The Best Song on The-Dream's Love vs. Money

which mariah track did he do?

listened to that karina pasian album last night too, he's got a couple great songs there too, as do tricky/dream

oh, "candy bling"...hmm

"1 Fan" from the new R. album is pretty good, definitely gonna do the shameless segue to or from "Kelly's 12 Play" for that one

yeah this song's dope, i need some sort of rss feed for LOS beats so dont miss these

lol he tried to bite my "blap for that" a few days ago too ¯\(°_o)/¯

― we beat so many gimp (k3vin k.), Saturday, October 10, 2009 10:23 AM (46 minutes ago) Bookmark

?? i searched the archives & didn't see anything

listened to this while lolhigh and the beat just fuckin jumped out at me like crazy, the synths are so fucking huge

― we beat so many gimp (k3vin k.), Saturday, October 10, 2009 10:26 AM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark

ftr all music sounds like this while high

i think u guys have conceptual and thematic confused or something xps cos i really have no idea what any of u r talking about when u start talking about how shit is conceptual and i went to art school for four years....

Courtesy of P4K Guest Lists.

(Ed Droste also had Lv.M on his best-of list but this was hilarious)

Chris Taylor, Grizzly Bear
The-Dream: Love vs. Money
Abner Jay: True Story of Abner Jay
Dirty Projectors: Bitte Orca
Nirvana: Live at Reading
John Maus: Love Is Real
Atlas Sound: Logos
Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
St. Vincent: The Actor
Cass McCombs: Catacombs
The-Dream: Love vs. Money (yes, it's on the list twice)

In fact, Memory Tapes and Wavves also list LvM on their best of the year lists, while the guy from Girls lists Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel as his special treat.

So...Terius is now the consensus indie-rocker pick apparently?

WOW SHOCKER

Nice to see the album finally get the love it deserves in indie circles. I wish I had thought of putting it on my end of the year list twice.

Too bad these indie fucks need approval from the dudes in Grizzly Bear before they dare crack open a mainstream pop/R&B album.

sock sock sock sock sock sock

Totally serious. Kudos to the Grizzly Bear dude, though, for having it on his list twice. That's just awesome.

And again, with the caveat that The-Dream needs no approval from P4K whatsoever, I'm sort of baffled that Rockin' That Shit is the consensus pick from the album? I mean, unless a second Terius joint is popping up in the Top 50 but that seems unlikely.

It might be the strongest single, I guess, but the brilliance of LvM is all in the deep cuts. And by "in the deep cuts", I mean "Fancy".

popular singles artist being praised for his most popular single of the year shocker

But he's not a popular singles artist exactly...I don't think I heard him on the radio once all year. For someone so high-profile in terms of writing credits, I usually have to explain who he is to people.

Wikipedia says Rockin' That Shit got to 22, so I suppose it's in the realm of actually popular, as opposed to Ryan Leslie or whatever, but if that's his highest peaking single, I think it's disingenuous to act as though radio-airplay and singles are how The-Dream's work's been consumed, especially in critical circles, especially given the acclaim for the album as a whole.

well it is still a tracks list & ppl are likely to vote for actual singles in those lists

Fair. Maybe it's my memory - I seem to recall Pitchfork going out of its way/having a tendency to frequently rate non-singles. Anyway, nothing interesting to say about this really. Recusing myself.

"Sweat It Out" is my favorite (deej, that's what I was thinking of but blanked on when I ran into you a few weeks ago).

gross

And again, with the caveat that The-Dream needs no approval from P4K whatsoever, I'm sort of baffled that Rockin' That Shit is the consensus pick from the album? I mean, unless a second Terius joint is popping up in the Top 50 but that seems unlikely.

It might be the strongest single, I guess, but the brilliance of LvM is all in the deep cuts. And by "in the deep cuts", I mean "Fancy".

― wrapped up, packed up, ribbon with a donk on it (Alex in Montreal), Monday, December 14, 2009 1:32 PM (14 minutes ago)

"rockin that shit" is both the best song and the biggest single, so it was a good pick

But he's not a popular singles artist exactly...I don't think I heard him on the radio once all year. For someone so high-profile in terms of writing credits, I usually have to explain who he is to people.

Wikipedia says Rockin' That Shit got to 22, so I suppose it's in the realm of actually popular, as opposed to Ryan Leslie or whatever, but if that's his highest peaking single, I think it's disingenuous to act as though radio-airplay and singles are how The-Dream's work's been consumed, especially in critical circles, especially given the acclaim for the album as a whole.

― wrapped up, packed up, ribbon with a donk on it (Alex in Montreal), Monday, December 14, 2009 1:38 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you're being weird, dude. "Rockin'" got to #2 on the R&B chart (and was his 4th consecutive top 10 solo single on that chart), and was one of the biggest songs of the year on a lot of stations I listen to, still hear it on an almost daily basis 10 months or whatever after it's been released.

yeah, it's definitely been huge on the rhythmic stations in seattle & portland (although the seattle station plays a shitty remix with luda replacing the second verse). never heard anything else from lvm on the radio

might be worth mentioning that you live in canada.

do they have radio in canada?

radio in canada

worst band name evar

guys I'm shocked that Alex in Montreal never bothered to mention that he lives in Canada, shocked

it's not that he didn't mention it, it's that he didn't factor it into his observations

it was a joke dude

i know. but canadian radio is government controlled lunacy.

i know. but canadian radio is government controlled lunacy.

