Kanye West - Dark Twisted Fantasy

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.

how is solipsism, broadcast for the world to see, not a hugely accurate encapsulation of 'these times'?

im not saying its enjoyable but it seems extremely apropos for this era

i guess i agree MBDTF sounds pretty cokey too but only in the boring way

― lex lex lex lex lex on the track BOW (lex pretend), Wednesday, December 1, 2010 1:25 PM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

dude everything doesnt require a value judgement. we get that you dont like the album

how is solipsism, broadcast for the world to see, not a hugely accurate encapsulation of 'these times'?

because it's more like a symptom than a description of the disease?

nah, lex is objectively otm. and what's more, the further he proceeds in driving his point(s?) into the ground, the more i find myself agreeing with him. let's hear it one more time, dude. encore! encore!

lex is not 'objectively' otm that this album is boring, because lots of ppl disagree

a more 'objective' look is "this album is cokey." the subjective part is "its good because of this" or "its bad because of this"

because it's more like a symptom than a description of the disease?

― da croupier, Wednesday, December 1, 2010 2:09 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you'll have to explain further. symptom of what?

he is too, darn it! *stamps foot impatiently*

a heavily-praised album that is nothing but "solipsism, broadcast for all the world to see" (if that's what it is) doesn't capture the times, it's emblematic of them.

like, you have "objective descriptions of an album debated for accuracy" then "subjective intepretations of the success of these objective characteristics as successful/unsuccessful strategies" xp

a heavily-praised album that is nothing but "solipsism, broadcast for all the world to see" (if that's what it is) doesn't capture the times, it's emblematic of them.

― da croupier, Wednesday, December 1, 2010 2:14 PM (7 seconds ago) Bookmark

so the comparison with rumors -- if only kanye didnt rhyme with 'bag of dicks'? how does rumors evade this trap?

*whistling in the wind*

have you heard it, deej?

because its way better

xp

i mean, despite the hype of it being the output of two break-ups in the band, it's pretty emotionally varied and could hardly be described as solipsistic.

it's also a genuine pleasure to listen to.

um its not about 'solipsism' its about 'encapsulating times' vs simply being defined by them. i dont see an effort to transcend 'merely' being who you are, being a symptom. and of course 'rumors' is a much better album thats not what we're talking about

i didn't say albums have to encapsulate the times, I just said it's a more impressive accomplishment than making the grandest portrait of your own asshole at a time when everyone's bending over to take a photo of theirs.