Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Kanye West : My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Album Review

Kanye West's  new album  My Beautiful Dark   Twisted Fantasy was  released  three weeks ago  and i must admit I nearly died when i heard that Pitchfork had given this album a 10 out of 10  to say i wasn't curious to hear it was an understatement. Its  a solid album there's an absolute stack load of featuring  artists  and   with a chunky production bill of three million  dollars it ought to. The album  is a 13 song (well 11  two songs are under 2 mins ) Hip Hop  fest  with  each track being unique there's no  2 same sounding songs , There is no doubt in my mind   that this  guy  has genuine talent and with his bad boy rapper persona and public spotlight forays it  just  draws  more people to his music  so  here i will try to dissect this  latest offering from Kanye West

1-Dark Fantasy4:40
2-Gorgeous 5:57
3-Power 4:52
4-All Of The Lights (Interlude) 1:02
5-All Of The Lights 4:59
6-Monster 6:18
7-So Appalled 6:38
8-Devil In A New Dress 5:52
9-Runaway 9:08
10-Hell Of A Life 5:27
11-Blame Game 7:49
12-Lost In The World 4:16
13-Who Will Survive In America 1:38

1- Dark Fantasy : The album starts off with a Nicki Minaj’s elocution of Roald Dahls’ rework of “Cinderella”using a fake british accent  The track features production from Wu Tangs RZA , it also has a tasty sampling of Mike Oldfield's "In High Places." . The piano  work  and background sounds are awesome  This is the track that introduces the tone of the album to the listener. Kayne sounds energetic and passionate as ever. Musically, one of my favorite tracks on the album. this track sets the tone for the album in the sense that it is manic, ingenious, and incredibly creative.

2-Gorgeous : This song is pretty damm special also Gorgeous features Kid Cudi & Raekwon as guest spots. Kid Cudi handles the vocal duties well on the hook while Kanye and Raekwon  share  the fourth verse duties.  This track is a great hip-hop track in the traditional way. I think Kid Cudi and  Kanye West duo well together i really enjoyed Erase Me on Kid Cudi's album

3-Power :  Kanye is truly back to rapping and all three verses prove even though his ego may be big, he has earned every right to be the way he is.  This track is truly amazing. featuring a sample from King Crimsons mind blowing song "21st Century Schizoid Man" as well as soulful backdrop from Dwele This is easily West's best rap performance in sometime and the track proves to be an exceptional choice for a first single by all means. West keeps "Power" from sounding predictable by changing the pace slightly on the third verse and adding strings and piano . Powerful

4-All The Lights Interlude :  Piano and string  instrumental  that lasts about a minute 

5-All Of The Lights : I shudder to think what this cost  him  is certainly the biggest track  with no less than eleven musicians credited this track features Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Fergie, The-Dream, Ryan Leslie, Elton John, Charlie Wilson, Kid Cudi, John Legend, Tony Williams & Elly Jackson   The hook is well handled by  Rihanna  , Kid Cudi does a short interlude, Fergie drops a breif verse, Alicia Keys and Elton John combine at the end (most audibly) . This track is a prime example of how great Kanye is as a producer being able to combine different vocals being used as instruments to create one radio  friendly track.

6 -Monster : Feat. Bon Iver, Rick Ross, Jay-Z & Nicki Minaj - This track is another that seems to have been pushed for a single Each artist provides a great verse, Kanye West explains how much effect his presence has, Jay-Z tells how powerful he is in the rap and Rick Ross gets us ready for whats to come. The listener will either hate or love Nicky Minaj's verse, which is more animated than any other artist on the entire album.. Bon Iver does a great job doing a haunting intro and outro.. . The beat is infectious and "big.. All of the verses are exceptional and the expletive laden hook is - well - addictive.

7- So Appalled : With another star studded cast including Jay-Z, Pusha T, Prynce Cy Hi, Swizz Beatz & The RZA  give the track an extra edge that is much appreciated.  When it comes to pure hip-hop in its most traditional sense (no bridges, over done choruses or beats). Each verse from the MCs come off as if they brought their best effort to their words and flows. 

8-Devil In A New Dress :  Devil In a New Dress trims down the guest list to only Rick Ross, and turns out to be another good performance. The production work is exceptionally put together here, anchored by an excellent sampling of "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" (Smokey Robinson). What I like most about "Devil In a New Dress" is the `stream of consciousness' approach taken by Mr. West; it is a hookless performance This is probably my least favorite track on the album but it is still an above average track

9- Runaway :  This song is the longest track on the album reaching about 9 minutes in length with the last 3 and a half minutes being instrumental. it features Pusha T . This song is the most personal on this album and is a straight message to everybody that has hated on Kanye. . If you think Kanye was done with auto-tune, you are dead wrong. However, he uses the auto tune effect not for singing but like another instrument he also uses a  simple piano beat behind the Pete Rock sample .KanyePusha T adds some much needed flow. Kanye's flow is not the greatest and his lyrics and lines seem to be very amateur


10-Hell Of A Life : Wow sings a song by himself for a change samples "She's My Baby," proving to be another solid performance. Here Kanye talks about marrying a porn star living the life he thought he would ever want to live. " The chorus is great. However, the music is what comes across to me the most. It makes the song. . Come with him and live a hell of a life. It's a fantasy, but could very well be lived out by any star Here we take a step back from the reality of Kanye and back into the fantasy life. This track has the most grittiest with distorted sounds and a great hook by Kanye. It's really an interesting song that seperates itself from the rest of the album


11-Blame Game : I am a sucker for this song  it was one of  the songs  that  i really enjoyed goes for about 8 mins  the piano  is good once again. It is a confessional track where Kanye admits the wrongs he has done during his past relationship (possibly with Amber Rose). The first John Legend verse is heartfelt  while the second verse Kanye confesses. The third verse is a combination of Kanye's voice in different pitches. Amongst all the seriousness of the song, the track ends with humorous skit from Chris Rock.

12-Lost In The World : The most auto tuned track on the album it's a great track.features Bon Iver once more on perhaps the most experimental cut on the album.The song starts off with a slow excerpt from Bon Iver's song "Woods" and builds up from there. A very fitting way to end off a great album. Full of loud African drums and great singing from both artists I love the premise of the song and the overall message. Kanye is just a lost soul trying to find his rightful place in the world and an overall understanding with life.

13-Who Will Survive In America : Continues where the production work of "Lost in the World" left off with a spoken word interlude painting atop it.

Conclusion : Enjoyed about 6  songs off the album (tracks 1,2,3,5,10,11) and  there wasn't anything there that made me want to skip tracks , I still fell that Pitchfork needs to reconsider their rating system  this album  promoted to instant classic is premature I'm not sure it will stand the test of time yet (10 is adventurous )  but i  will say that the man  himself Kanye West  does have incredible talent and  judging  by the samples he uses in his tracks has  some good  music taste .  But with a all star line up that's used to piggy back each others  careers you seriously start to ask yourself  how many minutes of this album is Kanye actually singing ,its filled with guests its nearly a compilation album ,I prefer Kid Cudi's Man On The Moon II for this year , at least he sings most songs and probably had  one tenth of the budget I'm going to receive hostile opinions on this I guess  to those people all I have to say is sorry in advance Nether the less a solid listen  7.8  /  10

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