Love King

The-Dream is in his prime

R&B producer, song-writer and performer The-Dream (born Terius Nash) might be a man with a heart full of passion, or the one who is deeply cut by the man and woman issues, but the fact is: even the albums he releases are marked by the internationally recognizable word Love. Following Love/Hate (2007), and Love Vs Money (2009), this talented artist dropped in 2010 a CD titled Love King. Three long players in four years is a respectable result which looks even more significant if you consider this young man’s expansive involvement in collaborations with number one stars like Rihanna. The-Dream must have been bulking with desire to work and create during the making of Love King. It could not go any other way because right now the singer’s personal life (a subject to so many of his songs) is absolutely fine. Last winter he became a father of a girl, which motivated the man even more greatly. There are no reasons to feel skeptical about the new release. The-Dream’s two other full-length efforts were highly appraised by critics; and the man does not look likely to disappoint us with this one.

A huge album with songs of two types

Love King is a monster size effort that stores songs enough for two albums, which should be its only considerable drawback. After all, unless a CD is conceptual and has a story connecting all its parts, listening to all of its tracks at once could be a difficulty to many of us. So we have got a plenty of material executed in a manner we recognize The-Dream by. The artist does not try to astonish us with his poetic efforts and makes up for the lyrical gaps with supreme arrangements and well-thought-through choruses. Above the stiff bass and European pop-music synthesizers, there are crooning-like vocals here and there supported with horns or piano. Conventionally, we may divide all the tracks into ‘sad’ (of breakups, unrequited love and stuff like that) and ‘fun’ (about pleasures of love), the latter surely more to the benefit of The-Dream. The fun material is better not because the performance is better, but because it matches the artist’s image. We are used to thinking that his songs tune us to an optimistic way of feeling instead of casting us into the pit of sorrows. Among the ballad and lyrical material we have to single out the epic February Love, Abyss, a hymn of those who no longer mourn over collapsed relationships. The second category is best presented by the title track that is a story of a love-addict who seeks heart adventures anyplace and anytime.

Love King continues the streak of The-Dream’s excellent studio works

Critics and listeners are long familiar with statements of musicians claiming that their newly releases are ‘absolutely best album I/we have ever made’. Of course, no one will never say anything like ‘Folks, this effort is a complete disaster. You should never listener to it’. The-Dream could not resist the temptation and proclaimed Love King his most proficient long player. In cases like this one, you better listen to the very album instead of trusting the words of the one who is promoting it. Love King is a good CD that, however, may bother you easily because of the tremendous number of songs with average duration of about four minutes. Some of the tracks (first of all, lyrically crippled Panties ToThe Side, and Florida University) could have easily been left off the set without hurting anybody. Nevertheless, the majority of the compositions are a proof to the certain truth: The-Dream has practically no competitors in making hit material. The man delivers melodies one after another and knows precisely how they should sound to make a song radio-friendly. Probably, to convince a listener of the necessity to get to try this album it is enough to say that Love King is in no way worse than the artist’s previous efforts. And since he has not changed anything in his formulae, this one can hardly be better than the ones you have already heard.