Unlimited Streaming
Listen to this album in high quality now on our apps
Start my trial period and start listening to this albumEnjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription
SubscribeEnjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription
Digital Download
Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.
The release date and presentation made Ryan Leslie's self-titled album seem somewhat anticlimactic. When it came out, Cassie's mainstream blitz, engineered in many ways by the always visible Leslie, was two and a half years in the past, and a pair of lead-up singles had already fallen off the charts, released up to just over a year prior to the final product. Ryan Leslie came out in February 2009 with strikingly low-profile presentation: a simple black-and-white cover shot and a no-frills booklet with track credits and nothing else, not necessarily what was expected from a flashy and shrewd self-promoter who hired a staff of videographers to document his moves for a well-stocked archive of YouTube clips. And the album did, indeed, nearly shoot its wad before it became a physical object. Those first two singles, "Diamond Girl" and "Addiction" (neither of which cracked the Top 30 of the R&B/Hip-Hop chart), are the best of the set, easily the standouts. Instrumentally all synth trills, fillips, and bullfrog croaks, with charmingly clownish boasts on top, "Diamond Girl" also leads off the album, and it is followed by "Addiction," a crafty post-Neptunes production rooted in a barely present kick-drum pattern and synthetic hand percussion patter, ribboned in wavering (and practically queasy) synth flossing. What follows is not a series of radio killers but plenty of depth warranting repeat plays, led by "Quicksand," featuring Neptunes/N.E.R.D accessory Brent Paschke on guitar and bass. It's a slick update of In Search Of…'s springy pop-R&B (a la the album's original mix), one with a clever breakdown where the song slips abruptly into a swirl of synthesizers and Leslie's falsetto refrain. As a singer, Leslie is passable, slightly nasally, just skilled enough to pull off a falsetto without sounding silly; it's certainly the melodies and production flourishes, not the voice, that stick in the memory. And that is a blessing in disguise since the lyrics are sometimes flat-out clumsy. It could be that he was too busy with everything else and determined, after running some figures through a formula (he graduated from Harvard at the age of 19), that his creative energies could be optimized by spending more time on hooks and high-hat sounds. On five of the album's 12 songs, he plays and sings everything, while the others tend to involve no more than one additional musician (a not-exactly-heterogeneous crew including Hall & Oates and Saturday Night Live band alum T-Bone Wolk and fashion model slash rumored Leslie love interest Chanel Iman). Enjoyment of the album will be heightened if you are down with Leslie's brainiac schemer persona, but it is not a requirement. Bottom line: the album is one of the stronger pop-R&B releases of the last few years.
© Andy Kellman /TiVo
You are currently listening to samples.
Listen to over 100 million songs with an unlimited streaming plan.
Listen to this playlist and more than 100 million songs with our unlimited streaming plans.
From 12.49€/month
Ryan Leslie, Producer, Mixer, Recording Engineer, MainArtist, StudioPersonnel, ComposerLyricist - Scott Elgin, Asst. Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel
℗ 2007 Casablanca Music, LLC
J. Jackson, ComposerLyricist - R. Leslie, ComposerLyricist - Fabolous, FeaturedArtist - Stevie Wonder, ComposerLyricist - Cassie, FeaturedArtist - Rich Keller, Mixer, StudioPersonnel - Ryan Leslie, Producer, MainArtist - Susaye Greene, ComposerLyricist
℗ 2008 Casablanca Music. Distributed by Universal Records, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
R. Leslie, ComposerLyricist - Anthony Palazzole, Asst. Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Rob Kinelski, Asst. Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Ryan Leslie, Mixer, Recording Engineer, MainArtist, StudioPersonnel - KEVIN CROUSE, Mixer, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Tom T-Bone Wolk, Guitar, Bass Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Jim Caruanas, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel
℗ 2008 Casablanca Music, LLC
R. Leslie, ComposerLyricist - Anthony Palazzole, Asst. Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Brent Paschke, Guitar, Bass Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Ryan Leslie, Mixer, Recording Engineer, MainArtist, StudioPersonnel - KEVIN CROUSE, Mixer, StudioPersonnel
℗ 2008 Casablanca Music, LLC
R. Leslie, ComposerLyricist - Anthony Palazzole, Asst. Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Ryan Leslie, Mixer, Recording Engineer, MainArtist, StudioPersonnel
℗ 2008 Casablanca Music, LLC
R. Leslie, ComposerLyricist - Ryan Leslie, Mixer, Recording Engineer, MainArtist, StudioPersonnel
℗ 2008 Casablanca Music, LLC
R. Leslie, ComposerLyricist - Anthony Palazzole, Asst. Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Ryan Leslie, Mixer, Recording Engineer, MainArtist, StudioPersonnel
