't be because of any weakness in Redemption's songwriting.

haha post with r|t|c I guess.

lol rtc

I've been assuming that Dawn has had A LOT of input into the beats here, like I have no real idea which bits are Machinedrum-produced and which aren't.

I wouldn't suggest that she doesn't, but a lot of these beats bear heavy resemblance to the recent Machinedrum album, to the point where I tend to assume that Dawn quite deliberately brought in his "sound" on several tracks.

but yeah the actual production credits don't necessarily breakdown the way I might expect.

I'm not sure I've heard anything recently like "The Louvre." It's part of a chain of songs by women in which her character wanders landscapes while other people do their routines and she loses her mind (Suzanne Vega's "In Liverpool," Aimee Mann's "Fourth of July"), but the arrangement – wow. Those violins: lightness and dread.

I don't think there's that much resemblance between Redemption and solo Machinedrum - not compared to "Not Above That" and "Wake Up", certainly

Well yeah the difference is that Redemption is like actual songs

That's not fair: "Not Above That" is a perfectly decent real song, but it feels very distant from the rest of Dawn's solo work. Hearing Dawn be an R&B "siren" is weird.

I'm not sure I've heard anything recently like "The Louvre." It's part of a chain of songs by women in which her character wanders landscapes while other people do their routines and she loses her mind (Suzanne Vega's "In Liverpool," Aimee Mann's "Fourth of July"), but the arrangement – wow. Those violins: lightness and dread.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, November 29, 2016 12:20 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's a pretty unique inversion of both the trad r&b bedroom jam and the art gallery crossover experiment: it sounds like she's wandering the Louvre but the actual narrative takes place in private; it's in lieu of putting her lover on display that Dawn arranges the song as if she had. And it brings it back to the devotional songs on Armor On, "Heaven" and "Scripture", where she's kneeling to this idea of love that's equivalent to religious faith or artistic rapture.

(I love how you can group Dawn songs by thematic or sonic connection through her albums, as well as in the albums themselves, kind of like her discography works on two axes. Like how "Billie Jean" and "Hey Nikki" are obviously a pair but you could expand that to "James Dean" as well etc etc)

(The other great thing about Dawn's character songs like those three is that she might retell modern myths from different perspectives but it's never the straightforward or expected one - not inversions but subtle shifts in angle. Like "Hey Nikki" could've so easily just been "Darling Nikki"...but from HER PERSPECTIVE!!!111 - but it's just fleshing her out by approaching her with more awe and reverence)

something i wrote in my review but that got cut is the way the chorus of "hey nikki" sounds kind of submerged makes it feel like it's "darling nikki" actively bleeding into her song

That's not fair: "Not Above That" is a perfectly decent real song, but it feels very distant from the rest of Dawn's solo work. Hearing Dawn be an R&B "siren" is weird.

― Tim F, 29. november 2016 12:34 (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well, Maya Vik of Young Michael Douglas fame wrote it, and it feels very much like a Maya Vik song to me, at least.

Currently digging the Kate Bush vamping on "Lillies." This album does so many things in such a short span.

tryna figure out where the songs are, nothing's sticking with me.

http://thetalkhouse.com/talkhouse-playlist-dawn-richard/

it makes lots of sense that "little earthquakes" is her tori amos pick!

What a lovely and telling playlist!

After half a dozen listens this album is beginning to surpass Blackheart for me and rise to near the top of my favourites this year. I love everything about it and her. Such energy!

it made my top ten

wow I did not see that Rachel Syme interviewed her (for p4k): http://pitchfork.com/features/interview/9795-the-indivisible-dwn/

love that she gives a shout-out to girlpool

Has she ever listened to Nona Hendryx's Skindiver?

I was always a nerd

Lots of celebrities say things like that -- I was a nerd, I was a geek -- and I'm sure it's true for some number of them. But Dawn's nerd cred is pretty undeniable. Not many people have named a band after their own anime character.

Also, reading that made me finally finish the review of Redemption I started a while ago, so fwiw it's here: http://bit.ly/2jnV2z4

ive been listening to this album a tonne in the past week. so many good tracks it's hard to pick a favorite. hell even valhalla has one of my favorite moments of the album on it

Nice piece, tipsy.

Thanks!

yeah very nice!

https://www.residentadvisor.net/features/2845

If you liked 'Infrared' from last year, there's a whole lot more of it coming:
http://singersroom.com/content/2017-01-17/dawn-richard-paint-blue-rizzla-remix/

There's also a remix of "Vines" up on soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/dawn_richard/dawn-vines-remix

oh and a CD of Redemption with "unreleased bonus tracks" (more remixes?) coming in Feb, I gather

So she's got a collaboration with David Longstreth (Dirty Projectors) coming out, according to his interview in Pitchfork

I shouldna doubted her - https://twitter.com/DawnRichard/status/823990273512353792

11 folks voted for her album in the Voice critics poll

are we going to talk about this or what

you mean this dirty projectors/dawn richard track? kicks ass

http://exclaim.ca/music/article/dirty_projectors-cool_your_heart_ft_dawn_richard_video

Love that Solange wrote this track

Dirty Projectors are real hit and miss with me but this is dope

Lol at Dave Longstreth's mastery of one facial expression in this video

i fuck with this

Video is unwatchable but the song is cool

when longstreth sings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ein57OSrqoA

I hear violence?

Redemption is out on CD and vinyl as of last Monday (in the UK anyways). More accurately, the title RedemptionHeart appears to have been revived for the physical release.

The CD has two previously unreleased bonus tracks, "Hurricane" and "Van Gogh". The latter sounds like a keeper judging by the clips on Juno:
http://www.juno.co.uk/products/dawn-richard-redemption/637147-01/

You can listen to both "Hurricane" and "Van Gogh" here. "Van Gogh" is ace

https://soundcloud.com/dawn_richard