Rolling R&B Thread 2012

"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

Lazy how?
The title track on this new one is pretty nice though.

bc it's so obviously trendy

Well when PPP came out, Pre-Weeknd, Unfortunate and Blind really stood out. The Shebib production on Unfortunate was "trendy" perhaps, but the song was better than any of Drake's at the time, and Blind really doesn't sound like anything else. I guess what I'm really missing this time around is Bei Maejor. Some proper songs.

i spoke too soon, hadn't seen this! http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1691751/trey-songz-r-kelly.jhtml

kinda heartwarming, actually, bless 'em

Ha ha.

The new Brandy is nice.
http://www.digitaldripped.com/aug/21/2012/brandy--wildest-dreams

Soundcloud link: http://soundcloud.com/4everbrandy/wildest-dreams-audio

lol Dwele says "smang" on this album, also references Faygo in the song about Detroit

Trey's album has an "Interlewd" to echo Miguel's "Enter.lewd" tracks

wait how have we not talked about alicia keys going all ciara/rihanna

http://www.billboard.com/column/the-juice/alicia-keys-reveals-girl-on-fire-album-cover-1007884152.story#/column/the-juice/alicia-keys-reveals-girl-on-fire-album-cover-1007884152.story

that album cover is hella keri hilson

Yikes, that Keyes album cover looks like a CK ad. I think I stop paid attention to her latest albums cycle after hearing a couple seconds of the first song from it.

This new Antonique Smith song is very sweet and pretty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE-R7dZg6xE

i talked about alicia keys on twitter. jamie xx is on the album, i think keys is a good match for him

isn't the only new AK song out so far just the solo version of the terrible 50 Cent single she's on? i don't really blame her for that, she's probably just got it on her record in case it turns out big like "Empire State of Mind" (which it won't, obv). i think she might have something good up her sleeve, i dunno.

is it? i have no idea

well that's what "New Day" is. "Girl On Fire" is supposed to drop in the next few days.

oh.

yeah you probably would have to give me 3 cases of vitamin water before i listened to a 50/dre/alicia song in 2012.

it's kind of a shame 50 let everyone overdose on schadenfreude with the Kanye sales war in '07 because really it's been just hilarious to watch him flail the last 5 years

"new day" isn't bad, it's not exciting or anything though

it would feel a bit weird for alicia keys to drop a front-to-back awesome album at this point in her career, she's made so many individual songs that i love but i don't count any of her albums as great

I don't know. If she just discovered sex I guess everything is possible.

er

Sorry. Just mildly interested AND put off by this whole "being unleashed" turn. It sounds a bit desperate. I'm not sure if I'm up for an even more melodramatically intense AK. But also it would be good thing if it means she's letting go a little, you know?

Yeah, I don't think she really has persona to sell an unleashed album. She's so cold and businesslike it would be like, I don't know, hearing Bebe Neuwirth sing Rihanna songs or something

xposts but I am pretty disappointed by the Elle Varner album. Nothing here is as good as the Oak and Pop songs on Conversational Lush: "Ghosts", "Go" and even "WTF" are some of my favorite songs of the year. I'm not sure if she tried to consciously smooth out her edges or what, but I find a lot of these songs pretty superficial and same-sounding.

that alicia keys single is pretty bad. like how many clichés does she want to cram into the thing? pity, minaj's verse on the remix is one of the more interesting things she's done

i didn't really end up going back to varner's album much

"Girl on Fire" is already getting a ton of radioplay here, and seems to have all the trappings of a big single. Alicia Keys is such an out of place presence on that song that it's really hard to listen to it, though

think people itt will dig this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcVLk-o2nlc&feature=player_embedded

diggin it

i was clearly very wrong for being optimistic about new AK, "Girl On Fire" is the worst garbage ever

wow, it really is as bad as you all say. also it makes me think of Kings Of Leon. :(

i heard "No One" the other day and it was depressing to now have something to positively compare it to

word

I like "No One" fine. She's had worse singles before and after.

she's done worse than "No One" but i mean "Girl" is a really poor version of the same template

Yeah, and I swear the vocals and instrumental were recorded without any knowledge of the other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rALKvHo7tWA

i hate to be that herb who does this around this time of year, but i've fallen really behind on new music. can the real players itt give me their 5-10 favorite r&b albums of 2012? thanks in advance

for me it's roughly: Melanie Fiona > Art Dealer Chic > Elle Varner > Dawn Richard > Jeremih > Monica > Kalenna > Usher > Frank Ocean > Dwele

1. Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
2. Miguel - Art Dealer Chic
3. Melanie Fiona - MF Life
4. Dawn Richard - Armor On
5. Jade Alston - Single on a Saturday Night
6. Jeremih - Late Nights
7. K. Michelle - 0 Fucks Given
8. Usher - Looking 4 Myself
9. Lucille Ghatti - High Grade
10. Teyana Taylor - The Misunderstanding of Teyana Taylor