Rolling R&B Thread 2007

it's def the most richcraftian of darkchild's new look, but in this case that also means it shares in a lot of the predictableness of the doldrums richcraft's been in since amerie innit. i'm really really overexcited about the other stuff he's done in this vein though - 'deja vu' grew into something peerless while everyone wz busy getting sick of 'irreplaceable', and megan rochell's 'heartbreak' is just ridiculously sick, a '1 thing'-level classic in the making. dchild's live basslines on this stuff are killer killer killer

can't stand deja vu? dude, srsly?

(googling supload is an easy way to find stuff btw)

to be blanket statementy for a sec (yes ha ha shut up) a thing i found with icebox and most if not all timberland prods in 06 was how vaccum packed hermetically sealed they came across; what am i supposed to do with robot voice going I'M SO COLD SO COLD BRR over some barren soundscape besides, i dunno, nod sagely? i know that sounds unfair but i know i've given that track more than a fair crack of the whip as more and more people gushed over it. keri hilson gets mentioned at the top as a tim protege, but her only good track by a million miles is noncoincidentally the only one where tim's not involved: 'come clean'. tell me that's not a proper tune!

mind expanding on that? there is something vaguely...constricting about the JT album (and yeah 'ice box' too) but i can't quite put my finger on it, and i don't necessarily think it's a bad thing, and it's not on the furtado album, and it may even be the same thing which gives the album its coherence.

also what has happened to spizzazzz lately? internet is telling me it doesn't exist.

yeah it is a def a very vague feeling, certainly one that's easier to insult than explain with any satisfying accuracy. i mean, it goes without saying there's a billion great bodies of work with a strong, complete vision thruout (maybe every good album ever in actual fact), and 'icebox' aside even omarion's one kinda has a good thing of its own going along the 'entourage'/'electric' axis. (nothing special in the end tho.)

quite why timbaland's ones grate on me so is hard to say, and particularly so since it's not like him and his stable wrote every song on every album he's touched lately. (i'm assuming?) the nature of exec producing vs just producing i guess. but i dunno, i often feel like what i'm hearing, every nuance of the songs, has already been vetted for my consumption, and that what i end up feeling is what i've been told to feel. even something as apparently ambiguous as 'my love' is really all for show, it's incredibly self-aware, to the point where i just can't get into it, make it mine. tunes ought to get a life of their own once they hit the airwaves no matter how tightly auteured they've been, but timbaland's 06 ones never do really. shrug.

it's true that furtado's singles didn't work like that; however, saying that, the album wz a deeply empty experience for the most part. (and u know i ain't saying empty txtbook rockistically, c'mon.) maneater/promiscuous were great but in retrospect anyone could've been singing those songs. anyone! that album is completely faceless, and it's hard not to see it as a cautionary tale now cos we all sold a really great, real artist in exchange for some magic timbabeans, and you know it. who wouldnt rather hear something like a 'powerless' again? everybody now -

paint my face in your magazines / make it look whiter than it seems / paint me over with your dreams / shove away my ethnicity / burn every notion that i may have a flame inside to fight / and say just what is on my mind / without offending your might / cos this life / is too short / to live it just / for you

haha soz

haha i will go with this

I have the opposite reaction to Timbo. With some notable exceptions, most of his late 90's/early-00s R&B productions that everyone here seems to go ape over are really flat and unappealing to me, (though I guess I find R&B of that time period flat and unappealing in general) even when they're trying very hard to be interesting. But I love his new stuff.

to the point where i just can't get into it, make it mine

i...kind of agree with this, yes. it struck me recently that FS/LS really is a very self-absorbed album - it's not about you, it's not for you to identify with in the same way that 'cry me a river' could have been despite its obvious tabloid subtext, because it's all about justin. it's all about him and his auteur/dork/sexmachine persona. (the xtina album ultimately works/doesn't work along the same lines too, apart from 'ain't no other man'.) i guess that means you have to agree with him, and buy into it, to be able to get into it, and for me it succeeds because he convinces me of it. nevertheless "DO YOU EVER THINK ABOUT ANYTHING BUT YOURSELF?" rings ever more true.

(i seem to be holding justin more responsible for this than tim! but it is in the production as well. hmm. maybe this is just danjahands' actual style.)

we all sold a really great, real artist in exchange for some magic timbabeans

i think the real furtado is there, still, and even better than before, in 'say it right' and the coldplay ballad, and the awesomely bouncy 80s-madge tune which timba ripped off from that finnish dude.

also there's'unfaithful's forgotten ne-yo cousin - 'gallery' by mario vasquez! "you're just another priceless work of art / in his galleryyyyyyyyyyyyyy"!

hear 'so sick' - fall in luv with this timid sensitive soul

hear the album & 'sexy love' & then 'unfaithful' & 'gallery'- hey u tricked me, ur just telling me what i wanna hear u ugly sex troll!!

hear the album some more - fuck tho u are the supreme world expert at it tho u genius bastard

see leaked phone pics he took of him getting blown by a backing dancer - OH MAN WHAT IS IT WITH YOU AND MIRRORS!!! clearly you love love more than ur lover

hear 'irreplaceable' - omg u r tortured casanova reincarnate

currently i believe him to be the best thing since sliced teedra. oh yeah erm i might also have softened to 'unfaithful' a bit after hearing peedi crakk sing along to it on his mixtape :$

"Gallery" is really, really generic...

agree, tho i always wished those drums were 10x louder somehow! but the best rihanna tune outside of singles will always be 'here i go again'.

anyways, 2007: no one's feeling 'heartbreak'??? ;_;

http://www.myspace.com/treysongz

: x

I'm going to stop arguing though cuz i feel like tsk's opinions are more interesting than mine even if they are objectively wrong. :-p

trey wz just ripping off rnb songs tho i think, i wouldnt have minded rap beats.... i thought kev samples wz gonna be good for a laugh (4. T-Pain Is Dead Skit) but he just turned out to be a dick in the end (4. T-Pain Is Dead Skit)

fwiw i agree about the odd masterving on 'deja vu' but it doesn't bother me so much. 'deja vu' is fantastic but pales somewhat next to 'ring the alarm'.

UR HOLDING UP TRAFFIC GREEN MEANS GOOOOOOO

It's what the new Amerie song should've sounded like.

Conversely, "Irreplaceable" gets a big boost by coming on immediately afterwards.

I did hear an amazing gay house remix of "Ring The Alarm" while out last night. It was followed though by a gay house remix of Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars" :-(

Re the R&B mixtape thing. Teedra of course did it best. Her freestyle over Lloyd Banks' "On Fire"!!!

Yeah, love "Check On It" as well.