★ The Weeknd ★ What You Need ★

To add to that - I agree that the weeknd is doing nothing wrong. Like anyone else he is making what he wants to make

And surely r'n'b fans should be rejoicing that the indies are deciding to cover the weeknd along with the staple animal collective and iron an wine albums. You can't call people who decide to dip their toes into r'n'b fools for investigating it via a more familiar gateway, and this is essentially a gateway album that could potentially get more people diving deeper into the genre. It seems hypocritical to say that indie kids ought to listen to r'n'b while simultaneously denying such paths.

The Guardian Music Podcast thing was awful. It was just this guy saying how he was repulsed by displays of black male sexuality on record, e.g. that Ginuwine being a hunk got in the way of Timbaland's productions ("there is nothing more unattractive than adult love-making"), and much prefers the Weeknd because it drains r&b of its sexuality, and is about being sad and lonely, "like Morrisey". Sounds like he's got issues tbqh.

Hmmm... That's a whole new tin of tuna right there. Also realising that my last post doesn't really address the issue of crits saying the weeknd are more worthy than other r'n'b acts, which is of course very small minded.

those guardian blog comments are legitimately bizarre

lol "production and sorrow"

^^^^ suggested new thread name

but for real some dude's heavy engagement with this thread day after day while shamelessly admitting he only listened to "one or two songs on youtube" of the artist in question is without a doubt the funniest thing i've read on ILX this month INCLUDING shakey mo's statement that "real life lesbians aren't ever attractive by hetero standards"

― gr8080, Saturday, April 2, 2011 1:55 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

pretty sure lots of people on ILM post to threads about albums they've only heard one or two songs from, dude, i'm sorry that concept is so ridiculous to you but it happens

lyrically corny R&B songs are par for the course, I thought? I think the cursing in this album isn't just mindlessly used - it's a signifier of this sort of wild false bravado that acts as a defense mechanism for the singer's insecurities, i.e. "the higher that I climb, the harder I'mma drop, these pussy-ass n*ggas hold on to their credit..."

theres corny as in, boy this guy gets to the point quickly, where it is a part of the persona & informs it, then there's the weeknd kind of corny, where it gives the feel of a guy trying to capture the *idea* of R&B vocalists but doesnt let those lyrics contribute towards any kind of greater persona. A comparison w/ the-dream is a good one; the-dreams lyrics can be goofy but you always get the idea that they are part of who he is on record. this guy it just feels like hes trying to abstract away & signify "R&B" but not much beyond that

I don't know if the music is trying to be out-and-out weird - as some dude pointed out early, there is an uncanny valley effect going on where it's just close enough to actual r&b to put you into that emotional mode of receiving/listening, but the actual emotional message is pretty different. also this uses the term 'actual R&B' which as has been pointed out itt has all sorts of problems w/r/t questions of authenticity & assumptions.

the first sentence is what i'm trying to say; im arguing that if it WAS weirder, i could excuse away where it comes up short more easily. tim already explained how 'actual R&B' in this context wasnt problematic

you'll be forgiven if 'pretty big misses' is not exactly enlightening. here you use 'generic as hell' but I don't know what you mean by that.

"pretty big misses" isnt meant to be enlightening, thats just a statement saying "i dont like many of these songs." "generic as hell" means, i already explained upthread why i think this doesnt work & now i'm reducing that to 'generic' so as to save space.

okay so here you think that the weeknd should have hooks - I disagree, I think there are hooks, but maybe the kind that take a couple of listens to get. what do you mean "function the way its intended to most of the time"? what do you think the music aims at doing?

saying it doesnt have hooks = the hooks it has arent every hook-y. It wouldn't need hooks if it made up for those in some other area, but a lot of my criticisms would be null if it did have some big hooks to latch onto. So I'm just covering another area here where I think it fails to live up to something that would make it engaging to me. The melodic hook in "The Morning" that runs through the song is the only one that strikes me particularly, and the singer, although I think he has a good vocal quality, doesnt do much with phrasing or melody on the record that i think is especially striking. By, "I don't think it functions the way its intended to most of the time" the short version is, a lot of this feels like an artist trying to accomplish something beyond his reach but instead of coming up with a strategy or a workaround, he just comes up short; instead of making up for his inability to do much with vocal phrasing by writing lyrics that might interest me, he writes ones that feel like cliches (albeit intentional ones), for example. It feels like the performance relies too heavily on the high-concept of 'looking at the party through smoke' w/out many of the songs' elements backing him up sufficiently.

just imo

for the record I am now listening to the trey songz anticipation tape more than the weeknd so congrats you assholes win

― gr8080, Saturday, April 2, 2011 2:59 AM (16 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

going to hang this post on my wall lol

hey, thanks for the write-up. helps me to have a better idea of where you're coming from.

i dunno anything about those podcast peeps, but i'm sure they aren't scared of marvin gaye's outright sexuality. that whole thing just sounds weird.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBSXG0MqzHg

Was that an official vid?

no

i think "glass table girls" is my fav song after "the morning" & no i don't care about the excessive use of "fuck"

gonna pretend i never listened to that podcast for the sake of a lot of things

*readjusts overly-shaken head*

pulling for u lex.