^

here we don't have like "niche" radio because the governement only allows like 8 stations in ur area including the classical music one so the idea of hearing the dream on "urban" radio or whatever is pretty alien to me, i can only take my own opinion that anyone who loves that album enough to make it a year ender surely picked it up for the fancy/right side of my brain cos that's its real distinguishing feature imo but you know that is my partic perspective on the matter iunwim

xp: as if the US gvmt has the slightest modicum of control over public radio

afaik the FCC does not mandate us to listen to the US equivalent of the bare naked ladies or the tragically hip

the US gov't does not have to insist radio stations play american artists, it's true.

here we don't have like "niche" radio because the governement only allows like 8 stations in ur area including the classical music one so the idea of hearing the dream on "urban" radio or whatever is pretty alien to me, i can only take my own opinion that anyone who loves that album enough to make it a year ender surely picked it up for the fancy/right side of my brain cos that's its real distinguishing feature imo but you know that is my partic perspective on the matter iunwim

― plaxico (I know, right?), Monday, December 14, 2009 4:20 PM (27 minutes ago)

well i disagree that everyone who likes the album likes it for that four song suite or whatever, kind of a dumb assumption. "rockin that shit" is a no-brainer banger, no need to overthink shit

saying this as someone who has never heard a the-dream song on the radio

xp: as if the US gvmt has the slightest modicum of control over public radio

I get what you're saying, but don't tell me that Clear Channel isn't empowered by a lack of anti-monopoly laws, either. Government does have an effect, however subtle, on most every sector of business out there. Radio is no exception.

if you get what he's saying then i don't know why you'd continue to make a completely separate and irrelevant other point

here we don't have like "niche" radio because the governement only allows like 8 stations in ur area including the classical music one so the idea of hearing the dream on "urban" radio or whatever is pretty alien to me, i can only take my own opinion that anyone who loves that album enough to make it a year ender surely picked it up for the fancy/right side of my brain cos that's its real distinguishing feature imo but you know that is my partic perspective on the matter iunwim

― plaxico (I know, right?), Monday, December 14, 2009 4:20 PM (27 minutes ago)

well i disagree that everyone who likes the album likes it for that four song suite or whatever, kind of a dumb assumption. "rockin that shit" is a no-brainer banger, no need to overthink shit

― k3vin k., Monday, December 14, 2009 9:49 PM (35 minutes ago)

okay but i just meant that aspect of the album is what sets it apart to the insane-dream-lust degree among 4 example ilm fans afai can c and rockin that shit isn't really representational of that, and year end lists are all abt being representational

Probably worth noting that you can't really put "Fancy" or "Right Side Of My Brain" or either of the "Love vs Money" tracks on a mix-tape, for example (owing to the way they're mixed as a suite), so it's a lot harder to enjoy them in isolation. "Rockin' That Shit" feels more standalone, hence makes sense to talk about it as one of the tracks of the year. "Fancy" is more about the greatness of the album, or perhaps more specifically the greatness of its "side 2".

okay but i just meant that aspect of the album is what sets it apart to the insane-dream-lust degree among 4 example ilm fans afai can c and rockin that shit isn't really representational of that, and year end lists are all abt being representational

― plaxico (I know, right?), Monday, December 14, 2009 5:28 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah but year end lists that are voted on by a staff of dozens of people are more likely to represent what all or most of those people have heard, like say a huge hit single, rather than a deep cut from its parent album that may not even score especially high on its album lists

yeah ok but i don't really reckon most of those ppl r listening to urban radio, and are instead getting their info via similar outlets to me, where the popular opinion is that its all abt side two but obviously this is all assumption but u have to admit it is fairly convincing as a story admit it

is there really such a strong consensus though? in this thread side one got 17 votes and side two got 22 votes, which isn't any kind of staggering margin.

wow my iTunes play count is much higher for side 1

best-dream single this year was "my love" easily

but yeah i don't get why a) if you loved the singles you wouldn't check out the album b) if you'd heard the album why you wouldn't choose "fancy" as the track to pick - def seems that that's the one that opinion's coalesced around

also didn't "rockin' that shit" come out way before 2008 ended?

Yeah, I guess Lex has elucidated my point in a far more logical and clear way. And if it were Rolling Stone, or something, I wouldn't be shocked with the big single placing, but the way Pitchfork's poll has always SEEMED to operate, especially with regards to albums/songs/genres outside of its "indie" centre has been via individual writers repping hard for albums/tracks and converting other writers who don't specialize in those genres. Similar to how I'm more likely to hear and thus rep for funky tracks favoured by Lex or Tim or others who have an in depth knowledge of UK Funky (even if they aren't the big hits). Or how I'm more likely to give the time of day to Gucci tracks that deej or j0rdan suggest.

Given that the people contributing to the P4K lists are, like us, a bunch of obscurantist music nerds. And given (not a HUGE assumption) that many P4K contributors wouldn't have given Terius or Electrik Red or whoever the time of day without SOMEONE strongly advocating for it, the end result being "Rockin' That Shit" seemed counter to my perception of the response to the album by the critical bandwagon. (I mean, it's not like they voted for Walkin' on the Moon, but nonetheless...)

And again, I think it's clear that my assumptions are way off. Scott P. said something in another thread about how deej's nomination of a second Gucci track split votes and led to Wasted being lower down the list (possibly because most non-specialists aren't/weren't willing to throw on two Gucci tracks in their top 25/50/whatever). So it's possible that something like that happened - a vote split between the big single and an album track that a Terius-fan on staff nominated, or maybe some dude is 100% right, and my ignorance of the various Billboard charts led me to have totally faulty expectations.

Anyway, my stupidity has resulted in a big kerfuffle over nothing, so let's just move on, shall we?