Rolling R&B Thread 2012

Ne-Yo made an r&b song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFB6eyNHz0A

real nice

new dawn : http://cosmicmediaworld.com/qdcey66korv8

there are two songs on the radio right now about diving into vaginas

i definitely fuck w/ the kelly/wayne redux

'too close' and 'turn on the lights'?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQHhccp24Bk

^^^baaaangs imo. "name on it" was nice too

finally listening to the Brandy album, not bad. weird to realize that the ballad off her '08 album was one of the earliest (maybe first?) charting writing credits for both Bruno Mars and Jeff Bhasker.

angie stone released an album a couple of months ago apparently, did no one notice? it's quite nice, gets better as it goes on and settles into its groove

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PsFG2GJYAs

"i can't take it" is another standout, not on youtube

i've never had a reason to notice Angie Stone before, tbh.

listening to the Ne-Yo, lol @ him opening the album w/ would-be title track "The Cracks In Mr. Perfect"

hahahahaha spoken word outro "find the beauty in your cracks...enjoy the album"

find the beauty in your crack

exactly one (1) dance song on the Ne-Yo besides "Let Me Love You." it's an R&B album, and a good one.

haha i said that as the last song started downtempo, and then right after i posted the beat picked up

i am OK with the thing this and the last Kelly Rowland did of letting the album end w/ 2 dance tracks as its own distinct thing, though. as long as it's just 2 and not 8 or whatever like the Nicki album.

Haven't heard the new one yet, but there was only one (1) dance song on Ne-Yo's last, otherwise very delightful album, and it was enough to almost fuck up the whole thing

this album >>>> libra scale imo

My problem with post-Gentleman Ne-Yo is that he no longer sees any continuity between dance music and R&B. On YOTG he wove dance music into R&B, but since then he's seen things only in black and white. Every song is either all seduction or all glow sticks.

(and it doesn't help that his dance songs suck on their own merits, of course)

"let me love you" feels like a relatively graceful fusion to me, if not as convincing as "closer"

been listening to the radio more the past few weeks than i have in a long time and i haven't heard "let me love you" at all. small sample of course but it's crazy that he's almost totally a pop artist now.

oh yeah, that song wasn't even sent to R&B stations, I'm just saying musically it's got enough R&B for me. the problem is more that "Lazy Love" isn't remotely as popular w/ urban stations as "Let Me" is w/ pop stations.

'problem' in the sense that "Lazy Love" is lame and deserves to underperform, not that it's being done any injustice as a song

'don't make em like you' features probably the most upsettingly maladroit spinback efx i've ever heard. nice tune tho

album is decent, better than the anaemic libra scale, but nothing spesh

yeah i'm more registering my surprise at it being just fine than waving the 'return to form' flag. tim mcgraw song is dope, though.

but it's crazy that he's almost totally a pop artist now.

― lil dirk (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 7 November 2012 15:47 (20 minutes ago) Bookmark

idk besides the money and the fame it seems obvious that being a pop star is just more sport for him? when he does his own r&b songs these days they're always really good but the "did this in 10 minutes w/o breaking a sweat" vibe is ineluctable. if r&b upped its game then so would he but whatever in the meantime

I dunno, it kind of seems like R&B did up its game, and Ne-Yo is the one who is stagnant. I mean, Usher made his "Climax," where's his?

^^^this is, btw, almost verbatim what he said in a listening sesh i attended /braggin xp

he wants to be a pop star, that is

he obv meant commercially, though (and "Let Me Love You" peaked on the Hot 100 higher than "Climax") xpost

he also had a lot of positive things to say about working w/ tim mcgraw & about country music fans & how they support their artists in general

that said i really liked the song abt getting head

no i more meant artistically really, i am still a believer that the commerce (albeit reduced from what it used to be) follows in conjunction

ie miguel's doing well cos he puts out r&b 100 million times superior to whatever else is out, it's not down to smart marketing campaigns or rare clemency from the horrid imaginary itunes ogre

i mean i know it's more complicated than that but at the same time it's really actually not

also i tend to think ne-yo is kind of a genre craftsman who colours within the lines for the most part, he will never do like a one auteur thing that puts his relatively limited star power in jeopardy

so (accepting the dubious proposition that climax is this big unfairly spurned standards-raiser) he won't do a 'climax' on his own, and he won't follow a single 'climax', but if there were a few 'climax's knocking around he'll come out and do a top draw one

i've prob said this before but Ne-Yo's lineage and template is so MJ/Lionel Richie/Babyface that i don't think it's ever made sense to hold him to current (or '00s) standards of R&B vs. pop, especially since his voice and songwriting sensibility enable him to color outside the genre lines more than most of his contemporaries.

Just finished the album and it was really disappointing, 17 tracks of Ne-Yo not trying very hard. Turns out the dance influence was the least of its problems.

it's very long. got some joints, though.

Any (non-Tim McGraw) favorites I should revisit? I don't see myself making it through the whole thing again anytime soon

::shrugs:: i'm on day one w/ it too, man, i just thought there was more good than bad personally

Cool. I'll keep picking at it myself. Hate the idea of writing the whole thing off w/o taking at least a couple of keepers away from it

the song i posted is v good btw >:(

"...Ne-Yo's lineage and template is so MJ/Lionel Richie/Babyface..."

Ha -- I compared this album to Dancing on the Ceiling.

A really long Dancing in the Ceiling.

Album's length also pretty much confirms that it wasn't his idea to release 10-song albums while he was on Def Jam.

this is my initial favourite on the ne-yo album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd1fDjXP-t4

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

^^^is dope imo

i'm digging r.e.d.? it's not yotg but there's a lot to enjoy here.

but i actually don't hate let me love you? so.

Jealous and Stress Reliever are both pretty great. I didn't mind the Wiz track. Still need to get through the back half.

What % of it is "clubby?"