SHOOTER
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Post by SHOOTER on Jan 10, 2017 0:21:30 GMT -5
[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/therealswizzz-215730457/sweet-fin-love[/soundcloud]
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music89
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Post by music89 on Jan 10, 2017 4:48:57 GMT -5
So dope! I was waiting for her and KAYTRANADA to do something together!! https%3A//soundcloud.com/therealswizzz-215730457/sweet-fin-love
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music89
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Post by music89 on Jan 11, 2017 9:44:42 GMT -5
Swizz played few new AK songs and said they are from her new album 😐
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koolthing
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Post by koolthing on Jan 11, 2017 11:19:13 GMT -5
Swizz played few new AK songs and said they are from her new album 😐 Hold up what?
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Kishi KCM
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Post by Kishi KCM on Jan 11, 2017 11:41:10 GMT -5
Such a decent album, but I'm so lost with the campaign. Was there even one to begin with?
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music89
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Post by music89 on Jan 13, 2017 11:57:38 GMT -5
Swizz played few new AK songs and said they are from her new album 😐 Hold up what? He was live on his IG account and played 4 or 5 new AK songs. He talked about a new album that is coming this year.
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SHOOTER
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There's still some ass on your lips. #FreePalestine
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Post by SHOOTER on Jan 13, 2017 13:38:21 GMT -5
Well maybe Here was her more "artistic" statement and the new album will be more commercial-minded.
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koolthing
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Post by koolthing on Jan 14, 2017 13:04:00 GMT -5
I don't mind AK going more commercial, but I really don't think Swizz' style suits her at all :/
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Rican@
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Post by Rican@ on Jan 14, 2017 14:48:14 GMT -5
Well maybe Here was her more "artistic" statement and the new album will be more commercial-minded. Right. I guess it would make sense, but this album was such a wasted opportunity for her. It had potential, but I can understand the effort it would take to get off the ground so a new album and era would be a lot cheaper than to revise this one unfortunately. I just hope we could get a few more videos before it is done. Still do not know why "The Gospel (short film)" was not promoted sooner, it was such a great piece from her.
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music89
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Post by music89 on Jan 15, 2017 8:42:26 GMT -5
Well maybe Here was her more "artistic" statement and the new album will be more commercial-minded. Right. I guess it would make sense, but this album was such a wasted opportunity for her. It had potential, but I can understand the effort it would take to get off the ground so a new album and era would be a lot cheaper than to revise this one unfortunately. I just hope we could get a few more videos before it is done. Still do not know why "The Gospel (short film)" was not promoted sooner, it was such a great piece from her. Personally I don't want another album this year (unless it's great) because HERE is really good and has many great songs that could be singles (Pawn It All, More Than We Know, She Don't Really Care...). This Era was a mess before it started. Bad promo and wrong singles. Pawn It All should have been the first single, period.
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Rican@
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Post by Rican@ on Jan 15, 2017 11:26:37 GMT -5
The money invested in trying to restart this era would be too much. Her best bet is to start a new era. Call it a silence release and do something more hip to today's sound. Personally, I do think it will be in her best interests to do features before heading into her own singles. Get urban to want to play her once she drops her first single. It is unfortunate that she would have to go to those matters, but the time has changed and even she wants to be left behind or try to get a hit.
I don't think this era suffers from bad promo, it never had any smart promo. She should have gotten NBC to do a special on her and along with the right singles too. "Pawn It All" would have been perfect. Honestly, anything could have worked for first single with the exception of "Kill Your Mama", "Work It On", "Blended Family" or "Holy War". Everything else would have been fine with him.
As a love letter to NYC, it still puzzled me as why "Blended" was first. I believe "Pawn It All", "Really Care" or "The Gospel" had that edge on what she wanted this album to move toward.
But it is lesson learned, Alicia can officially say she has her first flop in her discography. It is unfortunate it has to come with her most personal work to date, but it is the way of the game.
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music89
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Post by music89 on Jan 15, 2017 18:35:26 GMT -5
The money invested in trying to restart this era would be too much. Her best bet is to start a new era. Call it a silence release and do something more hip to today's sound. Personally, I do think it will be in her best interests to do features before heading into her own singles. Get urban to want to play her once she drops her first single. It is unfortunate that she would have to go to those matters, but the time has changed and even she wants to be left behind or try to get a hit. I don't think this era suffers from bad promo, it never had any smart promo. She should have gotten NBC to do a special on her and along with the right singles too. "Pawn It All" would have been perfect. Honestly, anything could have worked for first single with the exception of "Kill Your Mama", "Work It On", "Blended Family" or "Holy War". Everything else would have been fine with him. As a love letter to NYC, it still puzzled me as why "Blended" was first. I believe "Pawn It All", "Really Care" or "The Gospel" had that edge on what she wanted this album to move toward. But it is lesson learned, Alicia can officially say she has her first flop in her discography. It is unfortunate it has to come with her most personal work to date, but it is the way of the game. I don't think she can "save" this Era but the songs I mentioned can do really well on Adult RnB radios. That's the type of music people wanna hear from Alicia. She needs strong singles. Quality music. Blended Family is just a nice song, it's not great. Holy War has a bad production and it's boring (it's also more Pop). I don't want her to release something more hip to today's sound btw. Also I think it would not work for her. No One wanna hear Urban/trap beat or Pop songs from her (if thats what you mean). At this point i think she should just release 2 more singles from HERE and then record something like her first 2 albums and release great singles. Of course she needs to create hype because that's what sells album nowadays.
