★ The Weeknd ★ What You Need ★

its pretty lol that you complain abt how little ppl write abt r&b and you've never heard abt this guy

The article in the Guardian references Toop's Sugar & Poison. The journalist needs to reevaluate this. The mood on that compilation is no where near Weeknd are aiming for. S&P is an exercise in indulgent, bitter-sweet, melancholic soul. Weeknd quite obviously play for a seedy, sexual but vulnerable mood. In my opinion there is a lot of rubbish being written about Weeknd. Who judges the music the like on the same scales? I've really enjoyed Weeknd's mixtape this week but they've(he's) yet to create something truly worthy.

trying to form a slightly more coherent take on this qn - at this moment in history when music is so readily accesible to anyone w/ an internet connection its worth thinking abt music as much fitting into 'emotional' or 'functional' constellations as traditional sonic/cultural ones. & so instead of always using genre as a starting (& end) point in these discussions its worth acknowledging the emotional content of the music & how big a part that plays in how its received

I think we all do this, including all the writers you complain about in this thread lamp. The only difference is that when people aren't into something much they tend to downplay the "emotional" content as they don't consider it very effective or compelling.

At any rate what I've been trying to say is that "emotional content" is cultural, and no more genre-neutral than sonic content. Just as people get primed to connect with certain kinds of sonic tricks (both by listening to music and reading about it / discussing it) they get primed to connect with certain emotional tricks as well.

Personally I haven't really had a position on Weeknd in this thread, or even the media's treatment of R&B really, I'm just a bit suspicious of any arguments premised on some vague dichotomy between thinking and feeling.

please tell me you've at least listened to them

question for you guys re: avenues to discovering the weeknd:

a friend of mine said she found out about the weeknd when it came up on a pandora station she had programmed to play artists like:

• radio dept
• kings of leon
• erykah badu
• adele
• phoenix

payolandora?

best bit on the thread so far is lex not knowing who my beautiful dark twisted fennessey is

thats "hurricane" fennessey to you

One time I used pandora to find some good 70s new age. It kept playing blaring droney crap that I 86'd until it basically went "fuck it" and started playing Jaheim and teedra Moses. turned out that was what I was looking for all along.

tim, i meant to note earlier that i definitely know what you're getting at on this thread. the only thing i feel a need to note is that the "priming" you're talking about is surely, for most people, an INCREDIBLY complicated interaction between stuff in the world (narratives about genre, media, social taste, etc.) and a lot MORE stuff about themselves (self-image, emotional desires, etc.) i worry when conversations seem to be overemphasizing the first part. but maybe that's not what's happening here.

I like this and don't feel conflicted about that.

wicked games one is pretty cool. that's the only youtube i could get to work.

"does this make me corny indie fuxor btw?"

dude, you are rarely corny. and you have better taste than most people. that's why i first clicked on this thread. not for no controversy! no lexoversy!

i dig some of the discussion though. and you are all lucky because i have very little to add.

i knew i smelled somthing burning in here. you guys were thinking and stuff! god bless you.

The background vocal sample on The Party and The After Party... where's that from? It's killing me.

it's Beach House.

hi scott seward you're my favorite kind of music critic

u mad

The background vocal sample on The Party and The After Party... where's that from? It's killing me.

― Popture, Friday, March 25, 2011 11:38 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it's Beach House.

― gr8080, Friday, March 25, 2011 11:51 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

bet i'm gonna love this record huh

tim, i meant to note earlier that i definitely know what you're getting at on this thread. the only thing i feel a need to note is that the "priming" you're talking about is surely, for most people, an INCREDIBLY complicated interaction between stuff in the world (narratives about genre, media, social taste, etc.) and a lot MORE stuff about themselves (self-image, emotional desires, etc.) i worry when conversations seem to be overemphasizing the first part. but maybe that's not what's happening here.

yeah absolutely. I guess when we're talking about stuff in general it's easier to focus on the "stuff in the world" than the "stuff about [the listeners]" because (a) people's discussions about why they like things tend to emphasise the former anyway even if the latter is more important to them (for ease of communication as much as for any other reason) and because (b) the areas of overlap and are likely to be greater with the former.

Like, as much as saying "Weeknd-fans have this idea about R&B" is an unfair generalisation, I would have thought "Weeknd fans identify with this notion of the hollowness at the heart of hypersexualised modernity" (or insert other similar prevailing explanation for the emotional appeal of this music) to be far more of a generalisation.

Which is not to say that critics shouldn't indulge in this kind of thing, but I notice that people only have an issue with it when they're getting all defensive "these are not my thoughts get out of my brane!"

Tim what do you think about this album

dude, you are rarely corny >:-0

The background vocal sample on The Party and The After Party... where's that from? It's killing me.

― Popture, Friday, March 25, 2011 11:38 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it's Beach House.

