New York singer-songwriter/ The Knocks road dawg Samuel has long been touted as a future pop sensation in the making amongst the music blog scene (we hyped him here two years ago), and later this year we’ll finally get to see if those predictions prove correct once his Columbia/ Startime-backed debut Trains To Wanderland arrives.
Current single “I Heart NY” (from Samuel’s new EP, available here and here) hints that mainstream success shouldn’t be that tough of a hurdle, its sugary ice cream truck plinks, infectious “da-da-da”‘s and charming lyrical snapshots of growing up amongst the “street lights” and “golden summers” of the Big Apple all adding up to one hard-to-resist summertime soundtracker; but if that’s somehow not reason enough to keep your ears tuned to what Samuel’s cooking, you might at least get a kick out of hearing him tweak Drake’s Top Ten ballad “Find Your Love” into a fuzzy, lite funk-pop groove.
On the original version of Jeezy‘s latest banger, the Drumma Boy-produced “Lose My Mind”, the Southern rapper and guest star Plies celebrate the end of a long and hard work week by getting as boozed and random vagina’d up as possible; and as nightmarish as their party-mode at times sounds (thanks to Drumma’s hauntingly slo-mo crunk crawl, Jeezy’s talk of being so drunk he feels “schizophrenic” and Plies sounding…well like Plies), the duo do well at making their weekend feel like a can’t miss event.
So it’s a shame that a verse by Drake on the remix (premiered at this year’s BET Awards) sort of dulls everything down. Not only does Drizzy sound nowhere near as delightfully deranged or super-intoxicated as Jeezy or Plies (the latter of whom he unfortunately replaces here), but his lyrical contribution is entirely forgettable, leaning far too heavily on his self-important signature (“Half a million in a week/ It’s only right I do”) when one or two doses of woozy wit would of sufficed.
We get Jeezy may have wanted to show Drake some love after being added to the Thank Me Later guest-list, but Mr. “Find Your Love” just proves an ill fit here.
We know, we know (get off Drake’s sack already!!!!!), but it’s not our fault hip hop’s current Boy Wonder is attached to so many noteworthy projects right now.
Added to that list is October’s Very Cold, a Drake/ Coldplay mash-up mixtape helmed by producer Chi Duly, which is not only great because the two acts it’s mashing-up actually sounds like an enticing musical marriage on paper (Drizzy and Chris Martin both have that whole e-mopey thing going on), but the ten-track results are all songs we wouldn’t be embarrassed to blast in our cars…with the windows rolled down (Special props to Duly and his expert chop/ blend work).
Grab our two favorites below, the sublime “Money To Fix” (“Money To Blow”/ “Fix You”) and the addicting “Forever La Vida” (“Forever”/ “Viva La Vida”), or simply cop the entire thing here.
DL: Drake & Coldplay featuring Birdman and Lil’ Wayne “Money To Fix” (alt)
DL: Drake & Coldplay featuring Kanye West, Lil’ Wayne and Eminem “Forever La Vida” (alt)
If the releases of official lead singles “Over” and “Find Your Love” and the seemingly endless stream of leaks that littered the Web in the weeks after taught us anything about Drake‘s Thank Me Later, it was mostly that the Canadian rapper’s much-anticipated debut wasn’t going be the instantaneously-heralded classic many had prematurely hyped it to being. If anything, it felt more and more like Later was going to be a grower, one of those albums whose true greatness wouldn’t be uncovered until one had had the chance to sit with it for awhile.
Following the “Internet premiere” of TML in it’s entirety last week (fourteen days ahead of schedule), we can now see that we were correct in our assumption, because on first listen, the album doesn’t register as anything all that special.
Chalk that initial reaction up to the album’s overall sonic dreariness. A little too over-reliant on darkly-textured soundscapes and drowsy R&B hooks and verses, even the set’s attempt at “bangers” are handicapped by an adherence to such moody detailing.
Continue to give Later spin love however (and recall that Drake’s breakthrough mixtape So Far Gone followed a similar nocturnal vibe), and it eventually becomes easier to appreciate what’s actually a solid set, impressive in it’s avoidance of typical modern rap LP hodge-podge manufacturing for a focus on cohesiveness, where all the songs follow a singular musical style and concept (strikingly intimate, diary-like accounts of the celebratory highs and heart-bruising lows of life post-fame), and the featured guest stars and producers compliment rather than steal attention away from the overall theme.
