Dream: Classic or Dud

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Yes, Dream will neither be classic nor dud, as they seem to be a one-off band. But Tom likes them an awful lot, at least the single. I meanwhile find it terrible. Like Dream fill that one spot on the pop ladder -- creating the actual female equiv. to a "boy band" where before it was (younger) boy bands and (older) solo boys and (older) girl groups and (younger) solo girls.

The chorus would be decent if it weren't repeated so many damn times in a row. Vocal production is uniform, instead of varied effects. Backing syncopated eighth notes are compelling, granted, but eventually sound fairly uniform and uninspired.

Also note the almost charmingly low-budget (comparatively) production of the video, with the "anti-gravity" special f/x accomplished through blatantly rotating the camera.

So, is this actually better than the good R&B out there, or just derivative?

― Sterling Clover, Tuesday, 16 January 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't think it's better than good R&B, I think it's better than Christina Aguilera's "Genie In A Bottle". I think the beat is strong, I like the field-of-daisies line, and good R&B is all about chorus repetition (sometimes). They're not as good as the Sugababes, but they're still good. Sorry not to be more articulate - I reviewed it better over at rockcritics.com I think.

― Tom, Monday, 22 January 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That spoken "my body's saying let's go, but my heart is saying no" and the high register synth noodling, the way the drums trip over one another instead of resolving into irritating big hits, the backup singers with the occasional interjections (if... you wanna bewithme), the extraneous gymnastics that christina goes into -- granted the guitar is hardly as integral as in the Dream track, but I think that nonetheless "Genie In A Bottle" is far superior.

― Slothrop, Saturday, 3 February 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't think it's a case of either/or with those two tracks. "Genie In A Bottle" is the better song overall (and is in retrospect even more impressive considering the depths to which Christina has since plunged), and the beat-trip-over bit is more effective than anything on "He Loves U Not", but then the bubbly semi-beat noises running right through the latter makes it sound like a Pole-style dub-glitch take on pop. Which is of course utterly cool.

― Tim, Saturday, 3 February 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hmmm and speaking of "Genie In A Bottle" I heard a fabulous garage version at a club tonight, complete with hardcore helium vocals and stomach-churning bass. Yum.

― Tim, Sunday, 4 February 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

four months pass...

"This Is Me" is EVEN BETTER. Blimey! The hooks are 80sesque, just big enough to stir, just reserved enough not to piss you off, it's like Atomic-Kitten-meet-Simple-Minds; the music is the Future Bible Heroes if Stephin Merritt cared about drum programming. Gorgeous! Lyrics, OK. Final "Get a grip." perfect. And all over in 3 mins.

― Tom, Wednesday, 6 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"This Is Me" is great if you consider it a kiss-off to other teen-pop groups, mediocre otherwise. Certainly more nuanced and better produced. Also enjoyable as the exact mirror-world double of their first single. I haven't seen the video yet, but if it swapped black & white and male & female dancers and redid their first, that would be magnificent.

― Sterling Clover, Wednesday, 6 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Au contraire, it would be rubbish if you thought it was about other teenpop groups (the NSync fallacy). As a boygirl song it works OK, but its the breeziness and sweetness of the hook that strikes me.

― Tom, Wednesday, 6 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Is this the same thing as D:Ream?

― tracer Hand, Wednesday, 6 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

N'Sync's new single isn't about other groups, it's about themselves. Besides which, otherwise the lyrics are naff and slightly disturbing in a plaintive sort of fashion.

― Sterling Clover, Wednesday, 6 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Erm, no, Tracer. *Completely* different.

― Robin Carmody, Wednesday, 6 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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