Monday, November 22, 2010

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Anyone who knows me knows I'm not the biggest fan of hip-hop. I dabble in it sometimes, but my relationship with rap music has always been rocky. It just takes something incredible, whether it be amazing flow, airtight production, or lush instrumentation, for me to honor a rap tune with repeated listens. Most rappers don't have the creativity (or the right friends) to make their music sound anything but ordinary to me. Of course, most rappers aren't Kanye West.

Kanye's fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, doesn't just have a few songs worthy of repeated listens, the entire album is worth repeated listens. Over and over and over again. Kanye is one of a kind; the perfect storm of creativity, aptitude for the right guest appearances, and pure, unadulterated insanity. Fantasy is an exploration of the complications that being the most talked about pop artist of the last ten years brings. West has always had a penchant for letting the world in on his deepest personal struggles, and that is only exemplified here. He raps about falling in love with a porn star on 'Hell of a Life,' letting the world know "No more drugs for me/pussy and religion is all I need." On 'Blame Game,' the album's most deeply cutting song, he sounds contrite and angry at the same time, as he simultaneously tells his girlfriend he cheated on her and discovers she was doing the same to him. He even addresses the infamous South Park episode on 'Gorgeous,' rapping "...choke a South Park writer with a fish stick." Emotionally, West is all over the place, slipping from manic egotism into soul-cutting depression at the drop of a hat, making this album an incredible look into the deepest recesses of West's convoluted mind.

Much of Kanye's success has always leaned on the guests he features, and the story is no different here. All manner of stars, old and new, make appearances on this record. West's old standby and mentor Jay-Z's two verses are stellar as usual, as are the appearances from old dogs Raekwon and Rick Ross. The standout guest verse to me, however, is newcomer Nicki Minaj's schizophrenic verse on 'Monster.' Minaj switches from sounding cutesy to appropriately monstrous multiple times, and her delivery (Kanye wrote the majority of the verse) makes the verse really memorable. In terms of actual singing, Kanye employs a who's who of today's best, including Rihanna and John Legend.

The production and instrumentation are vintage Kanye West as well. Standout track 'All of the Lights' features grandiose horns and a tight, sick drum line, more than making up for what it lacks in lyrical quality (Fergie's little bit is one of the couple bad guest spots on the record). Overall, the entire album is tightly produced and flows brilliantly. West has really outdone himself this time, delivering a deeply emotional, schizoid album that no one else could have made. 4.7/5.

Standout tracks:

Songs of the Week (some stuff I've been listening to a little more than is healthy this past week.)
The National - Green Gloves - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBhGFu84u90
Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Kings of Leon - Come Around Sundown

Sup friends, sorry about the long break between posts, school destroyed me this past week. But I'm past all that (for now!) so here's a review! First of all though, I saw a ballin' show this past Halloween weekend, as noise-pop titans Sleigh Bells came to BoMA to celebrate Halloween with Columbus, of all the places in the world. It was a super-energetic performance as they performed basically the entirety of their debut album and Album of the Year candidate Treats. Definitely worth the $10 ticket and mega-overpriced drinks to see, but besides the aforementioned drinks BoMA is a great place to see a show and I would definitely recommend checking one out there sometime.

Anyway, here's this week's review, of Come Around Sundown, Kings of Leon's highly anticipated follow-up to their 2008 hit record Only by the Night. KoL have been mainstays on the UK charts since 2002, but it took a wave of smash singles from Only by the Night to garner support for the familial quartet from Tennessee (three brothers and a cousin). That record netted them two Grammy awards, and after a slew of major festival appearances they were back in the studio to record their 5th proper album.

Unfortunately, it appears the hype and increased expectations have taken their toll on the band. Come Around Sundown feels like a re-hashing of what made Only by the Night so popular, but with even less creativity. I wasn't a big fan of Only by the Night, but I still listen to the first two songs from that record, and I feel like those two tracks showcase the band at their creative peak. Sundown also starts off with a flourish, with the energetic foot-tapper "The End" and the new single "Radioactive," but even those songs feel stale. This album has no flow and very little change of pace, it's just the same songs over and over again. The vocals are, as usual, an issue as well. Anyone who has heard Caleb Followill's singing voice knows that it can grate on you after a while, and that is still the case here. I don't hold it against him because it's definitely hard to change the way your voice sounds, but it makes it that much harder to enjoy the music.

And enjoying the music is hard enough as it is. All the songs just blur together, so much so that I have to keep looking at the tracklist to remember what song I'm listening to. By the 5th track I am dozing off, and there really isn't much end in sight for an album that is almost 50 minutes long. Pretty average by typical standards, but far too long for this album. Lyrical themes are pretty standard for KoL; southern life, parties, and failed relationships.

There are a few bright points though. The upbeat 'Beach Side' features a neat little slide guitar lick and is fairly catchy, and 'Pony Up' definitely has some engaging bass/guitar interactions. However, these are just a couple good spots in an album that is bogged down with too much 'been there, done that.' And until the Followills have a few more creative bursts like the one they had when they wrote 'Closer,' I have a feeling the rest of their career will feel like deja vu too. 2.1/5.



Songs of the Week (some stuff I've been listening to more than is healthy this past week):
Local Natives - Who Knows Who Cares (VIDEO NSFW) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAHD6WQSBWo
BIG K.R.I.T. - Viktorious - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnJ3kf8KYaU


Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)