Of Later‘s many highlights that are not singles, we recommend the chilled knocker “Unforgettable”, which gets grand assists from an Aaliyah vocal snippet (via her cover of The Isley Brothers’ “At Your Best”) and Young Jeezy’s always welcome, floating-in-mid-air rap flow magic (special shouts to that “His and her firearms” line), and “Fancy”, which features Drake and T.I. throwing props at independent women (“Well aren’t you a breath of fresh air/
From all these superficial gold digging bitches in here…”) atop a hypnotically swirly, Swizz Beatz soul sample beat.
Check out the tracks below (along with a couple recent Drake remixes), and try to peel the money out of your wallet on June 15th to cop the album. Promises, while you may not immediately take to the album, odds are you’ll end up doing exactly like the man says and thanking Drake later for crafting such a strong set.
In an effort to prove that we’re not completely out of the loop when it comes to what’s been making waves within the music blog scene in recent weeks, enjoy this quick run-through of some of the more high profile new videos/ releases we’ve missed out on commenting on due to…uh, we’ll just say “real life” (and a few WordPress issues) getting in the way:
Sleigh Bells “Tell Em”
Anything you’ll ever read about this Brooklyn boy/girl noise-pop duo (vocalist Alexis Krauss and songwriter/ guitarist/ producer Derek E. Miller) is bound to note the band’s love for insane volume levels just as much as it’ll hype how crazily infectious the tunes hidden beneath all the ear-punishing distortion are.
Believe these words on both accounts.
“Tell Em”, the first single from the Sleigh Bells’ debut album Treats (due May 11th on Mom + Pop/ N.E.E.T.), may lead to one having early deafness, but bet you won’t be able to resist repeat doses of it’s rat-a-tat drum, turned-up-to-eleven guitar riffage and laser sound effects assault, nor Krauss’ pureform coos sweetly encouraging today’s young’uns “you can do your best today” betwixt it all.
Last summer’s chillwave/ glo-fi movement taught us the glories of music that was meek-sounding, of shitty quality and awesome; expect the upcoming warm weather season to be all about start-up bands/ acts co-signing the equally awesome louder-than-loud and shitty quality formula of the Bells.
We’ll politely decline from adding to the increasingly tiring “Is she copying Gaga?” rattle concerning Aguilera‘s new (meh) one, and just say this: when it comes to desperate slutty Christina, we’d rather give “Dirrty” a re-spin.
Is it bad that we wish we could just fast-forward to the next Aguilera album era already?
Christina’s Bionic drops June 8th.
Ciara featuring Ludacris “Ride”
Looking to get her career back on track after the commercial fumble that was her last album (2009′s Fantasy Ride), Ciara smartly hearkens back to a previous career highlight on new single “Ride”, re-heating the winning, “seductive ‘crunk & b’ crawl + Ludacris cameo” formula of “Oh” with an extra slathering of naughty sex kitten on top of it.
“I can do it up and down/ I can do circles/ To him I’m a gymnast/ This one is my circus,” she sings, nicely illustrating such bedroom talents with a slew of eye-popping body gyrations (amongst other “I’m not a little girl anymore” visuals) in the accompanying video.
Yeah, the hook claims it’s the “beat” that she’s riding “like a mother-[bleeping] freak”, but a ten-year-old could figure out what she’s really talking about.
Eminem “Not Afraid”
Capping months of track-owning guest appearances on joints alongside Drake & Kanye West, Lil’ Wayne and B.o.B (not to mention the killer freestyle track “Despicable”), Em‘s “Not Afraid”, the first taste off his next full length Recovery, lands as another lyrical stunner, with him surprisingly coming across as equally compelling when preaching positive about living a “clean” lifestyle as he does when he’s flexing his more loony and murderous-minded material.
Only problem is, while we’re excited to hear he’s become aware of how awful the various “accents” and pop star/ tabloid staple-spoofing had become, “Not Afraid” feels less and less interesting with each successive listen (maybe it’s that ’80′s arena rock-styled hook), and we’re not necessarily sure we’re ready for an entire album of Eminem getting all uplifting on us.
Surely Kim has done something scandalous in recent years to inspire at least one Recovery song that throws back to his bat-shit crazy rhymes.
Josh Ritter “Another New World”
From the critically-acclaimed folk singer-songwriter‘s newly released sixth set So Runs The World Away (currently streaming in full over at NPR.org), a seven-minute-long story song set atop beautifully sedative acoustic guitar pluckings and dreamily sirenic muted horns about an Arctic explorer and his crew and the tragic horrors that befall them in the midst of a voyage in search of the “new world”.
Doesn’t sound like your cup of tea? Take a chance and hit ‘Play’ and you’ll be surprised how misty-eyed you get once it gets to the part where the protagonist is forced to set fire to his beloved ship in order to stay alive.
