Friday, January 07, 2011
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Kanye's album really really is great. It's COMPOSED. It's orchestrated. It's rap but it's not merely rapping over an unrelenting, unchanging synthesized beat under it. It's a rap album with a lovely cello solo for an interlude, for Pete's sake. Melodic hooks galore. Artistic use of autotune; I kid you not. (I cite the beginning of Lost in the World.) Also, Nicki Minaj growls while rapping in Monster and it's weirdly delightful. It deserves all the Grammies it's going to collect.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
1) tba
2) Gangsters delight;
3) Sugar Hill;
4) Stevie did a rap thing;
?
I listened to this today. I can't say that I've ever heard any of his stuff before (that I'm aware of). On my 1st listening, while his rapping "style" isn't exactly what I prefer, I gradually got more and more drawn in. I was particularly intrigued with the sample used from the King Crimson song "21st Century Schizoid Man" - probably a first for a rap/hip-hop song. I'm going to give the cd a 2nd listen in the next day or so to see if the appeal has stayed with me.
Oh cool, LJ. I like it more every time I listen to it. Love Lost in the World and All of the Lights and Monster and Runaway.
I wasn't familiar with his earlier stuff either, except for the song Golddigger from a few years ago which is in my 5 star list.
Great, now I might have to actually give this a listen...right after I find a turntable and dust off my 21st Century Schizoid Man. Still love the album cover. (Actually saw King Crimson at a small venue in Houston in '94 or thereabouts.)
Dust off your Gil Scott Heron and Aphix Twin too.
Post a Comment