thread of miguel

I can't decide whether I loathe Alicia Keys or Rihanna with greater intensity.

Interesting to note that All I Want Is You only sold roughly 1/40th of its eventual total in its first week out.

iirc he also told me that adorn was always longer and that he put the shorter version on ADC

also that thing about alicia being on "candles in the sun" is incorrect. that was just a screw up in the complex article.

miguel wrote "where's the fun in forever" while he was in jamaica doing work for her album, she ended up not taking the track for her album and she agreed to let him have it. they left some of her vocals on the song, but it's far from a duet or something.

I like that "Do You" has this late 90s post-Timbo jitterbeatz thing going on rhythmically, but with a totally different sonic palette.

btw Billboard article says that "Do You" is the next single and that the Target edition of the album will have bonus tracks (hopefully new-new stuff but i wouldn't mind some more ADC stuff getting included)

I think he said something about "do you..." being the next single back when it was called "drugs"

He did say something to me about doing some bonus tracks because the album isn't crazy long but I have no idea what those are

the longer version was the original but he prefers the shorter version

― lex pretend, Wednesday, August 8, 2012 9:35 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't have the exact quote as i'm not in london with the recording right now, and i didn't put it in the piece, but i pretty much asked him directly and he answered directly. he could've been lying, artists have been known to do that!

or maybe Billboard magazine is getting a little lax with their rigorous research standards ;)

and now he's extending it even longer live :O

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

just incredible

33 songs, mostly old stuff. looks like there are a couple that have been rehabbed ("That I Do", "Pussy Is Mine").

http://words.obsqr.com/post/6620823199/obsqr-presents-miguel-free-and-young-143mb-a

Wow, great performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQyTyDPV3BA

<3

hmmm, I hadn't listened to the lyrics :/

You know, I just realized "Adorn" is probably my favorite song since "Happy House" :O

yeah it's def my favorite song in a very long time

album stream

http://www.npr.org/2012/09/24/161566783/first-listen-miguel-kaleidoscope-dream

i sorta forgot how much of it we've already heard. New ones sound good though

P---- Is Mine

Artist: Miguel
Album: Kaleidoscope Dream

Please be advised, this audio contains profanity.

May go see him (if my schedule works out) Wednesday night at the (reopened and renovated) Howard Theatre

Pizza Is Mine

i sorta forgot how much of it we've already heard.

That was my beef with all the post-ADC "previews" of this album. It was like seeing 2/3 of The Dark Knight Rises in advance, one 7-minute trailer at a time

Look at it this way: it'll be like buying FutureSex/LoveSounds or Rhythm Nation after you've heard the 67 singles.

yeah, to be sure, it doesn't ruin the album or anything. it just waters down the experience of hearing it for the first time

yeah, i've sort of come to peace with the whole thing. even the jessie ware album, it's the same thing. you've just got to step back and not hold it against an album if it arrives and we've already heard half of it.

i guess there is also the choice to not listen to any leaks.

I don't mind since the single/3-5 song EP is my preferred choice of method of consumption these days

I'm haunted by an rtc comment: something like, 'lol at the idea of an album in 2012' or something to that effect

personally i think the best strategy nowadays is to do what jay/ye & frank ocean (and others) have done and that's to let one or two songs go before dropping the whole thing in full as a digital download. you probably get a nice windfall in sales and everyone gets that experience of hearing it for the first time together. buzz builds for a week and then you can drop the physical. but, maybe that takes a special kind of situation.

trying to remember the last time a contemporary R&B album with this high a profile came out w/ no obligatory guest rappers

― some dude, Monday, August 27, 2012 12:38 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

might have been preferable to his own rap :/

and he drops a "YOLO" bomb .....

ha, "Where's The Fun In Forever" = where his hanging out w/ FlyLo, Thundercat, etc shows. definitely has that LA "beat scene" feel

might have been preferable to his own rap :/

― The Reverend, Monday, September 24, 2012 1:24 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

ha, yes

On the other hand there's less "work" to put into listening to an album on which you've heard four tracks.

btw for those who wondered what the original version of "That I Do" sounded like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sZ2qJyIi6A

So I'm curious to see whether all the critical enthusiasm and general good will surrounding Miguel translates into glowing "OMG, you need to buy this! You cannot ignore this!" reviews a la Frank Ocean, or just easier to phase out "Hey, this is pretty good for an R&B album because it's different" reviews

oh best case scenario it doesn't get half the critical hype FO has gotten

I find most of the Ocean an album a well-intentioned bore made by a talented guy whereas Miguel started as a talented guy whose already dropped at least six killer tracks this year.

* omit the "an"

I like "Adorn" and "Arch N Point" more than any particular song on Channel Orange but don't find this album nearly as immersive.

I'm delighted by both, obviously, but my overall experience with each artist so far is that Frank Ocean floors me at first but some of the shine fades over time, where Miguel's material just continues to keep growing on me, even despite absurd amounts of exposure

I feel like I'm going to end up listening to songs from this over and over rather than the album over and over.

Which is the same as happened with AIWIY and ADC.

So I'm curious to see whether all the critical enthusiasm and general good will surrounding Miguel translates into glowing "OMG, you need to buy this! You cannot ignore this!" reviews a la Frank Ocean, or just easier to phase out "Hey, this is pretty good for an R&B album because it's different" reviews

― Evan R, Monday, September 24, 2012 1:51 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah, probably the latter. people definitely embrace the weirdo aspects of miguel's persona and music, but i think the one thing about frank's album (objectively speaking) is that it had this perfect confluence of the artist getting a lot of attention as a celebrity and is music that sounds more like the type of black music that critics have always loved. it's a very strong, singular album imo but it has a wider appeal to critics than, say, the-dream. it's a hip soul album, more or less -- the type of thing that critics have privileged for years, but on the pop stage. miguel has won a lot of people over just because he's so damn good, but it's still not in that same classification as frank.

that said he'll be getting an exponentially higher amount of press now than he did w/ anything off his first record, so that alone is a major coup.

He's made a ridiculous percentage of my favorite songs of the past couple years, but he hasn't quite mastered the album format.

yeah i mean i'd buy that. i'm still rating 'channel orange' over this partly for that reason.

Ergo, he should just keep releasing lots of amazing EPs.

He's made a ridiculous percentage of my favorite songs of the past couple years, but he hasn't quite mastered the album format.

― The Reverend, Monday, September 24, 2012 2:03 PM (53 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

damn, you gotta hand down that proclamation on high the day the album starts streaming?

i think the one thing about frank's album (objectively speaking) is that it had this perfect confluence of the artist getting a lot of attention as a celebrity and is music that sounds more like the type of black music that critics have always loved. it's a very strong, singular album imo but it has a wider appeal to critics than, say, the-dream. it's a hip soul album, more or less

Yeah, I think that's fair. I was gushing over the Frank Ocean album with a music-critic friend last week, and he was explaining how Channel Orange was exactly the type of album he'd been waiting for, not from R&B per se, but just from a singer-songwriter in general. That album fills a really big hole

i guess i wouldn't say that he hasn't mastered the album format... one of my favorite things about this album is that i think all these different sounds make more sense when you hear them played straight through.