Kanye West, Yeezus, 6/18/13 (TBC because who knows anymore)

ever since 'fergalicious' i am basically a fan of any song that pulls that kind of switch, in fact, the more switches the better

I don't know about people in general but I hate that coda and I feel like the songs that immediately follow it come across as more aimless than they would have had "New Slaves" ended differently

but i hate noisy rap production and anything that people compare to "industrial." the first half sounds like fuckin marilyn manson.

for better or for worse that's kinda the direction kanye's been taking the ship since 'mercy' and 'clique'

and i guess, monster

but i hate noisy rap production and anything that people compare to "industrial."

as a fervent Bomb Squad devotee, I find this attitude depressing

Kanye Depressed

unrepentant geir hongro of rap production. the drums on "black skinhead" make me physically ill.

Think one of the few things I haven't seen covered much is Kanye's delivery - it's SO urgent on the first 4 tracks and then it really dissipates - not entirely but enough to gradually sink the album. He sounds like he's in such a hurry on the first 4, then it sounds like he's rambling around aimlessly.

I've often found w/kanye that the most eyerolly lines, the ones that stick out as mockable, end up being on my fav songs, and that's the case thru the first 4 trax...his delivery overrides the rational ugliness of the croissants and the hampton spouse. And actually because his narratives here are either boring (american psycho played out) or gross or have these awful swaghili puns, the album's v reliant on his delivery to carry them

DJP OTM re: bomb squad

I honestly like Kanye much better in electro mode than in recycled soul sample mode, so that's why I respond so highly to the earlier tracks.

I don't mind that coda on New Slaves, but it just signals a big downshift in energy for the record overall.

airhorn thing on "send it up" is pretty bomb squad-y

that is my favorite part of that song, unsurprisingly

i really really love when the beenie man sample (?) comes in at the end of "send it up"

agreed

listening to it now, and while he's a more striking arranger and a far more memorable lyricist, this does remind me of mid-'00s Beck in its vaguely dystopian soundscapes and synthesis of early modes.

and that, at this point, you're either on board and giving a shit or you're not

seems like a lot of people are on board. slow month i guess.

he's the great uniter, apparently, in crit-land. 20somethings to 50somethings gushing about this record.

yeah its weird

eh i can't begrudge what people who have to get excited about new music get excited about when i don't have a genuine alternative to suggest

white black straight gay everyone loves dicks.

yeah as RAM hype dies down this seems like a good hype train to transfer onto

idk it kinda seems to be judging by checking out ktt and some other forums that there's a bit of a disconnect between the wildly effusive praise from critics and the more mixed (tho still positive) reaction from fans.

like critics are stanning harder than most of his stans right now

There are some reviews which are sort of 6-7-8's - ie Slant, Chicago tribune, New york times, Paste, Pop matters...... the praise is less effusive than last record.

i think the critics did that with MBDTF too (10.0!), but there were probably enough pop-tracks for fans to latch onto xp

I think there is much hyperbole about the hyperbole on this board.

this sounds like the last xiu xiu record

lol otm

i mean i checked out at fabulous muscles but otm in that this is a xiu xiu record

Production-wise, has anyone brought up El-P yet? Because that's what this electro hip-hop dystopia reminds me of.

el-p, death grips, MIA's maya, human after all. weirdly im also thinking of that second cadence weapon album on big dada too, specifically this song - http://bigdada.com/release/cadence-weapon/house-music. the album keeps making me think of a lot of indie rap-electronica things.

Saul Williams

re: xiu xiu - not that far off!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kju7qyQVWdI

The buzz around this record is really not that positive at all among rap fans whose view of the genre doesn't revolve around Kanye

Sounds like we've come full circle on Anticon stuff huh.

Maybe I've missed (difficult keeping up with this thread) but I haven't read much discussion about the sound quality on this, I haven't seen any reviews mention it either. I know Kanye is gaining a reputation for brickwalling and the harshness of the EQ on MBDTW offended a lot of people. This new one is just terrible in that respect. Mad clipping all over the place, anything resembling a beat anywhere throughout is harsh to listen to. I managed to listen to the album for the first time on headphones whilst out and about today and it was a lot more bearable. I'm not sure I can listen to it on the stereo, if I push the volume up to a reasonable level things get messy and headache inducing. A shame because I think there's some great material on the album and some really inventive and layered production which deserves better.

I mean this is pretty shocking stuff http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=41051

― Internet Alan, Tuesday, June 18, 2013 11:06 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This was the first thing I checked for when I played this album and of course was immediately turned off. I think it sounds worse than MBTF. I really want to listen to it loud but just flat-out cannot stand it above 4/10 on the volume. I really just don't get it! Why?!

somebody needs to stage an intervention

I dunno, if any record was gonna be almost served better by that kind of thing wouldn't be this one?

even if you grant that it would only be unintentionally. but idk if going for the death grips aesthetic would serve his message better

like these productions aren't intentionally meant to be noisy and distorted?

this is a lazy comparison but you could point to shaking the habitual as a record where you know, noise and atonality and w/e is used as an artistic tool but one that just also sounds really nice and that you can turn the volume up on without fear.

Oh c'mon "On Sight" is so clearly noisy and distorted on purpose

yeah but it really works against a track like 'black skinhead' where you want the drums to sound utterly massive but instead they just sound hollowed out

The sound is a little more fitting on parts of this album. But his sound issues go way back in his catalog. If you are gonna go the noisy crunchy death grips route then own it! This just seems like a mistake.

otm xp

man listening to this feels like W O R K

:/

^ (to spottie)

there's a difference between intentionally recording distorted sounds that hit a limiter, and doing so by mistake. you can do the former and still have a record that sounds great turned up, whereas nobody's happy with the latter unless idk you just don't care. even psychocandy sounded awesome all the way turned up

do you guys really think Kanye is making "mistakes"? the mind boggles

for sure xp

I forget which critic said this was Kanye's "first" intentionally "imperfect" album

of course he makes mistakes but someone who was/is known as a producer first should be able to make a record sound alright in his sleep