Most attention concerning this final single from the nearly two-year-old I Am…Sasha Fierce will more than certainly fall on it’s strange, but definitely sexy, retro-themed video (with Bey once-again rocking the Bettie Page ’50′s pin-up look) rather than the song itself; but the cut (co-penned by sister Solange) manages to be somewhat fascinating in it’s own right with the steely-voiced diva turning herself inside-out trying to figure out why a man would choose to willfully bypass such a catch (especially one with “beauty”, “class”, “style” and, most importantly”, “ass”) to a tightly-wound ’60′s soul strut.
“Find Your Love” is the latest leakage to spew from Drake’s forthcoming Thank Me Later debut, and if you’ve been anticipating a new reason to hype up the Canadian rapper’s mic skills, you might as well go ahead and let out your groans now because, as the title hints, the track once again finds the guy rocking his sleepy emo-R&B guise.
Produced by Kanye West, “Love” offers a somewhat classier adult-soul slant on the haunting, glitch-soul atmospherics that, for better or worse depending on your stance, framed 808s & Heartbreak (think if West and Sade were to hook up on a record), with Drake hoping beyond hope that after opening himself up to a girl, his romantic feelings are reciprocated: “I better find your loving/ I better find your heart”, he repeatedly croons on the hook, each echo creepily evolving the line from a playful threat to “If this doesn’t work, I’m gonna never be this vulnerable to a chick ever again” desperation.
Without a rap verse included to break up some of it’s moody monotony, the track can register a bit underwhelming on the first (second and third) listen, but with repeated exposure to that mesmerizing chorus and intriguing piano/ mechanical drum strut combo (not to mention the emotional power it will wield when the listener is cycling through their own “Does he/ she like me?” drama), “Find Your Love”‘s likability should rise.
Let’s not forget, “Over” didn’t sound so great initially either.
For those wondering if Drake‘s highly-anticpated Thank Me Later would feature more of the sleepy, slow jam balladry that presided on much of last year’s So Far Gone, your concerns have been answered with the recent leaking of the may-or-may-not-be-finalized-yet “Shut It Down”, a duet with The-Dream that plants central focus on the Canadian sensation’s crooning efforts.
More or less a repeat dosage of the nocturnal mood-setting vibe captured in Gone‘s “Houstatlantavegas” (no coincidence, producer Noah “40″ Shebib helmed both), “Shut It Down” could damn near light scented candles all by itself with it’s seducing, Prince-indebted drum machine & keyboard-dominant crawl framing Drake’s admiration of a working student’s pretty looks. “Say baby, I had to mention/ That if you were a star you’d be the one I’m searchin for/ Other girls, they got attention/ But I just always feel there in need of something you got,” he praises in that sorrowful singing voice of his, before later bringing up hope that the beauty in tribute will use the song to soundtrack her “getting ready to go out” routine (where she can “work it kinda vicious like somebody’s taking pictures” in front of a mirror’s reflection).
It’s easy to envision plenty of women doing just that and giving this a spin while they try on their “fuckin’” heels and dresses, but damn if we’re also not quickly reminded how drab Drake can get when he’s not breaking up his boudoir grooves with a slick rap verse or two. It’s not until halfway-through, when the ’80′s-inspired production temporarily switches to some plaintive piano backing and Dream’s familiar chirp pops up, instantly stealing the show with coos for the girl to “shut that mother fucker down”, that the record starts to really get interesting, but hell, by then it’s basically a Dream featuring Drake entity, leaving us wishing that the “Radio Killa” could have simply kept the track for his own forthcoming album.
A decent enough cut, but if this is indeed Thank Me Later‘s first official single (and not, as previously thought, the recently unleashed [and comparably stronger] “Over”), we pray that the version being heard here is NOT the final take, because it’s in desperate need for at least one fierce sixteen from the man to perk it up some.
Hear the cut below, followed by a bonus offering of one of the hotter remixes of “Over” we’ve come across (via).
With all the grand strides Drake made as THE breakout hip-hop artist of 2009 (both on-line and off-), the idea of the lead single off his first official LP Thank Me Later being nothing short of brilliant felt like such a given, most of us had basically already engraved a BANGER OF (at least the first half of) THE YEAR award in it’s honor. The track was just bound to be greater than anything Drake had ever recorded (as well as have the power to part seas and put an end to world hunger), right?
Well, after finally getting to hear the much-anticipated “Over”…let’s just say our loftier-than-lofty expectations have been grounded some.
