Kanye West - Dark Twisted Fantasy

I was going to but had to edit it out for space.

And yeah, I agree that Kanye's great on "Gorgeous," but Raekwon feels tacked on, especially after three long 'Ye veses.

Add to that the shitty 3-minute vocoder wanking on "Runaway," the unecessary reprise of the beat on "Dark Fantasy," THREE VERSES before Raekwon on "Gorgeous" (drags too), Fergie's shitty M.I.A. impersanation, etc etc.

― altered boners (rennavate), Monday, November 22, 2010 4:52 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

i don't mind this stuff tbh -- like, i wish that "runaway" built itself into something as good as the second half of "devil in a new dress" but i'm willing to file this stuff under "part and parcel of listening to a kanye album" -- i have more issues w/ "monster" & "so appalled" & like the end of "hell of a life" cuz while i don't mind hearing the superfluous end of kanye's whims, i don't want it to be manifested via people that aren't kanye himself

the thing is, kanyes created songs bigger than his personality. kanye is just not as interesting as all this spilled ink is making him out to be.

i think he's our most interesting pop star, certainly when it comes to conceptualizing pop music itself (gaga would give him a run for his money in the performance aspect) but i found him more interesting back in the "first nigga with a benz and a backpack" days

when he was a contradiction in the world of rap & his self-doubt & self-awareness was filtered thru that, as well as things like his childhood and up bringing

as opposed to his self-doubt & self-awareness being filtered thru... people's reactions to the stupid shit he does

haw, thats an interesting way of putting it. otm

OTM. A lot of this stuff about Kanye being arrogant, insecure, self-questioning, paradoxical, out-of-place was all established by the time of Late Registration. I don't know why he's still getting brownie points for conceding that he sometimes acts like an asshole. There's a lot to like about the new album and one is that the lyrical themes aren't quite as circumscribed as they were on Graduation and 808s, but I still feel he doesn't have many places to go re: fame and haters. The end of the record is almost a confession of that: shit, I don't know what to say about the world beyond my own superstar concerns so here's Gil Scott-Heron from 1970.

And by world I don't mean politics - dumb shit like the government/AIDS line in Gorgeous shows that's not his strong suit - but society, human behaviour, good storytelling, basically anything that isn't about being Kanye West.

This album is still a drag to listen to. He should have called it Homework.

tbh i don't have any problem with either jay-z verse and "monster" is one of my favorite songs this year. "so appalled" definitely drags tho.

feel like the album empties its clip on the first listen

He did the government/ aids thing already on crack music. Seriously, he needs a new idea so fucking much. Get him a marharishi or a gunshot wound, stat.

[don't shoot him.]

is this the first album to get the 10.0 on initial release since pfork became a widely-read publication?

lol at the first post itt

i love listening to "can we get much higher" as this operatic paean to weed

The review picked on a twit that sums up why I am so disappointed with how Kanye's career has gone. He can't be the best ever because he can't dance or sing? Fuck you. You think biggie or rakim or run DMc could? Or outside of hiphop, could the beatles dance? Could Dylan sing? Stevie couldnt dance, he couldnt even fucking see the keys in front of himFuck off with that rockist shit, stop being a bitch and go back to honing your craft.

yeah, but kanye wants to be michael more than he wants to be biggie or rakim, which is fine. huge lol at calling someone a rockist bc they wish they could dance better.

Lol ok yeah. The thing is he is the most important star without these qualities and without ever really attempting to do these things (except 808's autotune) or improving on these things. So why does he not wAnt to acknowledge the skill set that made him the great modern pop star and instead be stuck trying to be a guy who made his only great records pre-sucker mcs? He could be this generations michael but instead wants to be michael and I wish he could tell the difference

i'm with you there

i wish he would concentrate on being this generation's quincy jones

reasonable

is John Mayer this generation's George Benson?

Jamie foxx, cam'ron, freeway and twista as the other 4 of the west 5.

this shit is inexcusable

Which shit exactly?

i can;t say EXACTLY like to the decimal place

but it's APPROXIMATELY or circa ~10

if you wanna try to narrow it down with me so we can be more exactly let me know a hoy hoy

Lol btw it's .0

I still haven't heard this, but I'm so glad Pfork gave it a 10.0 so I could watch you guys get all riled up about it. Good job Pfork!

Think we had the problem regardless of lol ratings

True, but this really kicked it up a notch.

It made it his be here now

to a 9.7?

looking forward to this thread hitting 500 new answers soon

It's thankfully nowhere near being his Be Here Now but some of the reviews are very similar in that they spend more time on the size of the phenomenon than on the music. It sounds so big! He's so famous!

dammit, I was going to avoid this album but all of this complaining makes me want to hear it to see if it's really that bad

it's not

it's really not

I didn't think so but the garment-rending at Pitchfork giving it a 10.0 is making me lol

I ruined my best flannel button up today because of this

It is in no way as embarrassing as 808 but it is possibly worse.. If that makes sense? That said if Kanye was more choosy with his collabs, learnt from dre when he doesn't need to rap and had an editor with some balls to tell him when to end things, it could have been a lot better.

Still more likelyto listen to it at any point in my life ever than any post retirement jay.

i officially have no idea if i'm gonna like this or not

It's not just P4k - nobody on Metacritic has dipped below 88 yet. This is the kind of big, ambitious, flawed record that I'd like to see reviewed in three months' time. That's when the interesting criticism might happen - at the moment it's just variations on wow. (I don't exempt myself from that - if I'd had to turn around a review quickly I suspect I'd have erred on the side of positivity, though not to the extent of 10/10)

I'm prepared to read (and have, in a few places) spirited defenses and reevaluations of 808's, but this album sticks too closely to his tried-and-true.

still think 808s is a great album

It reminds me in places of plastic surgery gone too far - always aiming for bigger and better, he ends up making some potentially great songs ugly and repellent.

still think 808s is a great album

listened to it last night for first time in a while and yeah apart from broing Amazing and Heartless and the final track i enjoy v much the sound of his misery

for one thing it's almost half an hour shorter than this mess