best new music
― lil dirk (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 4 October 2012 05:09 (eleven years ago) link
Sweet, now I can talk about it!
― Spottie_Ottie_Dope, Thursday, 4 October 2012 05:16 (eleven years ago) link
i think it's a pretty nice accomplishment, actually
― lil dirk (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 4 October 2012 05:25 (eleven years ago) link
yeah its cool.
― Spottie_Ottie_Dope, Thursday, 4 October 2012 05:28 (eleven years ago) link
i sort of said this before but it's nice to see him rewarded for his reverse-crossover attempt while still being able to grow his core fanbase. a pretty rare feat.
― lil dirk (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 4 October 2012 05:32 (eleven years ago) link
Indeed.
― Spottie_Ottie_Dope, Thursday, 4 October 2012 05:33 (eleven years ago) link
Good review.
― Spottie_Ottie_Dope, Thursday, 4 October 2012 06:01 (eleven years ago) link
What a remix!
― MikoMcha, Thursday, 4 October 2012 11:58 (eleven years ago) link
like the review, don't like the ELEVEN frank ocean headlines underneath the review
― jaz a make wardance (some dude), Thursday, 4 October 2012 12:54 (eleven years ago) link
If the Gibbs tape is an 8.2, this is a 9.4 though.
― longneck, Thursday, 4 October 2012 13:07 (eleven years ago) link
what review?
― lex pretend, Thursday, 4 October 2012 13:14 (eleven years ago) link
p4k?
― pandemic, Thursday, 4 October 2012 13:24 (eleven years ago) link
yes
― jaz a make wardance (some dude), Thursday, 4 October 2012 13:24 (eleven years ago) link
weird quote from that: 'a wonderfully considered album from an artist who was starting to seem a lot like a forgotten gem in the wake of mishandled promotion.'
wasn't Sure Thing a huge huge hit r&b chart hit? do they just mean 'indie people weren't listening until now' ?
― Jamie_ATP, Thursday, 4 October 2012 13:53 (eleven years ago) link
his first album could be considered a commercial triumph or totally under the radar depending on what lens you're viewing it through, but yeah that way of phrasing it was pretty false.
― jaz a make wardance (some dude), Thursday, 4 October 2012 13:55 (eleven years ago) link
yeah that's what i mean, the lens of 'what people in brooklyn/portland are listening to' is pretty reductive
― Jamie_ATP, Thursday, 4 October 2012 14:14 (eleven years ago) link
well it could also be viewed as unsuccessful through the lens of "doesn't sell as much/cross over to pop radio as much as Usher or Chris Brown"
― jaz a make wardance (some dude), Thursday, 4 October 2012 14:16 (eleven years ago) link
The demographics at his Howard Theatre show in DC seemed like 99% African-American (and mostly women) which is reflective of that prior inability to crossover to pop or indie
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 4 October 2012 14:39 (eleven years ago) link
are they not a pop audience?
― Jamie_ATP, Thursday, 4 October 2012 14:50 (eleven years ago) link
is this really the 2nd time this week on this board that i have to explain "pop as genre vs. pop as in 'popular'"
― jaz a make wardance (some dude), Thursday, 4 October 2012 14:59 (eleven years ago) link
Except that isn't what he was saying.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 4 October 2012 15:08 (eleven years ago) link
i introduced the 'pop crossover' subject to the conversation, curmudgeon continued it understanding what i meant, and jamie responded to it seemingly not understanding what i meant.
― jaz a make wardance (some dude), Thursday, 4 October 2012 15:12 (eleven years ago) link
Right. I think Jamie and Mat may have misunderstood me. I did not think I had to break down for anyone here the difference between industry marketing terms for genre and for radio formats, or to explain that yes r'n'b songs can be considered pop in the US when they reach the Billboard chart that is labeled "pop songs' or "hot 100". If Jamie and you want to complain to Billboard that they have an "r'n'b/rap" category (yes I think they put those 2 gneres together) separate from a "pop songs" one, and that ilx has a rolling R'n'b thread that is separate from a rolling pop songs thread.
Perhaps I should have also referred back to Some Dude's Village voice piece from awhile back regarding the declining number of r'n'b songs crossing over onto the pop radio hits format
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 4 October 2012 15:21 (eleven years ago) link
miguel is kind of a perfect case study for that kind of thing too -- "sure thing" was billboard's #1 r&b chart song of last year, but #92 on the year-end hot 100
― jaz a make wardance (some dude), Thursday, 4 October 2012 15:23 (eleven years ago) link
use mewanna give you controlwith the lights onif I could just let goforgive meit's the very first timethat I'm nervouscan I trust you?trust mewhile I take this offwith the lights oncuz it turns me onif you're nervousjust let me show youhow to touch meI can teach you
^^^^^^^^the realness from opposite ends in this chorus, the way he elides both. incredible
― lex pretend, Friday, 5 October 2012 14:30 (eleven years ago) link
like a lesser song would have made that a duet but miguel makes them the same thing
― lex pretend, Friday, 5 October 2012 14:31 (eleven years ago) link
i moved down south pretty much exactly a year ago and 'sure thing' has been on the radio consistently the entire time
― Jacques_Lamure, Friday, 5 October 2012 14:38 (eleven years ago) link
Lex otm
― zEUS and Roxanne (Drugs A. Money), Friday, 5 October 2012 18:25 (eleven years ago) link
― Cap'n Hug-a-Thug (The Reverend), Friday, 5 October 2012 19:05 (eleven years ago) link
this record is great, finally got around to it.
