New The-Dream, Featuring T.I.: "Fall in Love Again"

Leave it to The-Dream to make us impatient for the end of a T.I. verse. What works great on a T.I. album--"Like I Do," anyone?--isn't exactly what we want for Love King, the new Dream LP for which this record is presumably intended. The-Dream, who has written a hit for pretty much everyone in the last four or five years, obviously has a collaborative streak. That said, we adore his albums most for being bizarre private spaces in which Dream stretches his legs and says and does things far more bonkers and honest than he would on a Rihanna record; last year's incomparable Love Vs. Money had only two guests on it, and they were probably two too many. On a first couple of listens, "Love Again" is compelling but never quite blasts off into space. Great hook, but T.I. makes no sense here--he is many things, but romantic isn't one of them. [Download the song at Rap Radar.]