★ The Weeknd ★ What You Need ★

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

I think in some ways R&B has developed a certain sensibility whereby it hints at all of these sensations along the lines of "watching the end of a party through smoke" etc. etc. without actually acknowledging it head on, but the singer knows that the listener knows that the singer knows that that territory is right there, a gaping abyss surrounding the loving and debauchery and egoism.

And I think big R&B listeners end up preferring that strategic misdirection and coded mannerism, leaving the Weeknd's decision to face it head on seeming somehow gauche, like coming out and saying what everyone else was cleverly implying.

Whereas people who aren't so into R&B for the first time wouldn't be hearing all that implication, so appreciate someone reproducing that notion so wholeheartedly and deliberately.

what does gucci have to do w/ 'dominoes'

we concluded it was the kind of simile he would have come up w/

fwiw this is around the same you & i did our 'top gucci verses of 2k9' so we were waist deep in lyrics at that pt

Srsly though no-one would blink if "The 5 Senses" was on this album, imitation of 50 Cent rap 'n' all:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqZaoR5NBiY

I would like to point out I have been otm in this thread w/ the jeremih comparison, no deej

Stick a reverb peddle on this and you're away...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBPeyHjDx6Q

I would like to point out I have been otm in this thread w/ the jeremih comparison, no deej

― who is john nult? (dayo), Sunday, March 27, 2011 2:42 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the first time i did this post it was on some 'no lj' so just fyi that doesnt work

but i dont know jeremih's 2nd album so

echo echo echo echo

just like the press for this

lol

man thats a great call w/ the jeremih

I think in some ways R&B has developed a certain sensibility whereby it hints at all of these sensations along the lines of "watching the end of a party through smoke" etc. etc. without actually acknowledging it head on, but the singer knows that the listener knows that the singer knows that that territory is right there, a gaping abyss surrounding the loving and debauchery and egoism.

Kinda keen to build on my own thought here: the value of the hidden gesture in particular genres.

Like, I don't expect big Weeknd stans who are not also massively into modern R&B to really like the remix of Cristina Milian's "Dip It Low", but for me it has the debauchery into shattered emptiness vibe that people seem to see in this stuff.

I think you're on to something there - foregrounding the 'shattered emptiness vibe' is definitely what sets this apart from other R&B out there, and the indie production is used to get at that, not as an end in itself

like I think the lex's complaints would make a lot more sense if this was trey songz loverman type lyrics set over beach house, but it's not

whoa hold on its still a guy singing about rnb

also lol this band have been mentioned four times on pitchfork and once was nabisco writing about this thread

I think some blogs mentioned the weeknd too, don't forget

i feel like im drowning

the shit leaked like a day ago b/w trust me these dudes are gonna be on late nite tv w/in a couple months

yeah when something's trajectory is so clearly preordained i don't think it's out of line to think a couple steps ahead

i mean if Drake actually does hire these guys to write a couple of joints on his next album and they become another shade in his spectrum of 40/Boi 1da sadsack R&B that'll be a slightly different kind of success than we're assuming they're headed for but probably won't make a huge difference ultimately

whatevs, it's more fun to talk about than the new gucci mane mixtape

obv