The-Dream - Crown

The-Dream
Crown
2015

In a world where R&B can as poppy and cookie cutter as humanly possible The-Dream seems to have decided to take a different path. His music is heartfelt and extremely pretty. This EP Crown takes the listener down a path of love, boasting, partying and a finger snapping groove. Literally most of the tracks include finger snaps tailor made for grooving side to side. "That's My Shit" in particular is a great track to move to and has a pretty solid cameo from T.I. The space created on this track for movement and inventiveness has The-Dream truly at his best. It's subtle but has a bite at the same time and that can be said for most of the tracks on the album. On this record in particular The-Dream knows just when to use a light touch rather than beat the listener over the head with some kind of club banger.

However A real weak spot on the album is "Cedes Benz" where The-Dream drops into a hyphy style and starts boasting about his Mercedes. This track sticks out like a sore thumb on an album which is otherwise full of heart and beautiful melodies. That same use of restraint that makes the rest of the record great seems to have evaporated on this track and in it's place is a weak attempt of making music that just isn't his style. For a six track EP Crown packs a great deal into a tiny space. Five extremely solid tracks our of six is nothing to scoff at and Crown should definitely be on your must listen list.

7 out of 10