Kanye West - Dark Twisted Fantasy

Is it just me or is the chorus of "Hell of a Life" taken from Sabbath's "Iron Man"?

check yr liner notes

that chorus is so terrible, i might actually like the song if not for that

can someone quickly and in under 30 words summarize precisely what it is that any of you are arguing about anymore?

noone's really been arguing for one or two dozen posts now, maybe we can keep it that way

hey why dont you go fuck yrself

why i oughta

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/files/2008/10/700px-ndleprechaunsvg.png

this thread never quits

it's so appropriate that this thread is one in which no one will ever shut up

lex .... otm!

haha

profoundly unhappy superman locked away in a hideous gilded dungeon of his own making

so this is the rap version of

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/Against-Nature-J-K-Huysmans-Pa20-med.jpg

hey guys whatd i miss

http://newer.gifdump.com/uploads/Seinfeld%20-%20Kramer,%20Out%20of%20The%20Contest.gif

finally heard the first half of this album on the drive to work. biggest first impression: there seem to be drug/alcohol references on pretty much every track? doing lines, trippin off powder, hangovers, etc., which is fitting, because saying it sounds "ambitious" is really just a polite way of saying 'ye sounds coked off his face and felt the need to stuff each track with as many details as possible, which sometimes works really really well ("power," which is monstrous on a good stereo) and other times kinda flops (the first couple tracks, esp. "gorgeous," strike me this way; maybe "all of the lights"). anyway, just a first impression. whoever said that each track has really impressive pieces scattered throughout is OTM -- kanye throws a loooot of different sounds at the wall, and naturally a good # of them stick. but not always.

if the above is tl;dr then basically this album = My Beautiful Drunk Coked-Up Fantasy

There's a Riot Goin' On?

Monster, Devil In A New Dress and Lost In The World are the three i most like

time to poll this shit yet?

reckoner

"Power" would probably still get my vote, that sample will never get old.

But man massive massive LOLZ at Jim DeRo saying that Kanye's little muffled vocoder bit is as good as any Gilmour guitar solo though.

any idea who came up with/did the background vocals in 'power'? they don't sound sampled. so good.

reckoner

i lol'd

Kanye's little muffled vocoder bit is as good as any Gilmour guitar solo though.

that's not implausible -- gilmour sets a low standard

al tbf i don't think anyone is actually suggesting that kanye is a better rapper than nas

*bait set*

that's not implausible -- gilmour sets a low standard

yeah, I was just more loling at DeRo shoehorning a Pink Floyd reference into a Kanye review.

this album ain't fuckin' wit meddle

surprised kanye hasnt shoehorned in a ref to the dark side of his moon to go with his black balls or something equally lamez

black side of the balls

black on both sides iirc

agree w ilxor that the record sounds totally coked out, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. lots of super lush & glossy 70s LA fantasy pop supposedly descends from the white mountains, and i love that shit. thing i notice when i listen to it the view of relationships he describes sounds like what you get into when you're drunk and/or high all the time: chaos, infidelity, pointless fights, reckless behavior, endless parties & nights on the town that often end badly.

This is very far from the streamlined perfection of those '70s El Lay fantasy pop records.

nothing streamlined about it.

i've been saying for years that the middle section of graduation sounds totally coked out - contenderizer everything you're saying about this applies to that! i guess i agree MBDTF sounds pretty cokey too but only in the boring way

well it's not exactly Station to Station, but it's certainly no Be Here Now, either

I think the trick might be that the qualities that were always evident are just newly the selling point (either because he's highlighting it more or because there's less other stuff to praise him for). Like how Michael Jackson was always paranoid as shit but his paranoia wasn't The Reason He's Worth Listening To until HiStory-ish.

Rumours > Station to Station >>>>>>> MBDTF >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>(infinity)>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Be Here Now

what's the hip-hop equivalent of Silk Degrees?

yeah that rings true for me, all the stuff that used to beside the point or subtext with Kanye records is now the whole thing, and what I used to feel like was the content or the substance or the entertainment value is mostly gone. (xpost to da croupier)

at some point i want to cull all the random albums MBDTF has been compared to in this thread and elsewhere and make a poll

I think the trick might be that the qualities that were always evident are just newly the selling point (either because he's highlighting it more or because there's less other stuff to praise him for).

yes i'd totally agree with this.

a lot of what people are praising this record for doing, i'm like...did you not notice it before? have you heard his other albums?

which is what makes it an empty selling point in my eyes

I totally see where you are going lex, but just because this stuff has been done over the course of his other albums doesn't negate the worthiness of this one - I mean, its how he combines and approaches those tactics that make this worth hearing, imho.

at some point i want to cull all the random albums MBDTF has been compared to in this thread

The running theme (aside from like Be Here Now) is that these are all albums that could be experienced as the spewing of an internal crisis for the artist, but they don't HAVE to be. Rumours is a big ol' album of emotional hits with a great backstory, but Lindsey Buckingham doesn't rhyme "Stevie Nicks" with "eat a bag of dicks" on it. There's A Riot Goin' On taps into a cultural anomie far beyond Sly's drug issues. I can see how Kanye's megalomania and self-obsession is indicative of the times, but I don't see it encapsulate it. For people to be throwing around Classic 5 Star A stuff, I'd like to hear how this album transcends Kanye's kanyeosity. Sure, his grandeur and daringness is striking compared to other pop stars today, but there's gotta be more to Importance than Self-Importance.

I'm not saying there isn't a broader context to enjoy MBDTF on, FYI. Only played it once or twice so far - it's possible that Gil Scott-Heron outsourcing at the end actually ties in to the preceding tracks in a rewarding way. I'm just not seeing it in all the banal, superficial praise I'm seeing in the rave reviews.

hope gil gets a good check out of this album

riot goin' on is an especially weird comparison to me because that records weird hermetic inward minimalism is like the total opposite of this records LOOK AT ME show-offy quality

only the drugs, ma'am. only the drugs.