Rolling R&B Thread 2012

ha, sorry for the over the top enthusiasm; I'd been anticipating some of these mixtapes for a while. The Lucille Ghatti is sounding more to me like the gem of the bunch to me; it's so spry and sexy and has so much fun playing with expectations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crrOl0egI00

Have we talked about the new Ne-Yo? Between 'Lazy Love' which was a solid [7] in his comfort zone, and this - which isn't a Dawn Richard track or anything, but shows that he still knows how to do dance/R&B better than most people - I'm almost convinced that the new record is going to be worth paying attention to.

After Year of the Gentleman, Libra Scale was so disappointing but... is it wrong to anticipate that we might get some gems from the r.e.d. album or whatever it's called?

eh

fair enough. :/

yeah recycling the title of the song that put him on the map is pretty eyebrow-raising, but i agree that Ne-Yo deserves a lot more leeway in leaning into dance than most (ymmv but "Closer" and "Give Me Everything" were both in my top 10 for the years they came out, and i like this a lot too).

:(

as much as I hate to say it, "Let's Go" >

New Jhené produced by FIsticuffs <3 <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivTgMNqZc80

I like this more than anything on her last mixtape. More artists should work with Fisticuffs.

She is too pretty to be an effective J-horror ghost, though.

I like this more than anything on her last mixtape. More artists should work with Fisticuffs.

― Evan R, Thursday, August 9, 2012 3:49 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

[tasteless chris brown joke]

heh

http://www.soulculture.co.uk/music-blog/newmusic/free-downloads/rochelle-jordan-pressure-free-album-stream-download/#axzz23e4jFXEY

feeling this rochelle jordan album (free d/l) a lot - kind of airy, spacious, dreamy stuff that's a bit goapele, a bit jhené aiko but with that amel larrieux sense of physicality that prevents it from being as inconsequential as aiko

did anyone else hear the elle varner album? i quite like it on one listen but...she and jade alston have really similar voices and i can't help but think that whenever i want to hear it i'll end up going to alston.

oh and there was some nice stuff on the jeremih mixtape but maybe my expectations were too high for that track specifically, i was a bit underwhelmed by "773 love"

The Rochelle Jordan album was a little uneventful for my tastes.

I can only handle the Elle Varner album in bits and pieces; the Macy Gray-ness of her voice makes it a small-doses only proposition. Songs are OK, but a little on the cutesy end. She teases cutting lose but never does

JHENE AIKO "3:16AM" looks and sounds like it belongs on an episode of Teen Wolf.

(http://www.zzstream.com/2011/07/teen-wolf-season-1-episode-8-lunatic.html)

Varner LP is so consistently great-sounding that i'm actually warming to her over-the-top vocals (Macy Gray-ness is an odd description, though)

The Jeremih mixtape owns my world.

ships can u expand on "great-sounding"

ima need more if you're to be trusted on this

Varner is in my long "stuff Andy K likes so I'll assume it's good" list.

haha

kinda lolling at this 'sound proof room' beat on the varner, sounds like the heatmakerz quickly ran in to mess with it while the og producers back was turned

ohh wait is andrew "pop" wansel going to be the son of...... yep

idk how i feel about that

production is just dope as fuck is all i mean -- can't say much in detail on one listen but if it was, like, jazmine sullivan or someone that good on vox it'd be like album of the year material

I was crushing hard on varner's mixtape

JB3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzIPPKPtAJ8

This Kingdom edit of Put It Down that removes Chris Brown from the track is making me pretty happy right now:

http://www.hulkshare.com/d9r6gcxj7hfk

<3 kingdom

New Trey songz: way too much moisture on the opening tracks.

~~~~~~~~~~~splash~~~~~~~~~~

So why isn't there even a tracklist or an album cover for Love IV MMXII yet?

cause the single ain't doing shit and it got pushed back to Neveruary?

Right. But it's still a bit too late in the day for them to be hoping for charting solo singles from Terius. From what I've seen the album has been finished for a while, so just letting it sit there isn't gonna help.

which is how this story has played out dozens of times before, yes.

new Dwele album is nice.

Hot damn, there's a new Dwele album?

The new Trey Songz is a mixed bag, some nice stuff but some of his gaudiest stuff, too. A big step down from PP&P.

trey songz spending so much of the new album trying to be r kelly was kinda surprising

like r kelly circa tp2 not r kelly now

his petulant "i am NOT influenced by R. Kelly and R. Kelly sucks anyway" routine is the really the worst thing about him

The new Trey Songz is a mixed bag,

it sounds good on the radio but I never want to hear it on my own

"Heart Attack" is the shit, but those other singles don't do much for me. Big step down from "Can't Be Friends" "Love Faces" and maybe even "Unusual"

i would definitely take all 3 of the new one's singles over "Friends" and "Love Feces"

xp He talked this big game about making a really great R&B album, but then made a sort of stupid R&B. Which is frustrating, because I think he has the talent to make a truly classic album, but his tastes are just so all over the place.

And the adult-contemporary treatment on "Simply Amazing" just ticks me off. At least make the ballads jam.

Trey tries to be R. Kelly but fails miserably at it. Kells would never sing that he only came for "the bitches and the drink" - that's just middle of the road machismo. If you're gonna be ridiculous, be sublimely ridiculous. Terius and Kells both know this.

his petulant "i am NOT influenced by R. Kelly and R. Kelly sucks anyway" routine is the really the worst thing about him

haw i didn't know he was spinning this line

The anxiety of influence is remarkably strong in latter-day r&b.

thing is i'm fine with the trey album being what it is (ie fine, probably at its best when he's being all generic "bitches and the drink") b/c i've never bought into him as an artist of whom i should expect any more, despite the 4-5 songs on PP&P on which he hit some really great heights

I was definitely hoping for more of those heights. Top Of The World was great too.

Unfortunate and Blind were my favorites from PPP. He's not even trying on this one.

i'm kind of glad he didn't really go down that ~dark~ route any more, it's a bit of a lazy option