R&B/soul - breaking news, gossip, slander, lies etc

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gumdrops

Well-known member
basically im always getting behind on R&B so i thought a thread like this would be a good way for me to stay up to date. providing the people here arent also behind in which case this thread is going to be a total waste of time. but hopefully not. anyway, the new beyonce album came out the other week. i havent heard it but i love deja vu (fuck everyone/mainstream critics who keep banging on about how its tuneless - no its not, you just cant hear it cos you only like R&B when its weird/gimmicky/screams out 'pop anthem' etc) and the album cover is pretty excellent too as beyonce looks like a sort of stepford wive/R&B fembot which IMO is a great look for her. ring the alarm is quite terrible though (the anger and screaming in the chorus sound quite pointless/hollow overall and the sirens are too OTT) so im hoping the rest of the album isnt like that. i heard the cassie album and the production by ryan leslie (who i think is signed to westbound which is strange as i had no idea that label was still active) is quite interesting overall, esp the tracks that maintain that iciness/detached childlike coolness of the first single but nothing else sadly really seemed to match the single for songfulness.
 

jd_

Well-known member
I'd be interested to hear what you make of the Beyonce, particularily Freakum Dress after reading your comments about Ring The Alarm. It's the song I find I go back to most but I can't decide what I think of it yet to be honest other than I'm impressed by how abrasive and uncomfortable it is. I want to say it's almost like metal or something but it's weirder than that really. The whole cd is rather screamy though.

If you don't have it, I can't recommend the Christina Milian cd enough. It's not that new but I don't know if it gets much praise, I remember reading she got dumped by her label which seems completely insane to me. It's my favorite album I've heard this year.
 

hint

party record with a siren
I found the Beyonce album disappointing, but there's still some good tracks on there. I read that the whole album was done in a couple of weeks, and I think it shows. The Kelis album is much better overall, despite also being patchy.

I don't like Deja Vu. It's a bit too "5-string bass" for my liking, if you see what I mean. As far as the raw stuff goes, I do like Ring The Alarm. But Get Me Bodied really overshadows it as the standout stripped-down club track on the album.

My other favourite on the album is Kitty Kat. It's got a kind of Sa-Ra style synth-brass-in-outer-space thing going on.

My favourite track at the moment is 80's Joint by Kelis. For some reason, it doesn't appear on her album and is instead only available on the soundtrack from the film Step Up. It's nothing revolutionary, but it really hits the spot in a smooth throwback soul boogie type of way.

Another great track is Scar's What Is This?. He's the "other" guy singing on the new Outkast material (i.e. not Sleepy Brown).

Fergie's got some great beats on her album, but the tracks are let down by the fact that they have Fergie on them ;). Polow Da Don did a great remix of Luxurious by Gwen Stefani with a guest verse by Ludacris, which never came out for some reason. Both the beat and the Luda guest spot have now been used (and wasted) by Fergie on her track Glamorous.

Polow also produced Fergie's London Bridge and Beyonce's Ring The Alarm, so now I think about it, some of this stuff might not be your cup of tea, Gumdrops. Polow's one of my favourite producers at the moment.

I see that Maxwell is making a comeback, which I find very exciting. Unfortunately I can't get any of the new tracks up on his Myspace page to play. If anyone here can get it to work, I'd love to hear any opinions on his new material.

Finally... I'm really hungry for the new Yummy Bingham material. I've heard 3 tracks recently which are all mighty fine - I Don't Really, Just Leave and (especially) Quickie.

I've just noticed that they have the whole album up to preview over at http://www.yummybingham.com
 
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Guybrush

Dittohead
Michael Jackson and Teddy Riley - Leading The New Jack Swing Revival?
Yeah, why not? But I think we will have to wait another year or two before it'll start to sound really fresh again. Having said that, I've already started to notice an increased amount of New Jack Swing tracks being sneaked into dj-sets here and there. Maybe neither here nor there, but I'm listening to Father MC's Treat Them Like They Want to Be Treated as I'm typing this (at +6; for some strange reason all New Jack Swing tracks benefit from a slight tempo increase)—what a GREAT song!
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
i wanted to like the tori version of dont cha when i heard the story of how she did it first but PCD' version is easily the superior take on the song (the version without busta's rap though). their singer has a lot more personality.
 

mms

sometimes
i wanted to like the tori version of dont cha when i heard the story of how she did it first but PCD' version is easily the superior take on the song (the version without busta's rap though). their singer has a lot more personality.

clunk (that's the sound of my jaw dropping)

Tori's version is far superior, more spaced out backing, a bit dusty and slack, her voice is really sexy with lots of lazy, sexy confidence, much more soul and attitude, while the pussy cat dolls version sounds like them, models in an aerobics class.
 

Guybrush

Dittohead
Nicole Scherzinger has an awfully bombastic singing-voice (no doubt marred by her rock band days), but I must concur with gumdrops on this one. Tori Alamaze's voice hasn't got the assertiveness needed to carry the song, I think.

