Genius rarely lasts. Terius Nash, aka The-Dream, took R&B to new levels between 2007 and 2010 as both pop songwriter and boundary-pushing producer – but as IV Play demonstrates, the well of ideas has run dry and the magic is gone. What's left is a grotesquely diminished figure promising bad sex in return for retreads of old ideas ("I could give a fuck about the foreplay," he mutters; somewhere, R Kelly weeps). Gone is the panache, the commitment to his songs that enabled him to pull off the most ludicrous poses; in their place are perfunctory performances and generic posturing. Loving You/Crazy is a pallid palimpsest of the epic suites he used to create; Equestrian nods weakly to past glories such as Ciara's Ride. Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland sound embarrassed to be here; Big Sean doesn't sound embarrassed enough. Only the marriage of blues licks and chopped'n'screwed vocals on Too Early and Holy Love's sense of drama pique the imagination. "Nothing is forever," sang Nash on 2010's Take Care of Me, one last gift of foreshadowing for us.