Tuesday, December 21, 2010
OH HEY
The ever-forward-thinking Sony (via J and Arista) (who did such a great time promoting this album, btw, have you heard about it?) won't let me post a YouTube of the huge, Salaam Remi-produced "Love You Long Time", so listen to the also very-good single, "Holdin' You Down", and then check out Jazzy's album Love Me Back.
A lot of the modern R&B I'm into (Dream, Ciara, etc.; Erykah is the big exception) spends most of its time going for futurism, and that's not what Jazzy does at all. But hers (and her producers') is not a conservative retro, but rather one open to playing and having fun with 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s R&B (and hip-hop and reggae), and her voice is one expressive and varied enough to put a lot off.
Year-end lists are coming, figured I should do some writing.
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3 comments:
maybe i've just been listening to 'yamaha' too much, but the-dream doesnt strike me as particularly futuristic. but futurism's a tricky thing in 2010, such that the r&b artist who is most ~futurism~ draws heavily from like, motown and silent film and other old shit.
holding you down is great though
Forgot I had to approve comments on this.
Anyways, yeah, "Yamaha" is def straight up Prince, but I think more generally Dream tracks are more concerned with synthetic textures and don't really seem to draw all that much from pre-Prince/pre-R. Kelly R&B tradition. Should have maybe said "purposefully synthetic" instead of "futuristic" R&B?
So, def completely different from the futurism you (correctly, obvi) refer to with Monae, whose album I admit I haven't even listened to all the way through.
ya something like "abyss" is all about synthetic texture (maybe more than anything he's ever done? i might be wrong about that). the futurism angle is just kind of interesting because when the paradigm shift towards this kind of sound occurred (generally circa Fanmail and "are you that somebody" i would say) it definitely was futuristic (particularly in the case of the former), but now the term has become complicated as the futuristic sound has become very of the present.
the monae album is definitely worth checking out. don't dismiss it just because a lot of people like it for the wrong reasons. that being said, i was talking to someone about it and he mentioned wanting to like it more than he actually liked it, which is kind of true for me too.
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