And that's what I feel like Tricky and Dream did with this record.
On this album they include Akon, Ryan Leslie, Polow da Don, Tricky and The-Dream, and Ne-Yo, who wrote one song each with StarGate and the Stereotypes.
In "Hard," which Rihanna wrote with Tricky and The-Dream -- who were also behind her hit "Umbrella" -- the backup is booming, tolling minor piano chords and an echoey cathedral choir of overdubbed Rihannas.
Nick Levine of Digital Spy felt the song was "no great departure from what he's given us before", but felt the production of Tricky and The-Dream helped give the song a "simple", "big" chorus about "puppy love" that works.
After signing a recording contract in light of his growing popularity on YouTube, Bieber worked with collaborators including his mentor Usher, in addition to producers Tricky Stewart, The-Dream, and Midi Mafia.
Nick Levine from Digital Spy described the track as "a Tricky and The-Dream-produced club banger with a chorus that succeeds through sheer attrition, with a proper Janet Jackson-style dance break.
And they still needed a victory over Algeria, who suddenly looked every bit a quick, tricky, skillful destroyer of dreams.
Tension builds through lovers' quarrels in "Stay Down" and in "Roses," which was written with the team behind Rihanna's hit "Umbrella," Christopher (Tricky) Stewart and The-Dream.
"1+1," written by Beyoncé with Tricky Stewart and The-Dream, is a promise of fealty enacted as an insistent rant, requiring a vocal muscle few singers possess, and even fewer would care to deploy.
Ciara's breathy voice is the candy in the machines she runs with her producers: primarily Tricky Stewart and The-Dream, who worked on 7 of the 11 tracks.
