I really like The-Dream. I am embarrassed to write that and, as he becomes more famous and his music and persona inevitably aligned with other popular r&b and pop artists, I expect that embarrassment to grow. The man sings about fucking. Fucking girls he meets at clubs, girls he loves, your girl, etc., etc. He's not a creative lyricist and has an unhealthy reliance on/obsession with "oohs" and "ehs" as vocal fillers (melodic, well timed fillers, sure, but fillers nonetheless). He sings almost exclusively in falsetto and never lets the audience in on how much of The-Dream is real, honest-to-god r&b from this man's soul and how much of this is some goofy, fun shit people can get smashed, instantly recognize, and then stagger and dance to. It's almost irrelevant. The production is so clean and sparkly. Every sound is well illuminated and in its own little space. There's no clutter, no two ideas tripping over each other. It's smooth, like the character of the artist himself, like we are supposed to believe the lyricist is, like we are supposed to want to be the next time we approach a potential partner with a line like "have you ever had someone do it to you while they was playing in your head? ooh ooh oh, ooh ooh oh." This is not someone I know nor someone I identify with, but it's such a nice, complete package with everything lined up just so that I can't help but be impressed.

The Village Voice made me privy to The-Dream here. It's a nice read. The dude's from Atlanta. I live there. Maybe we can hang.


Put It Down - The Dream


Mr. Yeah - The Dream