★ The Weeknd ★ What You Need ★

everything about the vocals makes me cringe (ughhh the OTT swearing just feels so contrived), there's like no emotion in it at all, and the music is generic chillwave? witch house is more interesting than this

i think deej's criticism that the songwriting isn't strong enough rings true at times but i think you're really evaluating the point of the project & other things about it

er, misevaluating

what is the "point" of this project then

like, the guy is a better singer than the-dream for one. also the music isn't generic chillwave in the slightest, at least the chillwave i'm aware of. it definitely is chill and at times can be chillwave-y, but it quite obviously expands on that. most of the time it sounds like a less pop-indebted version of the drake/40 sound (like, you could the beat for "fall for your type" on this album and you would hardly be able to tell)

what is the "point" of this project then

― lex pretend, Tuesday, March 22, 2011 4:31 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

honestly i'm not exactly sure, which is part of what i find interesting about them. but i think it's quite clear that they're going for something different than how to dress well, who pretty much seemed to be asking "what if i made r&b as indie as possible, also if i recorded my album inside a drain pipe?". weeknd to me seems like pretty straight ahead contemporary r&b, albeit someone w/ an interest in some types of indie music. i mean the guy sings about alize and making it rain and crap. it's more trey songz than pitchfork tbh.

i mean the guy sings about alize and making it rain and crap

this really comes across as so gimmicky though - it seems really forced. i'm not going to second-guess his motivation or background but it totally sounds like co-opting signifiers from the outside in the most boring way.

he's not even as good a singer as terius and certainly doesn't possess the wit or the gift for melody that makes terius' limitations as a vocalist easy to ignore.

and a huge #smh to most of the people bigging this guy up who never took the slightest bit of interest in trey songz - that right there is the warning sign

They mostly sound like a bad impression of a load of music I quite like. They dont seem to be able to program a beat that doesn't sound clunky and annoying either. What You Need is the best of a bad bunch so far. Maybe they'll come with more of that and refine their sound a load and grow into it but I dunno... It all seems early days for these dudes, right now it sounds like they're still learning and hopping on a load of trends from the shitty dubstep impressions in some of the beats to shity JJ/chillwave impressions in a load of the music to R&B in the vocals... They sound like they're playing dress up right now.

this guy isn't a pitchfork type tho, which is why it's interesting & how to dress well really isn't

― blingee cummings (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, March 22, 2011 8:14 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

thing is, i like it sometimes when pfork guys try to do that stuff. they dont get an automatic pass in either direction. what matters imo is songwriting & this project has its moments --'the morning' is p great -- but some big misses too. that 'rock the boat' sampling one is generic as hell & the vocal effect is distancing. & the lyrics in the 2nd one, where he keeps saying 'motherfucker,' are really off putting & gimmicky. im kind of w/ lex here in that if you like this stuff, you should love the album tracks ("unfortunate" etc) on the last trey songz

i dont hear the 'indie'-ness of this at all tho -- sounds like R&B not always done very well

nabisco's last column is all abt this kind of thing btw

Everybody loves Trey Songz.

stoked lex doesn't like this

ha. but yeah, what are you guys hearing that is weird or interesting abt this? i mean, assuming you dont have probs w/ the songwriting i just dont get whats particularly out there abt it

I actually haven't herd the whole album yet. Planning on listening later today, but I'm basing all my fanboyism on 'what you need'. I'll check out Trey songz and would like any other recs like this.

the album as a whole does have some lapses in songwriting and definitely gets over on mood in places, but if you dig the general sound it's a pretty good album

yeah im basing this off the three songs ive heard so i need to hear the full record

my favourite r&b albums of 2011 so far are the kandi and marsha ambrosius, and the diddy/dirty money and dawn richard mixtapes

kinda loving this. does read a lot like htdw w/ "better" singing

this music is designed for sex+weed

this thread is gonna turn me into the lex

smoke weed listen to sade imo

sade makes me think of middle aged ladies

comment on karagarga:

The-Dream's infatuation with girls has made him the biggest pimp on earth. The Weeknd's infatuation with girls has made him painfully lonely, sorrowful and filled with heartache. Everybody else sits somewhere in between.

karablabla

The Weeknd's infatuation with girls has made him painfully lonely, sorrowful and filled with heartache

fkn inadequate indie losers

sade makes me think of middle aged ladies

― gr8080, Tuesday, March 22, 2011 7:13 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

with which u are v familiar obv

OK, this/these IS/ARE the person/people with the song containing "watch me knock your boots off." ("Would you like some making fuck/BERSERKER.")

