best song The-Dream Love/Hate

fast car

album of the decade i think

is this really necessary?

anyway "luv songs"

btw i'm starting a favorite song poll cuz i love this album and ilm is real boring today

― happy house of representatives (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, February 11, 2009 3:23 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

someone revived a swan lake thread

― happy house of representatives (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, February 11, 2009 3:23 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

ah okay

"fast car" was what i fell for first, then it was "luv songs" but i think my all-time fav is "playin in her hair" for the boxer line and CAN I GET A A? AAAAYYY

this is def a good poll, i'm going to have to wait a little while to think abt it

lets talk abt the boxer line tho

"Fast Car" is the token i rep for, fuck the rest more or less

aagh i don't know! 'ditch that...' is the one i jam the most but when i play the album i always skip it. in album context it's one of the 'fast car'/'nikki'/'she needs my love' triptych

i think the "she needs my love" verses are maybe the best verses on the album. "flossin' keys to your phantom and you know that she's my girl/ still you try too get at her but she push the brakes on that shit like skkrrrrrr!". and then the way the beat clangs around. also the lol rap verse.

I can't wait for his new album to come out so you guys can stop talking about this one.

no one wants to talk about the leaked trax! i've bumped the other tread like 15 times since songs started leaking

i've only heard the lil john + rockin that shit - is there other stuff??? pls talk abt it

So many songs on this could be my favourite, but "Purple Kisses" is often the one that hits me hardest, perhaps due to its position coming at the end of all the sex jams and being the most sumptuous of them all -it's like it defeats me completely. Like that moment in a massage where any remaining bunched up muscles you have just go totally slack, you're body saying "I give up, do to me what you will..."

so there's "my love" w/ mariah which is the next single which is really warm and sugary and has mariah wailing all over the place, naturally it's great

also there is "right side of my brain" which sounds like to me the-dream's version of "cry me a river"

i started to love "purple kisses" after i noticed the epic backing vocal on the hook that is mixed really low

voted purp kisses narrowly over luv songs

still *rollin my damn eyes* @ al in baltimore

I'm repeating myself but "Got your hair did - I'm about to mess that shit up!" is probably my favourite moment on the album, it seems very romantic/seductive to me.

i think my favourite moment might the hysteria of 'she needs my love's outro - "call 911, tell paramedics to bring her AIIIR, AIIIR, AIIIR" - it's like the-dream's behind a screen watching her lifeless body being stretchered away through the crowd, but he can't get through to the action and he's banging his fists on it in vain - impotent despite his power being the essence of the song.

I'm repeating myself but "Got your hair did - I'm about to mess that shit up!" is probably my favourite moment on the album, it seems very romantic/seductive to me.

― Tim F, Wednesday, February 11, 2009 4:53 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the article on him in the last issue of Vibe quotes a line from the new record about messing up a girl's bangs. I can feel your excitement already.

lol

i think my favourite moment might the hysteria of 'she needs my love's outro - "call 911, tell paramedics to bring her AIIIR, AIIIR, AIIIR" - it's like the-dream's behind a screen watching her lifeless body being stretchered away through the crowd, but he can't get through to the action and he's banging his fists on it in vain - impotent despite his power being the essence of the song.

― lex pretend, Wednesday, February 11, 2009 3:59 PM (3 minutes ago)

i'd agree with this, but i always hear another layer on the outside -- "i'm like the air, without me she'll die" reads to me very date rapey/emotionally abusive thing to believe. HE feels this amazing romantic tragic stuff but really he's making her, and himself, miserable with some controlling bullshit. she'll be fine dude!

i think something about the production suggests that the-dream's being shut out of what's happening. so i guess she'll be even more fine.

i'd agree with this, but i always hear another layer on the outside -- "i'm like the air, without me she'll die" reads to me very date rapey/emotionally abusive thing to believe. HE feels this amazing romantic tragic stuff but really he's making her, and himself, miserable with some controlling bullshit. she'll be fine dude!

Isn't it "She said I'm like the air, without me she'll die..."?

i think the "she needs my love" verses are maybe the best verses on the album. "flossin' keys to your phantom and you know that she's my girl/ still you try too get at her but she push the brakes on that shit like skkrrrrrr!". and then the way the beat clangs around. also the lol rap verse.

― happy house of representatives (J0rdan S.),

This is where I am at the moment. This song hasn't left my head in weeks. Also, is it just me or is this one of the most bizarre pop arrangements in a while? The part the bells and that vocal "oh-o-ah-ah" thing he does just blows me away.

