Rolling R&B Thread 2012

I'm just gonna dream of the early 2000s, when a great song could play in both formats without pandering to either. Better times.

oh dear i just noticed the trayvon martin reference o_0

Yeah, it's really tasteless, but still better than Childish Gambino's Trayvonsploitation hashtag from hell

ha for a sec i thoguht you were going to say you were feeling the max martin-produced "scream"

― some dude, Monday, April 30, 2012 1:43 PM (40 minutes ago) Bookmark

lol me 2

I hope this post-F.A.M.E. bifurcation of R&B album singles into "pop" and "urban" subsets isn't a lasting trend; it's just so shameless

― Evan R, Monday, April 30, 2012 10:55 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

pre-dates FAME but for sure this is the worst thing to happen to pop in the past five years, even worse than everything sounding like gay club tourism music or rap songs with white people singing

Part of the magic of "Climax," I think, is that it bucks this trend. It sounds amazing on both pop and urban stations, and that hasn't been true of an Usher single in ages

"gay club tourism music" is my favourite descriptor ever.

less gay club tourism music, more gay 90s house music is my new mantra.

rap songs with white people singing

ha, never really thought about it, but this is another great example of the marginalization of R&B. Scabs like Skylar Grey and Matthew Santos are stealing all the prime guest spots

can we count bruno mars as white for this exercise?

he's not white?

wait, Bruno Mars and Matthew Santos aren't the same person?

which one was in Coldplay then?

bruno maris is puerto rican/fillipino

i'm well aware of that.

Part of the magic of "Climax," I think, is that it bucks this trend. It sounds amazing on both pop and urban stations, and that hasn't been true of an Usher single in ages

― Evan R, Monday, April 30, 2012 8:30 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark

it's barely on pop stations, in america anyway

Part of the magic of "Climax," I think, is that it bucks this trend. It sounds amazing on both pop and urban stations, and that hasn't been true of an Usher single in ages

― Evan R, Monday, April 30, 2012 8:30 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark

it's barely on pop stations, in america anyway

― some dude, Tuesday, May 1, 2012 1:45 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

Yeah, I've not once heard this on my pop station, though I've never heard it on my hip-hop/R&B station either. I've heard "Without You" and "Scream" on the latter, but it plays so much pop that they don't stand out.

"Climax" is on r&b stations a ton. i will challop and say i prefer "Without You" though (or for that matter, "Papers").

"without you" is one of the biggest shitsacks ever

there are plenty of usher singles that are better than "climax" but none of them have been released post-confessions era

yeah srsly man that is a remarkably horrible opinion even for you

climax is mad wack idgi

and so is this new song

there's better shit on both here i stand and raymond v. raymond

"IMO"

i like "climax" but ursh had put out plenty of singles post-confessions that are its equal, at least

yeah srsly man that is a remarkably horrible opinion even for you

― r|t|c, Monday, April 30, 2012 6:20 PM Bookmark

sorry for not sticking up for "omg" and "moving mountains"

not you dumbass

i like climax a lot but yeah ok i wouldnt say its miles and miles ahead of some rvr stuff

however 'without you' sucks and here i stand was wall 2 wall interminable garbage iirc

why do you all hate "moving mountains"

it is NOT a bad song!

first couple times i heard "Without You" i thought it was Mario, still really think he sounds more like Mario than Usher on that song. it's a good vocal, though.

"Trading Places" is prob my favorite post-Fesh era single, no Teriustan

an "xp" goes a long ways, rtc

tbh i prefer the funkystepz remix of "climax" to the of but then again i would

"moving mountains" is kind of amazing and epic (esp with that video!) but not in a good way. i will here i stand up for "trading places" just cause of lol lyrics tho

hot toddie, papers, omg, there goes my baby, love in this club, dj got us falling in love, love in this club pt II <-- all songs i more or less enjoy as much as "climax"

He's made better singles than "Climax" but I'm a sucker for this kind of production and singing.

and, yeah, "Climax" has had no pop exposure down here at all.

saying that usher has made better singles than "climax" may be the greatest understatement i've ever read on ilx

understatement's not a virtue for which ILX is famous.

haha rev his "yeah" was clearly kind of piggybacking off your post to also respond to me, don't blame him that you didn't read the post right

I pretty much view it in the same lineage (and inferior to) "u got it bad" and "burn" but with more production frippery that doesn't really add to the song. which is a better look for him than anything else he's done in the past five years, mind you.

yeah, i read from where i had it bookmarked and ended up looking like a dummy. my bad.

I disagree on the frippery. The arrangement and singing is thought-through. I suppose it's not much different from "There Goes My Baby," which I dig too.

bad/burn/papers are are most comically transparent in being rewrites of each other but i don't really hear climax as being in that tradition

"Papers" is the gold standard of post-Confessions Usher singles imo, but that's because it's the only one that strikes me as genuinely sad

What I do find encouraging about the new Usher singles, though, is that they've really put the emphasis on his voice again. After the Versus era dude is really flaunting his range

haven't much cared for many of his club bangers tbh

why do you all hate "moving mountains"

it is NOT a bad song!

― Peace (peaceful) (The Brainwasher), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 02:28 (22 minutes ago) Bookmark

http://i.imgur.com/U05aq.gif

yeah to be honest i've never been big on club banger usher -- love "u don't have to call" but compared to his other clubby hits it's downright cozy

climax is super entertaining to sing along to in ::dramatic:: fashion

mind u so is lotus flower bomb and best believe i'm not officially cosigning that

"lil freak" is easily the best post-confessions usher single for me and even then it's hardly amazing

smh @ j0rdan slipping "omg" and "dj got us falling in love" in his on-a-par-with-climax list

"omg" was kinda trolling but "dj got us falling in love" is basically the classic eurohouse r&b song of the past few years

"post-Fesh"

simultaneous desire to paypal and sb you for this

lol

usher/ross song is good... beat kinda reminds me of "i'm on one"

http://www.thisisrnb.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/usher-l4m-cover.jpg

Also, Nikkiya Speakher Overload Deluxe Edition is out. Has a few new tracks on it and a remix of 'I Like What Your Doin Main.' Just listening to this now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf9Sz7MpCbw