Hood Reviews: Love King

So, I recently realized I like reading my old blog posts before I post a new one. Fuck y'all, don't judge me.
I peeped two other posts, one speaking about my anticipation for The-Dream's sophomore album, Love vs. Money, and the journey it took to get me to become a fan of his, and one was the actual short review of the album. If you ain't never peeped either of those, long story short, I'm an actual Dream fan. I think I did a good job of not letting my being a huge fan of Eminem sway my review of Recovery, and I'll try this time as well.
So, The-Dream's first two albums, Love Hate, and Love vs. Money were both met with generally positive critical reviews, a rarity for urban music nowadays. The third installment to the Love saga, Love King was met with slightly less positive, but still positive reviews. I credit that to the repetitiveness of The-Dream's music so far. As a fan, I hate to admit it, but Love King ain't nothing anyone who's heard the first two albums ain't already heard. It's just, in my opinion, better.
I personally feel like, as an artist, if you gone insist on making music on the same topics repeatedly, the least you can do is do it better than you did the last time. The-Dream does that on this album. There are a few exceptions where The-Dream hits new topics of course, such as "Make Up Bag (featuring T.I.)", which focuses on how having money can save a relationship (kids, don't try that at home, especially if you broke), and "Nikki Part 2" and "Florida University", which are spiteful songs toward an ex (Florida University is code for "fuck you", hence the repetition of "FU" over the hook). Besides that, the make-up of the album is the same; club song, sex song(s), love song, Prince-inspired song, and an abundance of smooth transitions from track to track in some areas.
Love King also comes as a Deluxe Version, featuring six more tracks. I personally feel the perfect length for an album is 14-16 songs, especially for R&B, so the 18 tracks is a bit much for me, but hey, in the words of Gucci Mane, I "got a real short attention span. GUCCI!" That does not mean the extra tracks aren't good, though; I feel "Take Care of Me" is one of THE best tracks The American Dream has made thus far.
Overall, like I said, you won't find anything you haven't heard from The-Dream before with this album. He just finds better ways to carry out the same formula, so, it's still great music you should prolly give a listen to. Notable tracks: "Sex Intelligent", "Sex Intelligent Remix", "Yamaha", "Turnt Out", and "Take Care of Me" if you listenin' to the Deluxe Version. Overall rating: 4.5 out of 5.
~Trufe