― gr8080, Saturday, March 26, 2011 1:51 PM (5 hours ago)

Oh thanks, It was thinking it sounded a bit like B BEAT GIRLS "FOR THE SAME MAN" Classic Version 1983 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rJp80ozJ4c) , but it's just that sounds a little like Beach House.

btw did anybody notice in one of the songs he goes "fun fun fun fun fun"

now I understand why everybody's lookin' forward to The Weeknd

weeknd warriors

I'm listening to anticipation right now, it's nice but I don't think it's directly comparable to the weeknd, yeah the production is stripped down and bare on some tracks, but the vocal arrangements are still very lush compared to the weeknd

Given most people who would be boosting Trey over the Weeknd probably would say that the latter's vocals are its weakest link, that ought not be so surprising.

I don't dislike Weeknd's vocals except for particular moments actually; I agree he sounds more like Jeremih than Trey.

I'm kinda loving that hollowed out, empty-eyed feeling of the opening bars on the morning

I briefly flirted w/ trey songz after cb broke my heart/rihannas face but i was put off by his luvvverman thing and it felt like it was for 30smthg professionals and that you should listen to it w/ a glass of wine and watch the city through your floor-ceiling windows. weeknd sound like you're watching the end of a party through smoke.

I'm kinda diggin lamp's appraisal of different emotional spaces upthread, and yeah emotional responses are enculturated, guess it appeals to my culture

you could dub a weeknd track of this vid and it'd be ~just right~

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

*over this vid

The Weeknd actually remind me a lot of my own obsession with a hidden history of isolationist/intergalactic R&B future-slow-jams, so I can't object to this dude too much because it's the kind of thing I might try to do if I was a musician. Anyway if I was gonna make an R&B-for-Weeknd-fans mixtape it'd be stuff like:

The-Dream - Abyss
Jeremih - The 5 Senses
Ashanti - Voodoo
Tweet - Drunk - ACTUALLY GRADY, MAX, PLAX ET AL LISTEN TO THIS!!!

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

fwiw the dude's voice wasn't what i had a particular problem w/ it was the songwriting & i guess vocal arrangements, sure -- to me those sound underwritten -- partly improvised but in a way that signifies to me anyway carelessness rather than craft

I dunno, the dude is going for a very specific feel w/ the arrangements in say, house of ballons/glass table girls - I don't think it bespeaks carelessness at all

that tweet track is amazing btw

that would be where I hear what lex & andy were talking about w/r/t it sounding 'forced' like this guy waltzes into a studio & thinks he can diy his way into a classic R&B record that gets a pass bcuz people will say like grady was that oh its not R&B at all -- it gets to be bad at these things because its made for burial fans

like most of the haters itt have been "trey songz did the same style but did it BETTER" but so far nobody's really offered up what metrics or continuum they are putting trey songz ahead of the weeknd on

real rnb

like most of the haters itt have been "trey songz did the same style but did it BETTER" but so far nobody's really offered up what metrics or continuum they are putting trey songz ahead of the weeknd on

― who is john nult? (dayo), Sunday, March 27, 2011 2:31 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i havent??

multiple xxxxpost I think this is always an issue with "outsider" takes on genre: in most cases people who follow the genre closely can actually point to a myriad of examples where the genre itself previously has produced stuff in the same vein, so they're more likely to see the point of difference as ~60% market positioning.

Of course no-one (except arguably Drake, and then fitfully) has made the above sound their raison d'etre, so it's also about giving that sound a certain conceptual unity, about stating that it's the goal rather than just something done on the way to doing a number of other things.

I imagine lots of hip hop listeners would have felt similarly about the critical rise of trip hop at the time: like, we do this kind of thing anyway, you're just not listening hard enough.

do you see your name in that post deej?

I think "Unfortunate" is more genuinely impressive surround-sound (the variety of vocal approaches are important) and also more moving, but it's a matter of degree for me rather than "this is great that is awful".

Maybe we should talk about "Shades" here also.

i might not be the best representative for the anti-side in this case though as my issue is more with the execution than the overall attempt. Like, im into that one jamie woon song, and i dug the way ariel pink did this kind of thing sometimes. its not an overall anti-indie bias, i was fairly surprised that i didnt like it when i first listened

'this kind of thing' being genre mixing generally, pink sounds nothing like this obv

Of course no-one (except arguably Drake, and then fitfully) has made the above sound their raison d'etre, so it's also about giving that sound a certain conceptual unity, about stating that it's the goal rather than just something done on the way to doing a number of other things.

― Tim F, Sunday, March 27, 2011 2:33 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah i remember talking w/ noz about that song 'dominoes' by big pink that was year ended last year, and about how it was like a nas/jay-z hot line/hot song but with gucci instead. There's a bias here in that, theres a density of these kinds of ideas in a genre, and then someone focuses on one of them to give it 'conceptual unity' & its taken more seriously (still unclear on why Big Pink's groupie misogyny barely raised an eyebrow)

year ended at pfork

so what about the execution don't you like, deej

do you see your name in that post deej?

― who is john nult? (dayo), Sunday, March 27, 2011 2:33 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

whenever i see 'haters' i assume my name is in it lol