Ryan Leslie, c/d, s/d

so i was listening to this tonite & decided actually i love it

"sunday nite" is like the dopest tribute to having a gf ive heard in awhile

you are right about this album btw - one thing i love about his songs is that you can immediately tell how he thought about & constructed each song - each instrumental element is very distinct and deliberate & i'm glad that he didn't lose that when he decided to go funky - more than the-dream or ne-yo leslie feels like a composer to me

he seems more academic about music, if that makes sense (not to bring the harvard thing into the discussion but) - this prob won't register in this thread but he reminds me a lot of spoon - everything is economical, nothing is extraneous

not sure if i actually believe my composer statement when thinking about the 'love vs. money' suite

i'm equally mystified at how unpopular his music is and at why a major label is still releasing his albums - it's not even like he "launched" cassie's career or something seeing as she doesn't have one

he should do more producing for rappers too i think

yeah his tracks for Fab were dope, would love to hear him do more outside production

i haven't really connected w/ Transition yet, but i've yet to hear anything on it that i like remotely as much as "Valentine" and the singles off the first one

yeah nothing has cut as deep as "valentine" or "gibberish" for me either, though i really like "sunday night" and "something that i like"

I really like the record but it often sounds a bit like the lyrics and singing are a pretty major afterthought to all the neat production, like he could be singing fucking anything half the time.

For me the standouts are "Never Gonna Break Up", "You're Not My Girl", "Is It Real Love", and also "All My Love". The music in "All My Love" is really amazing, the bit in the outro with the strings coming in and out is unreal, should go on longer.

i'm gonna listen to it, but last time out i really just ended up playing gibberish on repeat, quicksand was pretty good in a micro-n.e.r.d. way but u no after that

I really like the record but it often sounds a bit like the lyrics and singing are a pretty major afterthought to all the neat production, like he could be singing fucking anything half the time.

yeah this is otm. forgot to mention "never gonna break up" as a fave too

this album is better i think

plays through more coherently - more interesting to listen to as a whole

this might b a little live blogg 4 me but that is one first snare and already this is meatier than the first one in a way i didn't think i wanted but yeah this already sound better tm, less thn a min in tho

voice layering sounds lusher and sound is thicker but its still just as sparse somehow also, arrangements get a bit buckingham in places

i think lyrics on a few of these are actually pretty great

i like how the 'interesting production' functions but its not weird/interesting enough that it would work on its own, like, without great songwriting & functional concepts like "sunday night"

well i think i like how it isn't partic *wee-ird* sounding but like has these strange headphone moments buried in it, but yeah, its not exactly the foregrounded appeal, more like little details and textures that r gonna b fun to find in the context of some pretty slick 80's style soul pop, i kno i've said phil collins b4 but

exactly

oh ok lol i thought i was disagreeing wit u sorta

is it ok 2 repost this here?

http://i386.photobucket.com/albums/oo305/lejospopo/didntmeanto.jpg

okay but that guitar on you're not my girl, really?

how dope is that solo in that one song

lol i was disagreeing w/ ronan, trying to say the same thing you were xxxxp

i mean there r some great details tho, i just love how the sound of the keyboards pulls away from the speakers on some of the little descending runs on To The Top

every time i try to pay attention to the lyrics my mind just wanders away - really really really cannot get past his wallpaper nothing voice, no matter how pretty the arrangements

guess that is ur cross 2 bear

ronan is dead right abt all my love, which is prolly the showiest production, that bit where the piano replaces the synths!

yeah that end part is so amazing, and the synth back into the piano, there's just something in that shift back and forth as it fades out that works on some level beyond explanation for me.

i'm not saying the lyrics are terrible as such, there is some content there, the music wouldn't work on its own cos it's obviously song structured, but that doesn't mean the actual lyrics are then great. I mean yeah the lyrics are fine, I think there's just a few parts where they're in that zone of him saying he wants to bone someone in a v roundabout overly sensitive and thus ultimately sleazy way. eg "if it's a question of your pride, put that thing aside."

Wondering is that the source of the yuppy complaints cos that's how I'd think of "Intimate Connection" too.

it works lyrically 4 me like the strokes lyrics do which is, its pretty meaningless drivel on the surface but there are lines that jump out for almost no reason and seem great!

ha, that's an interesting comparison - i think julian is a great lyricist on the first two albums pretty much in the way you describe

aye jordan, I get your spoon comparison, but it doesn't quite work because britt d. is a way better lyricist and a better singer to boot

i mean arrangement wise

yeah I get that, I'm saying the comparison ends there

i feel like ryan leslie & the-draem exist to be diametric opposites of each other while kinda being the same

ryan leslie, super-rehearsed & labored-over **craftsman** composer of precision
the-dream, naturally-gifted & ballsy but kinda unable to rein himself in & be thoughtful

honestly, maxwell is the best blend of these two approaches & its why i like his record more than either

About halfway through a first listen to Transition right now (I'd already heard "You're Not My Girl"). Really digging this aesthetic. Guess I should check out the self-titled one, too?

its not as good

btw is it me or does this record sound kinda compressed & not pristine/clean? its kind of annoying actually

the first one has some moments, like 'quicksand' & its short enough that if you like this one you probably wont feel like you wasted your time. but its def not as good

I think 'sunday night' is definitely my favorite on this

yeah i was skeptical that this was really gonna be much better than the last one which i dug A LOT on a surface level but once gibberish wore off was kindof eh abt the whole thing. k3vin was right that its more of the same but in a really good way this time round, hard to even say what's so different but definitely shinier and a little more crooked than last time, not a huge diff, but a huge diff in terms of how often i wanna hear this.

I liked the last one a lot, listened to it quite a bit. It's hard to pick one for me but current one yeah probably edges it, listened to both a lot and still playing Transition.

deej i don't see the line you're trying to draw b/w the-draem and maxwell at all

im arguing that maxwell combines the carefully thought out compositional approach of ryan leslie w/ a more 'felt'/improvised follow-yr-inner-voice appeal of the-dream very naturally so it seems v. natural

lol naturally so its natural -- you get what im saying

I dig both this dude's albums to extents, but his talent-to-personality ratio is way out of whack.

y'know every time I listen to the Maxwell album I certainly think "this like Ryan Leslie meets The-Dream"

I think deej's comparison is more about songwriting approaches than actual sound.

if that's the case then we can just put every auteur from every genre ever on some vague precision vs. ballsy spectrum

okay this might just be because i was listening to their best of a lot around the time i was listening to his first album, but does anyone else get a weirdly "Carpenters"-ey vibe off the production to this?