R&B singer Lloyd, who recently released his album new King Of Hearts, will play one show at Auckland’s Civic Theatre on February 3. Tickets are on sale Thursday December 1 from The Edge.

The-Dream released his latest album 1977 last night (under his real name Terius Nash). It’s available to download for free at Radio Killa Records.

Frank Ocean dropped new song ‘Thinking About You’ on Tumblr late last week (too late for us to try and bother blogging about it). No word if it’s from an upcoming project but it’ll fill that gap until Nostalgia, Ultra gets an official release – although the possibility of that happening looks even less likely now. [Download via Tumblr]

Frank Ocean, who has in the past written songs for Justin Bieber, Brandy and John Legend and who recently released the excellent Nostalgia, Ultra mixtape, has dropped a new video via his Tumblr. The track is a two-minute song called ‘Acura Intergurl’ and it appeared on a 64-track unofficial mixtape called The Lonny Breaux Collection. Watch the video below.

Every week, a panel of writers for The Corner will focus on a bunch of recently released local singles and grade them. We call it Great Sounds Great; Bad Sounds Bad. We might have borrowed this idea from thesinglesjukebox.com but we love that site and we hope that you like this.

[iTunes]

[Grade: 4.4]

James Beavis: I was pretty on board with this to begin with, but Jesus Christ V.H bombs out sooo bad on the chorus. I’m not sure if his range dictates that he’s gotta get all whiny on the high notes or if it’s his vocal style of choice but either way, that main hook is a 100% dealbreaker for me. Buildup’s pretty good, I like the synths (reminds me of the compressed synths that Phoenix dig on), wish it was filled out with a bit more bass though. That could be my laptop speakers actually. Whatever. MORE MUSCLE. LESS WHINE. [5]

Dan Taipua: Oddly, Vince Harder hits a lot more of his marks with dance tracks than he does with his R&B productions. It’s indicative of a worldwide trend where singles charts are showing more and more R&B tracks with original electronic compositions than those with sample-based productions. I mean damn, ‘Umbrella’ was made with a garageband loop (Vintage Funk Kit 03). NOX is no Fiesto or David Guretta or whatever, but if you drag the cue to 1:30 you’ll hear every good lesson to be learned from early-2000 trance. It’s a total ZM anthem. [7]

Chelsea Nikkel: I don’t really know how to rate this, this doesn’t sound like music to me it sounds like when I have to go inside Pagani store with my mom for 10 minutes. [2]

Phyllis Gabor: I quite liked Vince from the get-go – his debut feature on P-Money’s ‘Everything’ was faultless and left me with high hopes for the man. Then one evening on the internet I went on one of David Dallas’ live Ustreams with Vince and after a good short set Vince was taking requests. I suggested ‘I Wanna Know’ by Joe, and pretty much as soon as I mentioned it he jumped on the keys, playing it effortlessly and belting it out. I was stoked and impressed, and his live sets have never failed to impress either. Which is why after witnessing that talent this song is really hard to listen to. He pretty much sounds exactly like J. Williams, when he could potentially be NZ’s classy John Legend-style lady crooner (don’t quote me on that) if he wanted to. This song is so lazy with its rehashed Usher lyrics and boring paint-by-numbers wannabe dance anthem production, and is oh so forgettable. I hope that soon Vince would rather forget it too. [2]

Luke Warm: I really like pop music if it’s good. This is bogus. It’s not even good enough to get stuck in your head in an annoying way. Saccharine production is all it’s got going for it. [2]

Stevie Kaye: Vince Harder is a total hero for his unabashed dancefloor-positive musical outlook in an arena which is usually pretty suss about that stuff (I’m probably only person here who’ll rep for Dei Hamo’s To Tha Floor! for similar sentiments); the fact that he’s been working on the production as well as songwriting/performance (plays Simba in the Aussie Lion King, too!) is pretty awesome, too. The track exists in the aftermath of a few years of 4×4 R&B, post T-Pain autotune and all the I Guetta Feelings, but there are moments that turn your head – the occasional poppers o’clock synths and hints of Get Physical EBM/bleep’n'bass undercarriage, as well as lines like “Just go and cut a rug on this” & “I’ve got you in a maze of lust”. Looking forward to what he does next. [8]

Hussein Moses: This holds pretty much exactly the same sentiment as Usher’s ‘DJ Got Us Falling In Love Again’ and Taio Cruz’s ‘Dynamite’, which are such recent comparisons I almost didn’t make want to make them. Harder skipping between so-so R&B to so-so dance-pop at the moment isn’t helping define him as an artist, and he’s headed for trouble with a song that glosses over his personality in favour of a top 40 trend. A few tweaks to the chorus and his one could be up there though. I’ve still got hope. [6]

Michael McClelland: The lyrics slay me, the production quality makes me flatline and the music leaves me to rot. None of these are positive descriptors. The only good thing I can think of to say is that for once, I’m glad a song is so forgettable. [1]

Kim Gruschow: I’m often bummed out that I feel too old, too punk and too clothed to ever go to the kind of clubs where they play songs like this. Vince Harder has a cool name and a candy voice. This is a shiny song. Although it doesn’t smack you with anything except cliché, under an actual Courtenay Place strobe light at 3am on a sticky floor with heels removed and a grubby grinding admire, “I Want This Forever” is always the perfect sentiment. [5]

Julie Petsounds: I think someone slipped me Rohypnol when I this was ‘having the night of my life’ last night cause I randomly just blanked out for 3 minutes and 54 seconds at da club. Oh no wait, the DJ was just playing ‘I Want This Forever’… After 24 cups of coffee and another listen, I have decided this song needs to be rated on the “Rihanna ‘Only Girl in the World’ scale”, where Rihanna is the almighty goddess of awesome at 10. This is a 2. And no – this isn’t tall poppy syndrome, this song is just forg… zzzz… getta… zzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz blah zzzzzzzz. [2]

Chris Cudby: Yep this is sweet, Harder’s proving that he’s got as good an ear for lyrics as he does for slicked up production – everything hangs. A bunch of catchy hooks squashed into one track while still sounding breezy and effortless. I would totally dance to this in da club. [7]

Maryann Savage: Oh my God, I love this song — up until the chorus! The opening and verses are exactly the kind of metallic, impoverished, David Guetta-ish opiate that surely exists just to distract us proles and condemn us to eternal drudgery — and I don’t want to listen to anything else! But the chorus is lame, too R. Kelly-ish. [6]

Duncan Greive: I kinda love Vince Harder’s approach. He was earlier and more committed to pop house than most of the rest of the world, and the kid can ball (true story). But since ‘Everything’ he’s threatened but never delivered that perfect crossover hit to seal the deal. And despite the Drake-referencing title there’s no menace or swagger here. reminds me of recent Ne-Yo, which is not a good thing, and unless he can tap into a vein of sleaze or a truly heroic melody then he’s unlikely to elevate to the level we need. [4]