What I've heard sounds shriveled and (like Lex said) forced.

ha glad im not alone w/ lex on this one no offense lex

kmt

lol you guys like jamie woon and harsh on this smh

havent heard the lp yet but 'night air' >>>>

grady just listen to R&B

havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet

xpost. ^ that's what's so wrong about your opinions. fuck all this "just listen to the real thing". it might not be the best songwriting (dunno yet), he def overuses the word 'fuck', but from what i've heard, he/they create a really great mood.

j shep!

http://twitter.com/jawnita/status/50279876359499776

jawnita

If u fuck with the weeknd and don't fux with loleatta holiday, I probably hate you
6 minutes ago via OpenBeak

What about Donnie Holloway?

yeah i dont like the real thing, sorry

my version is if you fux with the weeknd but don't fux with actual r&b, yr opinion is void

like seriously what motivates people to go check out the weeknd and stan for them but pretty much ignore marsha ambrosius or trey songz or kandi?

listening to 'hope she cheats on you (w/a basketball player) from marsha ambrosius, and i get the comparisons, but what i don't like about this, and what i do like about the weeknd, is the production. it's too big. i like some dirt in my recordings. i mean, calling me indie is just kinda ridiculous if you even knew what kind of music i listen to. i spend 99.5% of my time listening to music pre-1995. occasionally i get hold of something current that's a bit different, or revivalist or something, and only like it because it's not like everything else out there.

their cover art isnt indie-looking enough to draw my attention, sorry
xpost

this is the one by marsha a.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1TiM7dN5R8

havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet havent heard the lp yet

― gr8080, Tuesday, March 22, 2011 7:38 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah but the lead single i think is p bad & thats like everyones fav cut

jaxon did u like trey songz 'unfortunate'

i dig that marsha ambrosius jam. does the rest of the record sound like that, or is this just her prince homage?

trey songz has many fine singles but 'house of balloons' >>> the last two trey songz lps

also it's pretty easy to see why ppl would fuck w/ this & not marshia ambrosious or kandi!! like, it's really patently obvious!

(honestly i like 'what you need' more though, it's got an atmosphere that sucks me in immediately)

xp

i dig that marsha ambrosius jam. does the rest of the record sound like that, or is this just her prince homage?

pretty much all sounds like that - don't think it's a classic album or anything, some of the songs don't quite work, but the sound is consistent and at its best it's rather incredible

also it's pretty easy to see why ppl would fuck w/ this & not marshia ambrosious or kandi!! like, it's really patently obvious!

i don't really see why people who enjoy something that sells itself as r&b-derived should be uninterested in actual r&b at all

the Quincy Jones grosses me out! Is he suggesting he's as crazy as Q's mama? A master like Q?

For whatever reason, the interludes don't feel all that intrusive to me. It helps that two of them are confined to the intro and outro, but even the others mostly feel like (appropriately) moody pauses in what is an otherwise sonically uniform record.

i liked this album (listened on a night drive, which seems ideal), not sure which song is my favorite but i know that the one with tyler is my least favorite

well, Tyler's declarative sentences blow away Tesfaye's repulsive fluttered moues.

yeah i mean the main reason i dislike that one in particular is that abel goes back to that played-out single-note melodic style i got sick of around the time of “low life”

album is alright, seems kind of slight which the last one did as well. it's not very memorable but listening to it doesn't make me angry either.

lol why did they get him to do a song for avatar 2 that's such a weird combo