To put it simply, “Over”, while a perfectly serviceable street single/ album opener, is far from the “Successful” or “Best I Ever Had”-bester we prematurely predestined it to be, it’s verses finding Drizzy and co-producer Boi-1da basically recycling the breathless, top-of-the-mountain boasts (“Making sure the Young Money ship is never sinking/ Bout to set it off in this bitch–Jada Pinkett”) and militaristic drum-laced, dark epic knock of “Forever” to a lesser, larger-than-life effect.
Yeah, a couple lyrical winners do emerge (Our favorite: “Can you see me, can you see me?/ Get your Visine on”), but as a whole, the braggadocio-focused verses leave us cold, wishing that Drake would’ve taken the time to better flesh out his current place in the game with the intimate, “Behind The Music”-like personal depth he’s previously drawn so much acclaim for. If not that, at least flavor the sections with those silken, melodic vocal turns he handles so mesmerizingly.
Drake crams both of these practices into “Over”‘s hook, and because of that, it easily ends up the track’s “saving grace” moment. Here, with ’70′s soul-sampled strings building to a gloriously dramatic peak behind him, Drake dons his semi-crooner hat and hits the “Pause” button on his sudden superstar life mid-celebration to briefly ruminate on his position.
“I know way too many people here right now/ That I didn’t know last year/ Who the fuck are y’all?”, he sing-growls, “I swear it feels like the last few nights we been everywhere and back/ But, I just can’t remember it all/ What am I doing?”. Then, in only a half-a-breath’s time, he uncovers the answer (“Oh yeah, that’s right, I’m doing me”), hits the “Play” button and proceeds with living the dream.
Now that’s the magic we’re talking about, Drake; too bad you couldn’t have figured out a way to stretch it’s luster across the entire track.
We’ll be saving that award for when you truly deserve it, thank you.
For those who’ve longed for more than just a simple hook-boy contribution from Lloyd on the Young Money smash “Bedrock”, you’ll probably take a liking to this “sequel” version, which sees all of YM scrapped (except for Weezy and Drake’s original verses, of course) to give the R&B singer more of a leading role.
What does Lloyd have to say now that he’s given the spotlight? Unfortunately, more goofy metaphors that make you wish the expert at this sort of XXX-rated R&B wordplay, R. Kelly, had had a hand in the writing process.
Still, we’ll gladly take “I can beat it up like an ultimate fighter/ I can eat it up like a Siberian tiger” and “I can make your body rock/ Me no Rubble” (as in Barney Rubble) over mucho horrific Gudda Gudda quotables like “I see me with her/ No Stevie Wonder” and “I got her nigga/ Grocery bag” anyday.
P.S.: Were we the only ones to only JUST NOW figure out that Drake’s quoting some “Are You That Somebody?” in his portion? Yeah?…Oh…nevermind.
On “Say Something”, a recently leaked cut from Timbaland’s new Shock Value 2 album, the Virginia beat maestro teams with Young Money star Drake for what sounds, at least in this “unfinished” take, like it could be one of the bigger grabs from the forthcoming all-star collection.
A sort of big budget take on the pop-R&B-hip hop-meshing business that framed so much of So Far Gone, “Something” rides a slow churning grind of liquefied synth waves as Drake pulls off another slick display of his singing and rapping balancing act.
“I am the topic of conversation/ This is celebration/ Let’s toast to the fact that I moved out my momma’s basement”, he rhymes in the latest chapter of his on-going “rapper on the come-up” audio documentary; but it’s hard for him to completely focus on all the lavish benefits of his sudden superstar-dom when his mind is constantly being distracted by the mysterious whereabouts of a lost ex love (sweetly dubbed his “most important fan”) he yearns to get back in contact with (Cue the arrival of his ever-somber-toned, albeit pop-smart, crooner halve).
Has potential in a B-grade “Best I Ever Had” kind of way, though be prepared for the “finished” take to likely feature several doses of distantly-positioned Timbaland grunts as a reminder that it’s a Tim featuring Drake joint.
As nice as it is to get free music, think of how much better your soul would feel if you purchased it the old-fashioned way.
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(MP3 posts are for promotional and/ or previewing purposes only; if any artist or their representation wish to have the links removed, contact me and I will happily comply!)
New York singer-songwriter/ The Knocks road dawg Samuel has long been touted as a future pop sensation in the making amongst the music blog scene (we hyped him here two years ago), and later this year we’ll finally get to see if those predictions prove correct once his Columbia/ Startime-backed debut Trains To Wanderland arrives.
On “Say Something”, a recently leaked cut from Timbaland’s new
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