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The-Dream: Love Vs Money (Reviews) 
Wed, Mar 11
1. Money Intro
2. Rockin That Shit
3. Walkin On The Moon (Feat. Kanye West)
4. My Love (Feat. Mariah Carey)
5. Put It Down
6. Sweat It Out
7. Take You Home 2 My Mama
8. Love Vs Money
9. Love Vs Money Part 2
10. Fancy
11. Right Side Of My Brain
12. Mr. Yeah
13. Kellys 12 Play
14. Let Me See The Booty (Bonus Track) (Feat. Lil Jon)
Via The Koalition
It has been an amazing three years for Terius “The-Dream” Nash. After being behind the scenes strictly as a songwriter, The-Dream took the world by storm in 2007, creating monster hit singles for Rihanna (”Umbrella”) and J. Holiday (”Bed”) before releasing his excellent debut album, LoveHate. The-Dream soon went back into the studio and lived up to his nickname, “The Radio Killa”, continuing to craft monster cuts for the likes of Beyonce (”Single Ladies”), Usher (”Moving Mountains”), Mary J. Blige (”Just Fine”) and Mariah Carey (”Touch My Body”) while ruling radio with an iron fist. Taking a year off in order to craft his second LP, The-Dream has returned to reflect on the life long conflict: love… versus money.
After a brief intro, the album begins with the catchy hit single “Rockin’ That Shit”, produced by the other half of their dynamic duo, Christopher “Tricky” Stewart. The 80’s inspired “Walkin’ On The Moon” features The-Dream and Kanye teaming up to recreate the experience of love at first sight. This record is heatrocks and features Kanye post-autotune, dropping gems like “I ain’t tryna hound you / Just tryna take you where the stars gon surround you” [....] “I know a lotta people mad cause they ain’t wit you / Wait, is it because we on the moon? / Tell em “save the hate, we’ll be home soon.”
Up next is rising second single “My Love”, a duet featuring songstress Mariah Carey, followed by back to back baby makers “Put It Down” and “Sweat It Out”. The former features The-Dream bragging on his sexual prowess while the latter finds him pining for his lover to “call Letitcia, your beautician” because he’s planning on an steamy, intense lovemaking session and her hair is not going to survive it.
Overall Score: 5/5
Read the rest here
Also, via About.com
Singer-songwriter Terius Nash, better known to most people these days as The-Dream, and best known for his 2007 hit “Shawty is a Ten” (aka “Shawty is the Sh*t”) is back with a new album, Love Vs. Money (released in the U.S. on March 10, 2009). And like his debut album, Love/Hate (short for Love Me All Summer, Hate Me All Winter), this album can be divided into two types of songs: pop-oriented, radio-friendly tracks and drama-filled relationship tunes. And on both albums, it’s the meaty stuff rather than the lightweight fluff that’s the most compelling and worth repeat listening.
- Clipse – Til The Casket Drops
- The-Dream Featuring…. The-Dream
- Unreleased: Common – Strange Fruit (feat. John Legend) (prod. by Kanye West)
- Eminem – Relapse: Refill (Tracklist)
- Video: Paparazzi Assault Charges Against Kanye Will Be Dropped
- Leak: Clipse – Popular Demand (Popeye’s) (feat. Cam’Ron)
- Kanye West And Lady Gaga Tour Canceled
- Common: ‘Obama effect’ steering rap away from rims & bling
- Tokyo Cigar presents The Remix (P. Diddy Invented It, Tokyo Directed It)
- Video: Kanye Talks “Kanye-isms” Book
When it comes to vocal skills, Dream is something of a lightweight, and is very obviously influenced by two singers, Usher and (especially) R. Kelly. But despite his vocal limitations, he manages to put out some good, catchy songs and decent albums. But again, his best music isn’t exemplified by disposable, forgettable tracks like the album’s first single, “Rockin’ That Sh*t,” or the Michael Jackson-ish party song “Walkin’ On the Moon,” which features Kanye West.