A Pussycat Dolls re-recording of the song has been doing the rounds recently. God knows why they bothered, but here it is: Don't Cha sung in Simlish.
 

elgato

I just dont know
Fergie's got some great beats on her album, but the tracks are let down by the fact that they have Fergie on them ;)

you know i was listening to the radio yesterday and they were playing "Don't Phunk With My Heart" (definately up there for shittest track title ever), and noticed that there is actually some really beautiful backing work done with fergie's voice as she sings "would you still be in love baby"... am i going mad / losing taste / face?
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
clunk (that's the sound of my jaw dropping)

Tori's version is far superior, more spaced out backing, a bit dusty and slack, her voice is really sexy with lots of lazy, sexy confidence, much more soul and attitude, while the pussy cat dolls version sounds like them, models in an aerobics class.

if you have ever seen appollonia 6 or vanity 6 videos, you will know that models singing in an aerobics class is no bad thing. ;) tori has no real discernable vocal personality really, thats why nobody paid any notice when she did her version of dont cha (the fact its on an indie aside). i wanted to like her version but theres just no tension in her voice. it sounds quite dull actually. nicole from PCD is a lot fiercer. i dont necess agree that shes a bombastic singer. shes actually a lot more controlled than someone like beyonce who just does runs all over the place, especially live.
 
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gumdrops

Well-known member
agreed

you know i was listening to the radio yesterday and they were playing "Don't Phunk With My Heart" (definately up there for shittest track title ever), and noticed that there is actually some really beautiful backing work done with fergie's voice as she sings "would you still be in love baby"... am i going mad / losing taste / face?

if it wasnt so transparently cheesy, it would be better but the music and some of the sung parts in particular are quite excellent (cant believe i am admitting this). will i am could be really good if he didnt give into this cheesier/crassly commercial instincts so willingly. im hoping he reigns that side of his work in for what he did with michael jackson.
 
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elgato

I just dont know
i found the chorus really quite beautiful. completely anti-soul, so controlled, orchestrated, almost computerised, but really really buff

i agree with you, i think that will.i.am is an incredibly talented guy, as demonstrated by his early material. also, to be fair, i heard most of the newest bep album in a clothes store recently, and thought the non-single tracks sounded really quite excellent, very interesting... accessible but not crassly so

im almost tempted to buy it :eek:
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
YES, it is quite beautiful, elegant and oddly haunting, esp considering the rest of the song is so hyper. ive not heard the full album but i so really like will i ams pop hookiness, hes quite inspired i think. i even liked beep by PCD which he produced (which for a modern R&B song, has a irregularly high amount of changes and that middle eight leading to the chorus is almost on par with that fergie part youre talking about). id rather hear will collaborate with someone like nelly furtado than timbaland (the tracks timbo and nelly did i found quite stilted and sluggish melodically, will i am would have given her something more 'soaring', but then, im not sure if nellys voice is as good as fergies).
 
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mms

sometimes
if you have ever seen appollonia 6 or vanity 6 videos, you will know that models singing in an aerobics class is no bad thing. ;) tori has no real discernable vocal personality really, thats why nobody paid any notice when she did her version of dont cha (the fact its on an indie aside). i wanted to like her version but theres just no tension in her voice. it sounds quite dull actually. nicole from PCD is a lot fiercer. i dont necess agree that shes a bombastic singer. shes actually a lot more controlled than someone like beyonce who just does runs all over the place, especially live.

i don't think fierceness is the order, its the slightly drunken kinda voice, the confident seduction i like, not the 'look at my tits' workout stuff, that's for drunk city workers to feel overconfident too on a friday night.

yeah of course i know appolonia and vanity 6 (they're the same band pretty much)

the beat for that awful london bridge track is sick. pitty it's got the awful fergie on it.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
i wanted to like the tori version of dont cha when i heard the story of how she did it first but PCD' version is easily the superior take on the song (the version without busta's rap though). their singer has a lot more personality.

Must agree that my jaw dropped open too. I can understand (just) your feeling that Tori didn't have enough charisma to carry the song, but the production is so unarguably (well, obviously not ;) ) superior on the Alamaze version (as well as being one of the finest non-Timbaland, non-Jerkins, non-Neptunes, non-Tim 'n' Bob RnB productions I've heard - who did it?) that I'm staggered.

The Alamaze version is sexy and captivating; the PCDs' version just dayglo and abysmal. And I'm just talking about the beat here.


Question: what have Tim 'n' Bob done recently? Their Bobby Valentino productions still stand up as utterly sublime to these ears.
 

hint

party record with a siren
the Alamaze version (as well as being one of the finest non-Timbaland, non-Jerkins, non-Neptunes, non-Tim 'n' Bob RnB productions I've heard - who did it?)

It was produced and written by Cee-Lo.

Question: what have Tim 'n' Bob done recently? Their Bobby Valentino productions still stand up as utterly sublime to these ears.

The latest thing I have heard from them is 7 Days by Deitrick Haddon.
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
im going to have to hear the tori version again. in the meantime, i wonder if the PCD version hadnt become such a hit, if everyones views that its the inferior version would be the same.
 
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