Monday, January 04, 2010

Love & Happiness.

The Albums: 2009.


Radio Killa.

1/The Dream/Love vs. Money

“Call the radio RIGHT NOW!” That nigga Dream done put it down AGAIN!” Yes he “done put it DOWN AGAIN!” R&B’s smooth operator/hopeless romantic/loverboy extraordinaire Terius “The Dream” Nash has done it again, crafting yet another solid and consistently engaging set of jams that grabs a hold of your senses and never lets go. Cupid ain’t got shit on he. See a lot of these Modern R&B cats in the game, “be poppin’ that bullshit”, taking heed to trends, revelin’ in the generics, and working within the confines of what the genre has given them without looking forward or giving more. In The Dream’s hands, many of R&B’s tricks of the trade, humor, sex appeal, confidence, and the ability to connect with one’s audience on a personal/relatable level, are magnified, heightened by the creativity of the words that flow through his pen and that constant push, drive, and need to innovate the game/innovate the genre and take it to a whole other level sonically like Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis before him with Janet Jack’s Control or Timbaland with Ginuwine’s The Bachelor and Aaliyah’s One in A Million. Each track, written, produced, and arranged by The Dream and C. Tricky Stewart, bleeds into each other, giving the album a steady and consistent flow, riddled in, as mentioned before, sterling production made up of dazzling rhythms, varying tempos, humor to the nines, and clever wordplay that would make R. Kelly (he whose presence is felt throughout this LP) proud. The game may be littered with cats all vying for your attention and/or goodies, but they ain’t got shit on The Dream, the “Radio Killa”, “R&B Gorilla”.
KEY TRACKS: Rockin’ that Shit/Sweat it Out/Fancy

  • 2/Dirty Projectors/Bitte Orca


  • 3/YACHT/See Mystery Lights


  • 4/Black Lips/200 Million Thousand


  • 5/Bat for Lashes/Two Suns


  • 6/Passion Pit/Manners


  • 7/Ryan Leslie/Ryan Leslie


  • 8/Amerie/In Love & War


  • 9/Mos Def/The Ecstatic


  • 10/Yeah Yeah Yeahs/It's Blitz!


  • 11/The Flaming Lips/Embryonic


  • 12/Phoenix/Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix


  • 13/Artic Monkeys/Humbug


  • 14/Wale/Attention Deficit


  • 15/Devendra Banhart/What Will Be


  • 16/Grizzly Bear/Veckatimest


  • 17/Chester French/Love the Future


  • 18/Jay-Z/The Blueprint 3


  • 19/Discovery/LP


  • 20/Mariah Carey/Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel


  • 21/Franz Ferdinand/Tonight: Franz Ferdinand


  • 22/Peter Bjorn And John/Living Thing


  • 23/Peaches/I Feel Cream


  • 24/Karen O and The Kids/Where the Wild Things Are Motion Picture Soundtrack


  • 25/Tegan and Sara/Sainthood

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