No, the best stuff on the album is the Jerry Springer-like material, such as the title track and “Love Vs. Money Part 2.” It’s these two songs that carry the album due to their topic (a bad relationship, a stolen love and a broken heart), song production (dark and high-paced, sort of like the theme to a car chase) and Dream’s stepping-up of his vocal game (he manages to sound hurt, bitter and sorrowful all at the same time). Two other great tracks are “Fancy,” wistful a mid-tempo ballad about a 23-year-old woman who uses men to get the best things in life; and “Sweat It Out,” a sexy song where Dream promises to put in work in the bedroom: “Girl, call up Tisha, your beautician, ’cause your hair is gon’ need fixin’,” he sings. It’s four three songs that reinforce The-Dream’s status as a true artist, not just someone who makes booty-shakin’ music.
But of course, there’s the obligatory booty-shakin’ songs too, most notably “Let Me See the Booty,” a horrible crunk bonus track featuring Lil Jon. But “Let Me See the Booty,” is the exception rather than the rule; overall, Love Vs. Money’s good moments outweigh the bad.
Overall Score: 3/5
And via Slant Magazine
One hardly needs more proof that Terius Nash, the writer-producer behind The-Dream, stands at or near the top of the contemporary R&B heap. After helping Rihanna own 2007 by co-writing the ubiquitous “Umbrella,” Nash had a hand in the creation of Beyoncé’s smash “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” and while the ascendant artist may not yet have the cache or price tag of super-producers like Pharrell and Timbaland, he’s already finding success at something those guys have been trying and failing at for years: gaining credibility as a solo act.
Nash’s 2007 debut, Love/Hate, was a flawed but wholly entertaining collection of sleek synthesizer ballads and Auto-Tuned excesses. In addition to significant filler, there were moments of both pop brilliance (”Shawty Is a 10″) and auteurist bravado (”Ditch That…”). The artist’s follow-up, Love vs. Money, keeps to the same aesthetic touchstones of broad synthesizer lines, punchy drumbeats, and computerized vocals while cranking up the gears of ambition. From the propulsive gleam of first single and album-opener “Rockin’ That Shit” to cameos by Kanye West and Mariah Carey, Love vs. Money hardly shies away from the attitude that The-Dream has entered the realm of pop royalty.
More than anything, this album sounds busy. It seems that Nash and frequent collaborator Christopher “Tricky” Stewart have absorbed nearly every musical meme flittering across the landscape of urban radio, excised the ones they hate and exaggerated the ones they love, added their own idiosyncratic flourishes, and recast the whole concoction as their own personal present-tense. Thus “Take You Home 2 Mama” treads through stacks of synthesizer chords and drops in the multi-tracked “Hey!” (a note made famous in T.I. and Rihanna’s “Live Your Life”) as an exclamatory punctuation. “Fancy” begins as a familiar piano-only ballad before building in accordion farts, chopped-and-screwed samples, and harp-plucked arpeggios. “Walking on the Moon” displays both adulation for Off the Wall-era Michael Jackson and tinny, Kala-esque beats; fittingly, Nash adlibs in the song’s opening bars that the song’s setting is the year 2085. What keeps all this over-production from being distracting is Nash’s intelligent arrangements and a keen avoidance of clutter. The seemingly incongruous elements rarely fail to complement each other or Nash’s vocals.
For all the album’s behind-the-boards wizardry and hook-laden songcraft, though, only a few of these cuts have the feel of future hits. “Rockin That Shit,” which is already all over the airwaves, is admittedly irresistible. Ditto “My Love,” a ballad featuring a surprisingly restrained Carey jumping through Nash’s hoops with all the docility of a tamed lion. But instead of begging to be repeated, the rest of the album’s songs are best savored as a whole—a weird assessment of an R&B album, which usually sink or swim on their ability to capture you right away. Love vs. Money, however, is a bit of a grower. One is inclined to believe that Nash saved his next chart-topper for a born star like Beyoncé and decided to make this album a cohesive, front-to-back artistic statement. Which it is.
Overall Score: 4/5
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1. Money Intro 2. Rockin That Shit 3. Walkin On The Moon (Feat. Kanye West) 4. My Love (Feat. Mariah Carey) 5. Put It Down 6. Sweat It Out 7. Take You Home 2 My Mama 8. Love Vs Money 9. Love Vs Money Part 2 10. Fancy 11. Right Side Of My Brain 12. Mr. Yeah 13. [...]
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