"Livin' a Lie" cuts deepest, but "Fast Car" got me first.

"she needs my love" was initially one of my least favorite songs, i was kind of at odds w how metallic the beat was and i used to think the synths that rush in in the chorus were unpleasant but the beat during the verses is really undeniable

this is impossible but ima go "she needs my love" over "fast car". love that part at the end of "she needs my love" when his voice is super autotuned "ya better have do-octor on sta-a-andby-y"

gonna listen to this in the car on the way to tennis

"Livin' a Lie" is still the obvious winner here; it cuts deepest.

hmm..."she needs my love" over "fast car"? i can hear that. i really wish there was a single mix for "fast car". the fade into nikki is one of my favourite things about the album, but i like the song enough that sometimes i want ot listen to it on its own, and there's no sense of finality EVER. *sigh*

this album never clicked 4 me as much as crew here raved abt it but recently have gotten big into 'she needs my love' its srsly been stuck in my head 4 the past 2 days

also its weird 2 say never clicked 4 me and yet i do love songs 1-3 & livin a lie

"Ditch That"

Though I could have easily gone with "Falsetto," "Nikki," etc. Not sure "I can't tell nobody how we is! OOOOOH!" necessarily "cuts deepest."

Side, side, oh no inside, side, side oh no

RIHANNA BABY
DREAM BABY
What on this earth will we DO

hmm..."she needs my love" over "fast car"? i can hear that. i really wish there was a single mix for "fast car". the fade into nikki is one of my favourite things about the album, but i like the song enough that sometimes i want ot listen to it on its own, and there's no sense of finality EVER. *sigh*

― MTLiens (Alex in Montreal), Thursday, July 9, 2009 9:25 PM (Yesterday)

yeah i fuckin love right when nikki starts, it's like whoa shit just got real

"livin a lie" is such an afterthought for me cuz it's so far back on the album but when i play this through i always remember how good the song is - "nikki" was one of the songs that's awesomeness hit me very late, but it's one of the most dramatic things he's ever written esp when it kicks into "and she loves me back" *string pulses*

"she needs my love" has a dope beat and that pretty great rap but it's juuust on the second level imo, maybe not tho - i love the rush in of the chorus

"playin in her hair" is the best playful, club song on the album - you can see how "take u home 2 my mama" was borne out of it but of course "playin in her hair" is way better

also it birthed A-T-L-A-N-T-A-G-A IS WHERE IS STAY

eh there should be no comma splice b/w "playful club song"

she keeps those ch-ch-chewin on her asshole, i'm all up on her ass tho, runnin it like a cash drawer

those thongs** >:(

well "purple kisses" was def begat by j. holiday's "bed" but yeah you can def trace shit out from l/h to things on lvm and e red

What's the reason for this poll lasting seven months?

accident

i have made this point before, apparently

fast car/ nikki, highlight of the-dreams career thus far

wait til you get to purple kisses and luv songs

It's grown on me a bit, but I always thought "Fast Car" was kind of silly and out of place on Love/Hate. It still doesn't seem as fleshed out as his subsequent Prince homages to me.

it's certainly the barest, which is why i probably love it most

Never got the overwhelming love for Fast Car. Vastly prefer Nikki (pretty sure i voted for it in this poll)

'playin' in her hair' followed by 'purple kisses' is his pinnacle

voted "nikki" but i sort of hate alex for pointing out what a bad line "springtime, summertime, falltime, winter" is in one of these threads. now it bothers me every time.

― horseshoe, Monday, September 7, 2009 2:02 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

I like that line! There's a beautiful asymmetry to it, the way it sets up a pattern of two-syllable seasons then stops cold with this abrupt dead-end. It perfectly parallels the relationship he's describing.

i think 'fast car' is a way better prince homage than 'yamaha', which is way overrated imo

yeah i dont think its a bad line either

and schoolin' life is better than both xp

no it's not

getting the two of you mixed up

it really isnt, both dream songs are way better

lol we always seem to post right after each other aswell

I hadn't even realized you were different posters til now.

where's "ol"

'playin' in her hair' followed by 'purple kisses' is his pinnacle

― prolego, Tuesday, September 13, 2011 5:23 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

i could buy this

purple kisses
fast car
she needs my love
luv songs
falsetto
shawty is da shit!
playin in her hair
mama
livin a lie
nikki
I luv your girl
ditch that...