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Tuesday, 9 October 2012 19:57 (eleven years ago) link
The first five or six songs so is such an astonishing run of greatness.
― Tim F, Tuesday, 9 October 2012 20:00 (eleven years ago) link
letterman tonight iirc
― lil dirk (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, 9 October 2012 20:01 (eleven years ago) link
am i the only one who likes the title track? didn't see a lot of love for it.
i know a frank ocean comparison is probably boring/facile, but god listening to this highlights how restrained and lacking in variety that record was.
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Tuesday, 9 October 2012 20:07 (eleven years ago) link
The title track was the first I'm warmed to when I heard the full sequence.
― the ones that I'm near most: fellow outcasts and ilxors (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 9 October 2012 20:08 (eleven years ago) link
yeah same, replayed it 3/4 times.
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Tuesday, 9 October 2012 20:09 (eleven years ago) link
i'm still trying to figure out the comparison he makes in that song to piano keys
― lil dirk (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, 9 October 2012 20:12 (eleven years ago) link
Miguel is touring, along with Elle Varner, as an opener on the upcoming Trey Songz tour (which I have mixed feelings about, b/c I really don't need to see Trey Songz three times in less than two years, especially when he's touring behind a sub-par album, plus I'd rather see Miguel headline). But it's an interesting pairing.
― Evan R, Tuesday, 9 October 2012 20:24 (eleven years ago) link
songs like "don't look back," "use me" and "the thrill" were heavily influenced by him being on the usher/trey songz tour a few years back
― lil dirk (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, 9 October 2012 20:30 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, there's way more overlap between him and those artists than most writeups of him (or even this thread) would suggest. Trey Songz has become lazy shorthand for "R&B status quo," which really doesn't do justice to some of his bolder experiments, and it's probably not a stretch to cast Kaleidoscope Dream as a much more successful/committed/realized version of what Usher was trying to do on his last album.
― Evan R, Tuesday, 9 October 2012 20:38 (eleven years ago) link
All three artists are, to some extent, advancing or experimenting with the genre from the inside, which is a narrative that needs to be better told in the wake of last year's overstated "outsiders are reinventing R&B" thinkpieces
― Evan R, Tuesday, 9 October 2012 20:39 (eleven years ago) link
Funny – I love the Usher album, warts and all, because Miguel's EP's taught me to earlier this year.
― the ones that I'm near most: fellow outcasts and ilxors (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 9 October 2012 20:43 (eleven years ago) link
i haven't listened to that usher album since early summer and i think it's mostly a "pick 5 songs and delete" kind of thing
evan is right tho about narratives
― lil dirk (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, 9 October 2012 20:54 (eleven years ago) link
― Evan R, Tuesday, October 9, 2012 9:39 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Please go on. I think you're right but haven't really been able to develop any rational argument around this myself. I also believe there must be another and more interesting way of framing this "r&b has gone eurotrash on us, wave goodbye" narrative that's circulating a lot right now. Just not sure what it is.
― Gelados n cream (longneck), Tuesday, 9 October 2012 21:04 (eleven years ago) link
i think the Miguel/Trey/Usher thing is pretty right, for three guys whose careers all started at least 5+ years apart from each other they've all ended up at pretty similar spots at the moment that don't feel entirely due to chasing the same trends or whatever. and all 3 are pretty high caliber vocalists and radio killers, which is not so much the case w/ all of the people driving the recent thinkpiece narratives.
― some dude, Tuesday, 9 October 2012 21:15 (eleven years ago) link
usher, really? he's always chased trends and his latest album is just trying to chase every trend at once. it's usually a good look for him.
also ahem my dawn/nina sky/miguel/wynter piece was about (almost) this exact thing
trey is not really interesting enough for me to want to cover in this narrative
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 9 October 2012 21:26 (eleven years ago) link
eh i said not 'entirely' -- usher's latest definitely has that problem for me, but if anything the whiff of desperation is stronger in his haircut than the album
― some dude, Tuesday, 9 October 2012 21:30 (eleven years ago) link
big homie sold 69k this week
― lil dirk (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, 9 October 2012 21:31 (eleven years ago) link
I also believe there must be another and more interesting way of framing this "r&b has gone eurotrash on us, wave goodbye" narrative that's circulating a lot right now. Just not sure what it is.
It's probably way to early to posit this wishful theory, but I'm beginning to wonder if the eurotrash R&B trend is on its way out. Chris Brown saw less return on his latest round of dance singles than his last round, and it's telling that Usher's "Climax" outperformed "Scream," which didn't do as well on the pop charts as Usher's previous dance singles either. (Chris Brown in particular got a lot less urban radio play for his new album than he did with his last one, so he saw diminished returns across two formats). Meanwhile, Trey Songz has had a nice singles run appealing primarily to urban formats, and Ne-Yo seems to be slowly but surely returning back to reality. I wouldn't be surprised to see all these artists trend a bit more urban and a bit less pop on their next records. But again, could be wishful thinking.
― Evan R, Tuesday, 9 October 2012 21:34 (eleven years ago) link
well, a year ago Ne-Yo was saying his next album would have no dance pop, now he's saying that's 50% of the album. and also the pop single's doing better than the urban single.
― some dude, Tuesday, 9 October 2012 21:44 (eleven years ago) link
I've definitely noticed EDM-pop in general getting a bit less dominant. Nothing in the style has hit #1 since January.
― Cap'n Hug-a-Thug (The Reverend), Tuesday, 9 October 2012 21:48 (eleven years ago) link