Album Review: The-Dream - "Love/Hate"

Terius Nash, who's now best known to R&B fans as singer The-Dream (yes, he hyphenates the name) was on a hot streak in 2007, first as the co-writer of two of 2007's biggest hit songs, Rihanna's "Umbrella" and J. Holiday's "Bed," and then with his own hit song, "Shawty is a Ten" (aka "Shawty is da Sh*t.") And now, Dream steps further into the spotlight with the release of his debut album, Love/Hate. Dream may or may not turn out to be a one hit wonder, but Love/Hate, like "Shawty is a Ten," is a cute, quirky release that won't appeal to everyone, but has a lot of fun songs with lush harmonies and addictive melodies.

Although it's commonly known as Love/Hate for marketing purposes, the full title of The-Dream's debut album is Love Me All Summer, Hate Me All Winter. The title, Dream says, is a statement about the fickleness of the music industry and of music fans in general. But despite the defiant attitude of the title, there's no Haterade or bitter juice being tossed around on the album. Dream really just wants to entertain and Love/Hate is a fairly entertaining album.

For those who found his vocal style on "Shawty is a Ten" irritating, you'll be happy to know that he doesn't always sing with those little vocal tics ("eh!") on his songs. In fact, "Shawty" is probably the most gimmicky song on the album. Many other tracks, like the sexy second single, "Falsetto" and the Prince-lite bedroom song "Purple Kisses," are firmly rooted in melodious R&B. Other songs, like the cheating/breakup song "Nikki" and it's sequel "She Needs My Love" are hip-hop influenced, but sound more like Justin Timberlake's Timbaland-produced songs than anything else.

There aren't really any five-star songs on Love/Hate, but there are no truly bad songs, either. Likewise, Dream's vocal skills are good, but not great. It's his unique style more than anything that makes him worth listening to. Most of his songs here fall in the three to three-and-a-half star range; there's a lot of good material here, just not enough oustanding songs. The closest thing might be "Livin' A Lie," Dream's duet with Rihanna; the song might eventually become a hit single, but it's still a notch away from being a classic.