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music89
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Post by music89 on Jan 15, 2017 18:43:30 GMT -5
As long as she releases great singles and albums I don't care about album sales. Every RnB artists is struggling now. Maxwell did poor numbers but he's still a legend. Mary J. Blige will flop too when she will release her new album but she's still a legend.
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SHOOTER
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There's still some ass on your lips. #FreePalestine
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Post by SHOOTER on Jan 26, 2017 2:21:35 GMT -5
Released as a birthday gift to her fans (36).
https%3A//soundcloud.com/aliciakeys/thats-whats-up
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Troublemaker
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Post by Troublemaker on Jan 26, 2017 4:02:14 GMT -5
Don't really care for this, I miss days when her music was different. Said it before and I'll say it again, her music started going downhill when she met swizz...
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felipe
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Post by felipe on Jan 28, 2017 10:08:28 GMT -5
I understand it'd be expensive to start the era over and that she wouldn't be getting any Earth-shattering hits out of this album, but it surprises me that they didn't even bother sending one of the good songs to Urban with minimal promo and let it do what it could.
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Rican@
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Post by Rican@ on Jan 28, 2017 11:27:15 GMT -5
Another single can be pushed from this album at least, imo
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Active Aggressive
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Post by Active Aggressive on Jan 28, 2017 12:21:18 GMT -5
Work on it work on it work on it baby...#BEATDROP.
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doak
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Post by doak on Jan 31, 2017 12:41:13 GMT -5
Akeys performing at the grammy's. Yay
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allow that
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Post by allow that on Feb 3, 2017 9:53:51 GMT -5
Akeys performing at the grammy's. Yay With no big hits of her own this year, hopefully she's performing "Love On The Brain." Because SOMEONE has to.
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Rican@
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Post by Rican@ on Feb 3, 2017 14:45:45 GMT -5
Akeys performing at the grammy's. Yay With no big hits of her own this year, hopefully she's performing "Love On The Brain." Because SOMEONE has to. LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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Kishi KCM
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Post by Kishi KCM on Feb 5, 2017 8:33:36 GMT -5
Pawn It All, please.
But I know it's going to be a tribute.
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music89
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Post by music89 on Feb 5, 2017 9:45:47 GMT -5
Pawn It All, please. But I know it's going to be a tribute. :'( Still can't believe they didn't choose Pawn It All as the first single. It was perfect. Such a shame. And She Don't Really Care is a such a jam, wow.
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music89
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Post by music89 on Feb 5, 2017 10:05:13 GMT -5
So...after 3 months I can definitely say that this album is underrated. it's at least 7.5/10 The Gospel, Pawn It All, She Don't Really Care, Illusion of Bliss, Kill Your Mama, More Than We Know, Where Do We Begin Now are all great songs, definitely the best songs on the album. Blended Family is a really nice songs but it didn't need ASAP Rocky imo and it shouldnt be the first single. Girl Can't Be Herself aint bad. The verses are good (I like the piano) but the chorus could have been better. Holy War is bland and a bit boring. The production is bad. The acoustic live version is better but the song still ain't great. Work On It is probably the weakest song. The verses aren't bad but the chorus is so annoying with all those "oohh oohh ooohh ooohh" If she replaced Holy War, Work On It and Girl Can't Be Herself with better songs (I'm sure she recorded songs that are better than those three) this album would have been a masterpiece.
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Rican@
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Post by Rican@ on Feb 5, 2017 23:20:58 GMT -5
"She Don't Really Care" would have been an anthem if it came out 10 years ago when the NY vibe was definitely in.
However, I love "Girl Can't Be Herself" and I would have put it in running as a first single due to her "no makeup" campaign she had last year. "Pawn It All" would have been great and I may have added a feature on it. Even though "In Common" was the perfect lead off for this album and it still get high replay from me yet it needed that hot feature to get it's real success.
"Work On It" is definitely the weakest on the album.
It is definitely an underrated album and it would have been the perfect album to come after "Diary" album even though "As I Am" was great too. Yet, I think the theme would have worked for her years ago than now unless she would have focus on the theme from the get go with The Gospel short film being the main focus for the album push.
Anyway, I look forward to another album soon even though I'm on the fence if she should wait a while or get something out quick while on The Voice this upcoming season.
