Third time is a charm, and for Terius "The-Dream" Nash, the third time maybe his chance to fully solidify his place as one of the greats of this generation. Already responsible for crafting certified bangers for the latter parts of the 2000's (i.e. 2007's "Umbrella" by Rihanna, 2008'"Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)" by Beyonce, 2009's "Obsessed" by Mariah Carey) with production partner, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart. The two have become today's version of Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and LA Ried. Now the American Dream returns with Love King, his third album in many years. This time Los The Mystro commands the boards and plays a major role in keeping up the formula that we have grown to expect from The-Dream, while also crafting new sounds never heard on Dream's previous two efforts. The songs are cinematic as some songs play as a story and are sequenced right in to each other. The jump-off single is the title track, and has the same catchy, fingersnap tune that has become a staple for The-Dream's songs. Other standout tracks are: "Nikki Part 2" (which continues the story of the fictional lover Nikki fom his debut) and "Sex Intelligent", where he confesses, "I make all these other niggas irrelevent/ I'm sex intelligent/ I know how to work it right..." Mr. Nash's weakness can be found in his limited vocal ability. Dream doesn't have the vocal chops to expand his range, and sometimes plays a back role to his own instrumentation. Another low point are the corny lyrics and weak similes, like the aforementioned "Sex Intelligent" ("You can't match a love like mine/ It's like trying to rob me with a B-B-Gun/ But I gets it poppin' like the Taliban"), or the break-up song "Florida University" (which in Dream's case is a "nicer" way of telling someone "F. U.") Outside these short-comings, Love King continues The-Dream's magical run of knocking out hit songs, and unescapable tunes. Maybe his next opus, Love/Affair will be his Purple Rain, but as for right now Love King manages to still be solid effort, and hopefully your soundtrack to the summer. I rate this 3.5/5
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