Cassie: The new Ciara?

the song is fucking hot.

its more like prince on irrestible bitch or something.

i love how she uses exactly the same vocal strategy on 'long way 2 go' as on 'me & u' to completely different effect

has anyone seen her TRL performance? its pretty bad, although she is actually quite endearing in it. she has a great smile and that strange combination of innocence/adolescent clunkiness/sweetness. she was trying to dance all sexily in the performance, but whether its because the moves just werent too good or that she isnt the best dancer, it just ended up looking funny.

(it is also v good, if a little more inviting than i was expecting)

* I love Ciara but Cassie's part-Filipina-ness is almost a trump card
* she hails from the Long Day's Journey Into Night town
* the erotic subtext (supertext just about) vs. detached delivery = cool evocation of post-industrial nightlife meat-market malaise? = half-hearted surrender to/embrace of the meat-market model of urban social interaction OR mere happy-accident tension betw unpolished vox & run-of-the-mill r&b motifs?
* the bittersweet emaciation of Me & U's falling clave blips is almost snap
* Long Way 2 Go has a sorta baroque video-game aesthetic that I can get behind in a big way
* Ryan Leslie's original ideal/masterplan for Cassie: "multi-ethnic, non-genre specific voice" vs. the actual reality of "non-ethnic, multi-genre specific voice"??

HMMMM

Are you referring to my last post? It was just a silly response to the "But she can't even sing!" nonsense. (Plus, it's probably the truth as well.) I could've also posted "I might like Shellac if Steve Albini could belt like Paul Rodgers."

i really love the whole album.

Just discovering her album. It's tremendous! I prefer it to the new Amerie and Rihanna.

Long Way 2 Go hooked me in (funny MySpace-themed video!) and it's the delightful pop of Ditto and smouldering of Kiss Me that I'm currently stuck on.

Rumor has it she got dropped from Bad Boy.

This makes me a sad panda.

Siik (the dude who made that jazzy remix of Amerie's "1 Thing" a couple years back also remixed "Me & U" and again, it sounds like a completely different song. It's great.

yeah the siik remix is pretty awesome

i guess the album didnt sell v. well? cuz it pretty much ruled from end to end (a lot of this was leslies production, anyone know anything else of note hes done?)

cassie :(

the other two noteworthy ryan leslie productions i've heard - both v much in the same gently minimalist vein - are the new megan rochell single, 'my mistake', and 'like that', off the jojo album. both v well worth hearing.

is the whole jojo album worth checking out? i hadnt seen the list of producers till just now, a veritable whos who of hiphop-pop crossover appeal

it is, mostly - it's not exactly consistent but she does a v good beyonce impression on the swizz beats track, the storch one is surprisingly r leslie-esque (thought that was his one for ages), there's a really nice digitised country thing...

oh yeah i didn't realise this before i heard the new album but jojo can really sing