℗ 2008 Casablanca Music, LLC
R. Leslie, ComposerLyricist - Anthony Palazzole, Asst. Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Ryan Leslie, Mixer, Recording Engineer, MainArtist, StudioPersonnel - Al Carty, Bass Guitar, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 2008 Casablanca Music, LLC
R. Leslie, ComposerLyricist - Ryan Leslie, Mixer, Recording Engineer, MainArtist, StudioPersonnel
℗ 2008 Casablanca Music, LLC
R. Leslie, ComposerLyricist - Anthony Palazzole, Asst. Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Rob Kinelski, Asst. Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Ryan Leslie, Mixer, Recording Engineer, MainArtist, StudioPersonnel - KEVIN CROUSE, Mixer, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Tom T-Bone Wolk, Guitar, Bass Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Jim Caruanas, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel
℗ 2008 Casablanca Music, LLC
R. Leslie, ComposerLyricist - Rob Kinelski, Asst. Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Ryan Leslie, Mixer, Recording Engineer, MainArtist, StudioPersonnel - Tom T-Bone Wolk, Guitar, Bass Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Jim Caruanas, Mixer, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel
℗ 2008 Casablanca Music, LLC
R. Leslie, ComposerLyricist - Ryan Leslie, Mixer, Recording Engineer, MainArtist, StudioPersonnel
℗ 2008 Casablanca Music, LLC
Album review
The release date and presentation made Ryan Leslie's self-titled album seem somewhat anticlimactic. When it came out, Cassie's mainstream blitz, engineered in many ways by the always visible Leslie, was two and a half years in the past, and a pair of lead-up singles had already fallen off the charts, released up to just over a year prior to the final product. Ryan Leslie came out in February 2009 with strikingly low-profile presentation: a simple black-and-white cover shot and a no-frills booklet with track credits and nothing else, not necessarily what was expected from a flashy and shrewd self-promoter who hired a staff of videographers to document his moves for a well-stocked archive of YouTube clips. And the album did, indeed, nearly shoot its wad before it became a physical object. Those first two singles, "Diamond Girl" and "Addiction" (neither of which cracked the Top 30 of the R&B/Hip-Hop chart), are the best of the set, easily the standouts. Instrumentally all synth trills, fillips, and bullfrog croaks, with charmingly clownish boasts on top, "Diamond Girl" also leads off the album, and it is followed by "Addiction," a crafty post-Neptunes production rooted in a barely present kick-drum pattern and synthetic hand percussion patter, ribboned in wavering (and practically queasy) synth flossing. What follows is not a series of radio killers but plenty of depth warranting repeat plays, led by "Quicksand," featuring Neptunes/N.E.R.D accessory Brent Paschke on guitar and bass. It's a slick update of In Search Of…'s springy pop-R&B (a la the album's original mix), one with a clever breakdown where the song slips abruptly into a swirl of synthesizers and Leslie's falsetto refrain. As a singer, Leslie is passable, slightly nasally, just skilled enough to pull off a falsetto without sounding silly; it's certainly the melodies and production flourishes, not the voice, that stick in the memory. And that is a blessing in disguise since the lyrics are sometimes flat-out clumsy. It could be that he was too busy with everything else and determined, after running some figures through a formula (he graduated from Harvard at the age of 19), that his creative energies could be optimized by spending more time on hooks and high-hat sounds. On five of the album's 12 songs, he plays and sings everything, while the others tend to involve no more than one additional musician (a not-exactly-heterogeneous crew including Hall & Oates and Saturday Night Live band alum T-Bone Wolk and fashion model slash rumored Leslie love interest Chanel Iman). Enjoyment of the album will be heightened if you are down with Leslie's brainiac schemer persona, but it is not a requirement. Bottom line: the album is one of the stronger pop-R&B releases of the last few years.
© Andy Kellman /TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 12 track(s)
- Total length: 00:48:06
- Main artists: Ryan Leslie
- Composer: Various Composers
- Label: CASABLANCA RECORDS
- Genre: Soul/Funk/R&B R&B
© 2008 Casablanca Music, LLC ℗ 2008 Casablanca Music, LLC
Improve album informationWhy buy on Qobuz...
-
Stream or download your music
Buy an album or an individual track. Or listen to our entire catalogue with our high-quality unlimited streaming subscriptions.
-
Zero DRM
The downloaded files belong to you, without any usage limit. You can download them as many times as you like.
-
Choose the format best suited for you
Download your purchases in a wide variety of formats (FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF...) depending on your needs.
-
Listen to your purchases on our apps
Download the Qobuz apps for smartphones, tablets and computers, and listen to your purchases wherever you go.