When last we heard from The-Dream, he was still very good at love-making, though he was very eager — maybe too eager — to point out that he’s no longer doing the love-making with his ex. “Body Work” and “Fuck My Brains Out,” the first two songs off the forthcoming The Love, IV (Diary of a Mad Man), were mostly about banging, but they were also presumably a little bit about The-Dream’s divorce from Christina Milian. (Representative lyric: “I don’t need another bitch to lie to me/ Shut up and put it on me baby.”) At the time, Vulture wondered how this new cad persona would go over, and from the sound of his latest effort, maybe The-Dream did some soul-searching of his own.
“Wake Me When It’s Over,” the lead track of his free mix tape 1977, is remorseful, if not exactly apologetic: He spends half the song feeling bad for oversharing (please remember the Failed Marriage Open Letter of 2010) and the other half feeling bad that he comes off as the villain. “Life on the Internet/I look like a devil/ But you wearing the red dress/ holding the shovel” — okay, so, not apologetic at all, but, he’s working through it. Also: The song is a solid, slow-building (if slightly gloomy) jam. Is a little self-reflection enough to get you back on board with The-Dream? Before you answer, could we also share that 1977 has a song titled “Wedding Crashers,” with a hilarious chorus as follows: “BABY THIS MY DRUNK SONG/ I HATE TO HAVE TO CRASH YOUR WEDDING/ WITH THIS SHIT/ THIS MY MOTHER FUCKIN ANTHEM.” (Caps lock his.) Just something to consider.
