At this point, I'm not even sure why I'm even mildly concerned with Day26's career. This video just further shows that this is a group of five men who probably shouldn't be recording together, or at least, should not be allowed to choose the material they sing.
This song is completely formless. It has no passion, it doesn't rise or fall or even seem to have a pulse. I don't even know what it's about. The vocal arrangement benefits Brian quite well here, but seems to force Q into a weird vocal place where he sounds like something is lodged in his throat.
Visually, Brian continues to be the only guy who understands how to play to the camera. He just oozes charisma. Everyone else looks pained and uncomfortable, save Robert, who looks insane.
I'm so done with Will and Q as lead vocalists (they should not sing lead), but Robert's autotuned vocals are disgusting. He's easily the best singer in the group, he knows it, but his dogged attempt to be some bootleg Sean Garrett/Kanye West is embarrassing (at worst) and insincere (at best). Dude - just SANG.
It's worth pointing out that Puff played a huge role in the imaging of Jodeci, perhaps the most influential male group of the last 30 years not New Edition. That he hasn't taken the reins with Day26 and molded them into a fantastic vocal group (which they could definitely be) is sad, if predictable. If there's one thing Puff can do, it's sell shit to White folks and young Black kids without any real sense of their people's musical heritage. In his early work, he translated what Teddy was doing musically into an image that he could sell. That was important, if maddening.
But now, I don't think dude's head is in making music anymore. He seems to let his groups flounder almost for sport. People should stop trying get signed to his label.
I think Day26, on some level, knows this. Their videos seem desperate, pleading, as if they are holding onto them 15 minutes like their lives depended on it.
And maybe they do.
But the first mistake everyone involved in this mess made was giving the fellas any say in the music they would make this go round. They are clearly not capable of picking good material. It's okay though. That doesn't make them any less talented or any less deserving of a shot at a music career, it just means people who know music inside and out should be guiding them.
A&R is a lost art in today's artist-must-have-creative-control-whether-they-are-creative-or-not era. One needn't be Berry Gordy'd into submission, but there should be someone to tell Robert, "hey, the hair?, yea no. just no," and tell all five guys that trend-jocking gets you nowhere fast. I mean, they record an album full of autotune right as Sean Carter records "Death of Autotune."
Confusing trends with actual shifts in the musical landscape means you don't get to make the big decisions, kids.
