So I downloaded Kanye's new album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy this afternoon and listened to it on my way from Philly to NYC on the Amtrak, it was the perfect place to listen to the album all the way through. (Which is clearly the way he designed the music to be listened to.) I threw it on my Bose nose canceling headphones and let it right, high quality sound, trying to completely absorb every nuance of the production from each kick-drum to the fuzzed out auto-tuned wailing at the end of Runaway. The Verdict: The album is epic, grandiose, ambitious, genre-bending and an orgasm for the ears. However, for me it feels missing something that I expect from Kanye (I'll get to that in a minute.) I can feel the passion and the intensity and work that he poured into this album just seep out of every song. Each song feels like they've been worked and re-worked and re-worked and re-worked and re-worked until he got them to a place he was happy with. I know understand why he slept in the studio, (look I'm not a producer, but I've worked with them, and I know how painstaking it is to make a song, and for each of the songs to feel as bombastic and boom, or subtle and emotional as Kanye does is amazing.)why he defended his work so passionately. It is art, it is saying f*ck what everyone else says, I want to make music for me, from me, in a cathartic, amazing way. I think the one thing that is missing for me is the one thing that I don't think Kanye can get back. His innocence. The songs are powerful, have meaning and emotion, but you can still tell that he's angry, he knows how important he is and how society judges him unfairly. (He has done more for Hip-Hop than anyone else in the last decade, he is pushing the genre of Hip-Hop and Pop and Electronic music to another level.) You can tell the burden of Fame and seeing how other "cultured" people regard him is wearing on him. When he wants to try his hand at design, which he has a personal passion for and I could only imagine is more qualified than half of the starlets who ruined his chance for him, he was shunned and chided by a community he is trying to boost. Those sort of events that happen in the public spotlight just have molded and changed the Kanye we once knew. The joy and innocence and happiness that made College Dropout, Late Registration and Graduation so appealing, and which made it easier for the listener to enjoy and absorb his more personal and darker songs, is gone. On MBDTF he clearly has a protective shell on from what he's been through the last few years. The songs are great, amazing productions, great beats, some great guest performances (although I do think Jay-Z seemed a little flat compared to the other guests, and Swizzy's voice is so grating I think it makes my brain bleed.) Overall 9/10, maybe even 9.5/10 it's hard to say that something seems missing from such an high reaching album that clearly is a labor of love and passion and artistic expression. If the album had a personality, I'm just afraid instead of wanting me to party with it, or teach me life lessons or laugh and chill with it...it would be giving me and the rest of the world the middle finger. By the way, I still love Kanye West and he and I both know he's top 5 dead or alive.
Here is one of my favorite tracks from the album...
All Of The Lights by Albou88
Different feel on this one...
KANYE -SO APPALLED FT. JAY-Z,PUSHA T,SWIZZ BEATZ,RZA,CYHI THE PRYNCE by Abu Bakar
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