Our ears got accustomed to the wacky warmth of Auto-Tune thanks to T-Pain, and now it’s everywhere. Out of those Auto-Tune embers came Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak, bombed-out-of-his-gourd-murmuring-through-Auto-Tune Lil Wayne, Bon Iver’s “Woods,” Drake, a tentative but still significant embrace of global dance that uses Auto-Tune and isn’t so caught up on “authenticity” issues surrounding it, and Future. Then, he turned into a charming urban-radio clown who went a little hard in the guest-feature paint, and showed up on anything and everything, effectively destroying the goofy-ass goodwill he’d built up. He’s a funny guy with a shtick, who never took himself too seriously, and figured out a way to turn that stupid thing Cher did on “Believe” into the sound for a couple of years. It’s also pretty damned tasteful, isn’t it? And so, what better moment than right now, at the height of “PBR&B”-mania for dread-headed, sunglasses-wearing, top hat-sporting, Auto-Tune addict T-Pain to release a mess of a mixtape called Stoic. I like T-Pain. Tesfaye made it safe, now sings the Zombies over Fabio Frizzi-style synth farts and drops trippy masterworks like it ain’t no thing. Miguel, better than all of them but apparently afraid to show it before Mr. The Weeknd, who was ripped off by Kelly Rowland on “Motivation” almost immediately, and more recently had his fog-soul steez stolen by Usher on “Climax,” Justin Bieber on “As Long As You Love Me,” and Kanye and crew on Cruel Summer‘s “Higher,” has given coasting and complacent pop stars an excuse to experiment. Frank Ocean is turning Stevie Wonder’s subtle moves on Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants into a career. Seems like we’re actually entering an era of restrained, sophisticated, and strange R&B.
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