Terrible name. Kept me from listening to them but just gave them a chance and really liking this one.

u gotta know the box inside out in order to think outside it, basically (this is what timbaland did so well in the 90s)

― lex pretend, Saturday, 2 April 2011 11:44 (Yesterday) Bookmark

ooh hey guys i don't suppose anyone thinks a night slugs slapfight would top this thread off nicely...?

i think a dismissive rtc post early on would have kept me from feeling the need to explicate so much tbh

save for people not nearly going in on lamp enough i'm pretty fine w/ how ilm addressed this matter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgfifcVngzY&feature=player_embedded

Uploaded by julianmackler on Apr 2, 2011

This amazing song needed a video.

So I made one.
Category:

Music
Tags:

* Music
* Weeknd
* Remix
* MusicVideo
* Short
* Pool
* LA
* LondonHotel

From a friend on Twitter:

This music review of The Weeknd that compared him to Frank Ocean is the #1 reason I hate R&B enthusiasts. Frank came out 4 days ago man.

everybody's looking forward to The Weeknd

tbh I prefer this "Weekend"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CffRfmc6sB4

★ The Weeknd ★ What You Need ★
Least convincing / most lol-worthy aspect of The Weeknd's quick rise to Internet fame

I can't wait for his related side project called Every Minte

can i just

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0EoTHI7rM8&feature=related

memo to djp: you were right, that creep song is way way better than the weeknd!

woot

Just came around to listening to Weeknd and I'm loving everything I've heard so far. I haven't taken the time to read through this whole thread, but do they only have singles out?

no there is an alb

free album/mixtape

http://the-weeknd.com/

Just found it! House of Balloons!! Exciting

!

Lol I had lunch with a lawyer friend who is massively into post-dubstep et al but doesn't listen to R&B much and he was like "there's this amazing album by this group called the Weeknd have you heard?!?!?"

three non-music nerd people have asked me what i think of the weeknd this week -- each time ive been like, i thought id love it but its not really my thing, what do u think, and they say, i love it

smh

The Weeknd: Music for nerd lawyers who don't like music besides dubstep

where's cutty?

I just spent the afternoon reading this thread from the start, Yikes! I feel totally disconnected from critical discourse on music. Anyway, After listening to the album a few times, I like it more and more. Also just discovered this song which I'm loving too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIJQufgqQhE

Doesn't really sound like weeknd but doesn't have use Steely Dan!

Clams Casino just got singed to Type. So the R&B/Hip-hop/Indie thing isn't going away anytime soon. I'd much rather hear Clams Casino get the spotlight than Weeknd the dude has beats for miles, something Weeknd lack big time... and its pure spaced out bliss. As long as Lil B stays away I see good things for Clams.

what are some clams casino songs I should be checking out, jim?

the lp just got reviewed on pfork & theres a rapper named 'lil b' also

The free mixtape is pretty sweet: http://www.usershare.net/TheHipHopUpdate/8xio6fe1mhgk/CLAMS%20CASINO%20INSTRUMENTAL%20MIXTAPE.rar

Its all a nice wishy washy laid back hip-hop soundscapes. On its own its almost a trip-hop revival kind of thing but he's done beats for Lil B, Main Attrakionz, etc... Who've got mixtapes here: http://greenovamusic.bandcamp.com/ that are all solid. Lil B has a thread on ilm but isn't all that in my opinion. He's like an ameture hip-hop Flight Of The Conchords but he's not as good at rapping and doesn't get the cash they do lol. Good choice in beats though and knows a lol when it comes his way.

Lol I had lunch with a lawyer friend who is massively into post-dubstep et al but doesn't listen to R&B much and he was like "there's this amazing album by this group called the Weeknd have you heard?!?!?"

― Tim F, Friday, April 8, 2011 11:25 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

http://i.imgur.com/XelHb.gif

is that tim f's face or yours