Album of the Week: The-Dream rocks that shit

The-Dream: Love Vs Money
• MYSPACE • OFFICIAL SITE

I’ve seen The-Dream’s second album, Love Vs Money, on enough year-end lists – from indie rock critics, no less – that I felt somewhat obliged to give it the attention I didn’t give it when it was first released in March. It’s not because I have anything against singer-songwriter-producer The-Dream, and certainly not R&B (I’m a closet Boyz II Men fan, for cripes sake), but more because mainstream pop music is increasingly falling below my radar. (Just yesterday, my six-year-old sang two Lady GaGa songs, and I had never heard of them. Yup, “Papa, Paparazzi” had completely escaped me.) But I’ve corrected the mistake of not listening to Love Vs Money, and I’m glad I did. It deserves its place on those year-end lists – no tokenism here – on the strength of two spectacular sets of songs at the start and end of the CD. The first, including Usher-ish single “Rockin’ That Shit,” is more radio-friendly, if you can say that about a song with the word shit in it. (The clean version is “Rockin’ That Thang.) But it’s the second set — starting with the ballsy, bare-bones and brilliant “Fancy,” streaming right into soul killer “Right Side of My Brain” and finishing with the R. Kelly-styled “Mr. Yeah” – that pushes this record into classic territory. Yeah! A-

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