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music89
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Post by music89 on Feb 6, 2017 1:35:38 GMT -5
"She Don't Really Care" would have been an anthem if it came out 10 years ago when the NY vibe was definitely in. However, I love "Girl Can't Be Herself" and I would have put it in running as a first single due to her "no makeup" campaign she had last year. "Pawn It All" would have been great and I may have added a feature on it. Even though "In Common" was the perfect lead off for this album and it still get high replay from me yet it needed that hot feature to get it's real success. "Work On It" is definitely the weakest on the album. It is definitely an underrated album and it would have been the perfect album to come after "Diary" album even though "As I Am" was great too. Yet, I think the theme would have worked for her years ago than now unless she would have focus on the theme from the get go with The Gospel short film being the main focus for the album push. Anyway, I look forward to another album soon even though I'm on the fence if she should wait a while or get something out quick while on The Voice this upcoming season. Only girls can relate to Girl Can't Be Herself so it would be a wrong choice. Do you see (straight) guys singing this song?! Pawn It All would have been the perfect first single :'(
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Rican@
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Post by Rican@ on Feb 6, 2017 8:46:40 GMT -5
"She Don't Really Care" would have been an anthem if it came out 10 years ago when the NY vibe was definitely in. However, I love "Girl Can't Be Herself" and I would have put it in running as a first single due to her "no makeup" campaign she had last year. "Pawn It All" would have been great and I may have added a feature on it. Even though "In Common" was the perfect lead off for this album and it still get high replay from me yet it needed that hot feature to get it's real success. "Work On It" is definitely the weakest on the album. It is definitely an underrated album and it would have been the perfect album to come after "Diary" album even though "As I Am" was great too. Yet, I think the theme would have worked for her years ago than now unless she would have focus on the theme from the get go with The Gospel short film being the main focus for the album push. Anyway, I look forward to another album soon even though I'm on the fence if she should wait a while or get something out quick while on The Voice this upcoming season. Only girls can relate to Girl Can't Be Herself so it would be a wrong choice. Do you see (straight) guys singing this song?! Pawn It All would have been the perfect first single :'( The production is catchy and again, there could be a feature from a male perspective. The song is not one sided. I'm stating the political aspect of the song when she was being hounded about her "no make up", which it would have been more of a statement than her support for "Blended Family". The latter just felt so left field for an album about New York. At least with "...Herself", it expressed interest in what most women go through instead of a superficial love or need for a blended family, imo. "Pawn" would have been perfect yet I still have my doubts on how supportive radio would have been toward it. It is real music and she talking about the struggles, which we rarely hear anymore in music anymore. If it is not about thots, blah and blah, the crowd do not want to listen.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2017 13:58:12 GMT -5
Plenty of "girls-only" songs have gone on to be hits though! I'm Every Woman, Independent Women, Miss Independent, Single Ladies, All About That Bass (sorta), Alicia's own Girl On Fire and Superwoman...nothing stopping a song from doing well just b/c the boys think they can't sing along.
I think the bigger catch-22 to Girl Can't Be Herself is Alicia's age. Self-empowerment anthems are usually aimed more at girls and young adults, and they tend to resonate more more when coming from someone who is, if not the same age as that target audience, an artist who is still very popular with them. I could see GCBH being glossed over while Scars To Your Beautiful gets more props, for example.
I didn't get around to commenting on Here when the album was first released, but it is a really solid album. I revisited it recently and it holds up well. Ok, I guess "holds up well" is a little weird to say for something that's only a few months old, lol. But it does - it's an 'undated' album in that this could have easily been the follow up to DOAK or HIA and not sounded out of place. It's a shame not more effort was put into promoting it.
And I still lowkey feel that Alicia's real target audience needs to be HAC these days - UAC is just such a small demo, and urban is so far removed from her style now. I don't think she'd have to change anything about her current direction to land some HAC/pop crossover hits now, she just has to make them aware that she's still out there.
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music89
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Post by music89 on Feb 6, 2017 15:40:51 GMT -5
I can understand what you two are saying about Girl Can't Be Herself but I still can't see it doing good as a single. Also I don't think people who listen to Alicia Keys want a hit single from her. They just wanna hear great songs. She became popular because she was different and she was releasing great RnB/Soul music. Alicia isn't Rihanna or Beyoncé. She needs to sell albums more than singles. And to sell albums she needs to release great singles, period. That's why I'm saying Pawn It All would have been perfect. It's a quality song (it's one of her best songs ever), it's pretty catchy and it's Blues/Jazzy/Hip-Hop. Girl Cant Be Herself is just cute.
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felipe
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Post by felipe on Feb 7, 2017 20:59:20 GMT -5
Girl can't be herself is actually one of my favorite songs on the album. It sounds just so bittersweet. But I agree the best choice for a lead single would've been Pawn it all. Blended family was just too vanilla, I think it actually turned many people off and killed expectations for the album.
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