Love Hate - Content

Content

The album's layered production incorporates spacious beats, oscillating keyboards, throbbing synths, and baroque elements such as synthetic strings and harpsichords. Simon Vozick-Levinson of Entertainment Weekly characterizes The-Dream's electronic arrangements as "unorthodox". Tracks on the album share common elements and suite-like sequencing. Allmusic's Andy Kellman dubs Love Hate "a post-Timbaland/post-Neptunes pop album" and calls its sound "state-of-the art pop circa 2007-2008 resolutely luminescent". He describes its rhythms as "rubbery" and "sometimes colored by those swishing, panning effects heard in 'Bed' and its many imitators." Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times notes a "gooey, robotic ’80s-influenced R&B" and writes that the album "captured the ecstatic sound of pop radio in 2007." Slant Magazine's Wilson McBee views that The-Dream draws influences from "Timbaland's space jams and Prince's gleeful synth lines". Robert Christgau of MSN Music summarized the content of the album, musing:

"True, he pursues other's girls, leaves one shawty because she's not quick enough on the get-down, and moves on to the speedier, needier Nikki when another doesn't immediately accept his tender offer. But mostly he just enjoys himself in bed and makes pop in the studio. In 'Luv Songs,' he does both simultaneously."

Lyrically, The-Dream's persona is that of a lecherous romantic, with lyrics alternately boastful and vulnerable. Drew Hinshaw of PopMatters writes that he "engages in the same brand of improvident hedonism as everybody else these days—snatching woman from their long-term relationships, cheating indiscriminately, brandishing dollars and the things they buy—but his nagging conscience and his ear for tragedy steal centerstage." The-Dream's phrasing is characterized by extended syllables, touches of falsetto, and vocal refrains of "ella" and "eh". Sean Fennessey of Vibe characterizes his songwriting as "quirky" and comments that he channels "Prince at his vampy peak, and Bobby Brown, who always led with an assured growl."