The-Dream’s empire-building starts-here…
[Video][Myspace]
[5.00]
Alex Macpherson: With his Electrik Red project, The-Dream has taken it upon himself to resurrect the dormant-too-long girl group format, and their imminent How To Be A Lady: Volume 1 album is my most anticipated of 2009. “So Good” is their lightest moment to date, a delightful concoction of Prince-esque snapping beats and sighing, swooning backing vocals; a perfect hormonal spring jam in which the narrator sexually obsesses over a boy, pretends she hates him for it, but just ends up mooning over him and checking her phone every two minutes just in case she somehow missed his (booty) call. An extra point for the typically Dream-like line “Got me in the kitchen cookin’ for you like my first name’s Betty”, and for those irresistible “Ooh, damn!”s.
[9]
Martin Kavka: This sounds as if it was thrown together in ten minutes. Completely lazy, uninteresting, and forgettable.
[0]
Hazel Robinson: I’m not a massive fan of The-Dream but his work with this lot seems to turn out really good. Even this semi-balladic (or at least, not as shouty’n’crunk as their usual) one keeps pace and keeps itself interesting most of the way through. Can’t pretend I wouldn’t prefer another “Drank In My Cup” though.
[7]
Alex Wisgard: Mary Wells’ classic “My Guy” is 45 years old this year; apparently in all that time, songs about girls praising their men have somehow managed to get more banal and ridiculous. This plodder, which seems to be based on the theme to “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air”, celebrates the fact that – “Oooh…damn…” – her man is “so good”; that’s it. That’s the crux of the whole song. And funnily enough, I wasn’t all that impressed by it…
[2]
Erika Villani: Pleasant enough ’90s synth bounce — this could be a lost track from TLC’s CrazySexyCool — but the flashes of lyrical brilliance give way to standard R&B wastefulness: “I can’t believe you put it on a girl like that / I can’t believe I just got off the phone with you, but I want to call right back / I can’t believe you got me in the kitchen cooking for you like my first name’s Betty / I can’t believe it, but you got that ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh.” Oh. Okay. Thought we were going somewhere with that, but I guess not.
[7]
Martin Skidmore: Weird. Obviously one of the basics you expect from R&B is everything being in tune, but this isn’t. The music is a worse offender than the singers, though they are ordinary. The “whaddaya mean, our budget’s only $100?” video looks awkward and amateurish too. I’ve complained about the autotune vocoder effect plenty of times, but that doesn’t mean I want to hear this.
[1]
David Raposa: I would pledge my eternal love to “Pop Life” and its sundry homages as much as the next guy, especially if they’re twerked with some uppity synth squiggles and a made-ya-look breakdown not 30 seconds into the track. That said, neither my fondness for Mr. Nelson nor my tolerance for shameless R&B rewrites are strong enough to put up with charisma-free Ralph Tresvant types cooing about the same old same old. Tell it Vocodering, plz.
[3]
Ian Mathers: I honestly thought on my first listen that this was another fey-voiced male R’n’B singer, but nope – girl group (well, at least “I shouldn’tve let you hit that” isn’t as jarring now). And yet, there’s still something interestingly androgynous about that main voice, even if you watch the video. That, combined with the stiff strut of the music, elevates “So Good” ever so slightly over its legions of competitors.
[6]
Tom Ewing: Electrik Red’s producers are boldly trying to bring back the “farting robot” keyboard sound you used to occasionally get on 80s funk records. This goes extremely poorly with ER’s feathery vocal arrangements, making it sound like the band are trying to song-n-dance while wearing wellingtons full of jelly for some ghastly Saturday morning TV spot. Somewhat gruesome all round, though underneath all that the song’s not too bad.
[5]
Jordan Sargent: Both sonically and lyrically, “So Good” basically plays out as an epilogue to The-Dream’s own “Rockin’ That Thang”. “So Good”‘s luscious, golden synths and breathy vocals evoke the latter’s unstoppable waves of melody, and lyrically, it plays out as The-Dream’s girl’s ode back to him. Both, it turns out, have been left speechless — The-Dream literally tells us so, but on “So Good” it’s a little more coy: “You’re so good, so good, so… oooh, damn”. That chorus — unusual, show-stopping, melodic, confident — encapsulates The-Dream’s brilliance, and if “So Good” had been sung by Mariah Carey it would’ve been #1 three weeks ago.
[9]
Hillary Brown: Sweet and sexy, but you’ll have to put it on repeat to use it for its intended purpose (i.e., doin’ it).
[6]