Ryan Leslie, c/d, s/d

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?

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

― some dude, Wednesday, November 25, 2009 8:10 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i guess you could, my point was that the-dream & leslie seem to have fairly opposite songwriting approaches/personalities. i dont think im reading that much into it.

The Maxwell comparison is a bit different -- its not like he splits the difference or something -- I'm just saying that he just feels like he covers more bases.

"Never Gonna Break Up" is a dream for fans of creamy synthesizer tones.

listening to transition a lot lately, and ive tried saying it a few times but never really got at why i really like this guy and why i think his personality works is that it is a really great equiv for his whole aesthetic. I think its important that he is the producer as well on these tracks bc he makes them sound like a tasteful/tacky expensive bachelor pad where his sortof-an-asshole yuppie dude'll show you his big tv and put the moves on you, and i think he has a great way of just suggesting his sleazy-slick intentions in the fancy upholstery r smthng

^^^yah good post

this could be kinda like j0rdan said about "Blame It" in the ilx poll, where the sound is the actual sound of the subject matter, and you respond to the artfulness of that creation even if you don't necessarily like getting your drink on in pricey joints, or sleazy assholes

yeah that's a good post tiarnan

kind of was lukewarm to this guy at first but i find myself coming back to both of the albums from last year

2nd one is incredible & mad slept on

i dunno, besides "never gonna break up" and "sunday night" the second one kind of came and went with me, he left some great leaks off of it ("ice cold", "luv this luv", etc.)... I definitely thought the first album was a lot better, but maybe I should revisit it.

'rescue u'

i dunno i cannot get this album (transition) out of my head. i catch myself humming 'all my love' at least one a week at the moment. incredible song.

i think the reason i found his personality jarring for so long is cos it rings really true. outright swagging + boasting never annoys me. but he is like so many guys i've known in real life who play at being this slick sensitive 'i create music' dude.

ha otm

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs015.snc4/34125_535729522013_43201281_31627600_6707217_n.jpg

transition is def a classic album

should've been on my pazz and jop

he is a really terrible rapper tho

there's a grocery bag line on "sunday night"

he is a really terrible rapper tho

― de jong and the restless (J0rdan S.), Monday, July 19, 2010 3:32 PM (1 hour ago)

BEEN TELLING YOU

I still have this nagging feeling that his self-titled is better than Transition.

Less clunkers lyrically. But it's not about the lyrics with dude, I know.

i still prefer the self-titled. it's a bit less....all-around competent than transition i guess, but way more distinctly ryan leslie

like, i actually disagree and think the debut is way more clunky, but ryan is an awkward dude! a ryan leslie album should be awkward sometimes.

i don't think leslie is very distinct tbh

'transition' is a bit more lush, just better composed all around -- i think it's homogeneity works in its favor

i never really warmed to Transition. it's not bad, but it doesn't have the 2 minor classic singles and the deep cuts I got attached to that the self-titled has.

the first album's cover almost insists on its awkwardness, it's like he kinda must know that's his essence

the two are really close for me, but my favorite songs of his are on the self-titled ("valentine", "gibberish") so i usually go with that one

xp disagree that he's not distinctive - at the very least he's got (well had) a decently recognizable production style

i don't think being "distinctive" really has that much bearing on whether or not he's great, but it's not like you can draw connections between many of the songs on the debut -- transition is a different story but it's that way purposefully

"Valentine" is so fucking good

yeah man that's the one that kept growing on me and that i now love the most

i wish dude had enough buzz to do more rap beats, love his stuff on the last Fab album

yeah that song is really awesome

valentine, irina & gibberish are the best deep cuts off the first one

i wish dude had enough buzz to do more rap beats, love his stuff on the last Fab album

― magic ksh (some dude), Monday, July 19, 2010 9:11 PM (37 seconds ago) Bookmark

yes -- also "something that i like" off transition

man this is getting me all nostalgic, s/t was the first record i reviewed for my college paper

Nostalgic For 18 Months Ago: The Memoir of K3vin K3ller

haha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwK3bqhJIYk

this one is dope too

idk i thought the 2nd one sounded way more interested in songwriting & less abt sounding like the neptunes

idk about sounding like the neptunes, but i agree that the second one def has better songwriting

i know i didn't listen to it as much but i barely remember any of the songs off the 2nd

he produced a joint on the new fab EP