― k3vin k., Saturday, November 14, 2009 7:27 PM (seven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

besides the first two and the last one, that's a reallll fluid ranking

― k3vin k., Saturday, November 14, 2009 7:28 PM (seven years ago)

i think i stand by this

purple kisses
fast car
she needs my love
luv songs
falsetto
shawty is da shit!
playin in her hair
mama
livin a lie
nikki
I luv your girl
ditch that...

― k3vin k., Saturday, November 14, 2009 7:27 PM (3 months ago)

bump "she needs my love" down a couple, slide "shawty is the shit" above "falsetto". theyre all so close besides "ditch that..." tho for me

ha xp

― vag gangsta (k3vin k.), Thursday, February 18, 2010 11:05 PM (six years ago

actually this

not sure if i've listened to this album this decade

hey it's been 5 years cut me a little slack

'playin' in her hair' followed by 'purple kisses' is his pinnacle

― prolego, Tuesday, September 13, 2011 5:23 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

this opinion holds up

tbh i considered doing so recently after seeing the dance troupe that deej recently posted on rolling raps did a routine to 'i luv your girl'... but then i looked at it and i could still play all the songs in my head just fine

'livin a lie' is sounding great in my head right now. alfred always was right on that one

Livin a Lie seems poignant now, like remember when r&b playing with housey beats seemed fun?

This may seem like heresy, but I could never get into this one. Probably because I heard the second LP first, and then when I came back to LP 1 it just seemed a bit too flat and not quite self-aware enough.

i always felt like that too, like i can't not be thinking 'i cd be listenin to love vs money'. i love fast car tho

that is wrong, just fyi

'livin a lie' is sounding great in my head right now. alfred always was right on that one

― r|t|c, Saturday, January 14, 2017 7:25 PM (

https://m.popkey.co/d86114/qxy0g.gif

i luv your girl shd be #1 i now think

falsetto is also just a perfect song

xpost "and I pray that y'all ain't serious/cos seriously, she's on my dick" still a good zing

ty also sry horseshoe, i kno. when i was younger i didn't like tomatoes + i knew that was wrong also

Love/Hate II is… really good?

oh jeez

i like "bring that body" a lot but to say that this isn't exactly the 'confessions II' of his career would probably be putting it mildly...

remembering all the good times on these threads back in the day and picturing al’s reaction listening to terius’ falsetto on “state of peaches”

NE-YO v THE-DREAM thread has a special place in my heart alongside the 1975 thread and the OG rap threads (can’t really say goon threads anymore alas)

i like "bring that body" a lot but to say that this isn't exactly the 'confessions II' of his career would probably be putting it mildly...

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 15 July 2026 6:05 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

The comparison is all but irresistible (i've jokingly made it myself elsewhere).

I think you could describe both albums as marrying intermittently decent songwriting to consistently great production.

The difference is that Madonna has spent the last two decades marrying consistently poor songwriting to intermittently decent songwriting, and hasn't managed something on the level of the original Love/Hate in over thirty years, whereas The-Dream's fallow period has been barely more than a decade - so the enthusiasm that greets what Confessions II is correspondingly much greater even controlling for the scale of their relative fanbases and popularity.

It's like trying to compare the joy of a cup of water after a 400 metre sprint versus after a marathon.

TLDR: the contexts into which these texts emerge are fundamentally different despite the surface level similarities.

*The difference is that Madonna has spent the last two decades marrying consistently poor songwriting to intermittently decent production

Anyway, if people want some keepers from this album aside from the single, I recommend "Powder Coat" and the stretch from "Favorite" through "Obviously/Juxtapose" to "Papi Te Ama".

yes!

Start posting your remarks on the Madonna thread, Tim.

The gay community’s dutiful enthusiasm which I am forced to confront IRL has already sucked away most of the discursive enthusiasm I might have felt (though I am playing the album obv) - I already feel like I have spent the last few weeks discussing foreign affairs with Marc Thiessen

marrying consistently poor songwriting to intermittently decent songwriting

btw i know this was a mistake but it felt more correct than the correction

yeah exacty lol

The gay community’s dutiful enthusiasm which I am forced to confront IRL has already sucked away most of the discursive enthusiasm I might have felt (though I am playing the album obv) - I already feel like I have spent the last few weeks discussing foreign affairs with Marc Thiessen

― Tim F,

Well, you so rarely post lack of enthusiasm or even hostility in music threads that I welcome it.

I’m actually quite enthusiastic about Confessions II, it really does taste like a cup of water after a marathon

almost halfway through and it's great so far - "powder coat" is a sore thumb but the usher track delivers in the same vein of his mariah/rihanna numbers.