Kanye West discussion

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Top 5 shit fo sho

1. Push the Sky Away
2. MBV
3. Wakin On A Pretty Daze
4. Yeezus
5. Trouble Will Find Me

IMO
 
Good choices, all. I'm just being hyperbolic what with the newness. I'm something like five listens in and am so in love.

To be perfectly honest, I do think there's a good chance Kveikur is the better album released yesterday. But December is a long way away.
 
Okay, so I got this today. I've listened to it a few times. I have a feeling that the general public isn't going to get it as a whole and that it'll be a commercial failure while being a critically acclaimed album. What I mean to say is AGRGRGGRGRGHGHGHGHGHGHGRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGHHSOOOOOGOOOOOOOD ARGHGHGHHGGHYPERBOLEARGHGHGHG!!!!!
 
Got my CD copy from Amazon today. I'm feeling the lack of artwork. It's clean and simple and the red tape stands out nicely. It's like the polar opposite of MDBTF.
 
Yeezus is good stuff.

But I'm most thankful for this thread for making me realize there was a new Nick Cave record out this year. How the fuck did I miss that?
 
I have no idea. Please go listen to it, multiple times. A subtle, sumptuous record that stands among his best IMO. Love the production and use of negative space to establish a melancholy atmosphere.
 
Listening to it now and I recognize the first track from a few months back. First single? This thing isn't a complete mystery to me then.

Holy fuck though, it's good.
 
Yeah I think that one came out in January.

Wait till the last couple minutes of Jubilee Street. THAT is the "holy fuck" moment of 2013 so far.

Well, that and the toms on Black Skinhead. That shit is unreal.
 
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Dammit, Kanye, I knew it was a bad idea for you to breed.
 
Blue Ivy and North West both sound like porn names. Bad start for both of them.

I think they'll be in a Destiny's Child-esque girl group together at some point. North will end up being the underground one when they break up.
 
This was the soundtrack to my Vegas trip. Listened to it on the plane there and back, and we had it bumpin in the hotel room a few nights. It's nasty. I love it. Even darker, even harder. I also really like that it doesn't overstay its welcome. This is the shortest album of his career, by far, and it works. Hits you quick.

After maybe four full listens and a few other scattered listens, the only song I'm not feeling yet is Guilt Trip.

On Sight, Black Skinhead, New Slaves, I'm In It, Blood On The Leaves, and Bound 2 are all tremendous.
 
Proof that this album is badass:

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“Everybody feel a way about K but at least y'all feel something”
 
My thoughts now I've spent a bit more time with it.

It's okay. I respect it more than I like it. I respect that he's in a space where he is doing what he wants, going against what people expect of him, going with the whole no promotion, no singles, no cover/booklet thing. But for me this is the first time since I've become a rabid fan (a few months after MBDTF's release) that he hasn't been able to back up his arrogance with the music.

I don't really like the production throughout. On Sight with its distorted electro. Black Skinhead has a cool tribal thing going on but it's pretty skeletal and doesn't get me pumped like Kanye's vocals do. I Am a God continues in the same vein. I was excited by New Slaves originally because we only got snippets in the projections. But the beat never really picks up, even as Kanye does. The Frank Ocean outro feels exactly that, an outro, disconnected from the song. Hold My Liquor can't even Hold My Attention, the guitar solo does absolutely nothing for me whatsoever. Rubbish guest spots from Chief Keef and Justin Vernon. Even if I like but don't really love that opening four, Hold My Liquor is still a massive bummer coming after it.

I'm In It veers dangerously close to trap. Blood on the Leaves you all love... and it's one of the better beats on the album. But it still doesn't feel like anything special to me, which is what's always set Kanye apart. I feel like it's a bit that could have been on any GOOD Music project. The last 90 seconds is totally superfluous, almost as painful as the lengthy vocoder solo in Runaway.

I like Guilt Trip quite a bit, with its dark, almost anxious beat, twisted vocoder, that twirly synth bit, and Kid Cudi ends it nicely. Send It Up flat out sucks. I'm sure it will surprise no one that Bound 2 is my favourite track on the album. After like 36 minutes of Kanye being aggressive, angry and anti-everything Bound 2 comes as a welcome relief. From his opening line he sounds like he's taken a breath and just settled down a bit. Sort of like, well the Kanye of old is still there, even if he's taking things in a different direction. Like Charlie Wilson's spot as well.

808s is the only album of his I'll take it over, and that's because I've hardly spent any time with 808s. None of the songs would rank in my top whatever Kanye songs list. I will take Cruel Summer over Yeezus without a moment's hesitation, and White Dress destroys everything on those two records and I wish someone else would acknowledge its existence.

The non tl;dr version is I'm still very underwhelmed by it and that makes me sad but overall HURRY UP WITH MY DAMN CROISSANTS makes it worth the price of admission alone.
 
More thoughts. Sorry. Cobbler can't help it.

LM, with you on Guilt Trip. I'd say it and Bound 2 are my favs.

But I'm feeling a lot of what Fantano had to say about the album. Totally with him about the beat on Black Skinhead. I so wish it was heavier. I disagree that anything goes as hard as Mercy or Cold.

Lyrically... for me Kanye's at his best when the rhymes are really sharp, fast, witty (Gorgeous is probably my favourite lyric of his. One of my favourite parts of the Art of Rap doco). On Yeezus, there's some memorable humourous lines, like the aforementioned croissants, sweet and sour sauce, Bobby Boucher, etc. Love the opening line too, "Yeezy season approachin' fuck whatever y'all been hearin" and also love the lines LM quoted from Blood on the Leaves. But aside from Black Skinhead and New Slaves it's just nowhere near Watch the Throne/MBDTF.
 
Cruel Summer over Yeezus? Good Lord no. The entire second half is garbage. First half would have made a damn good EP but literally everything else is an afterthought.

Forgot to mention that Hold My Liquor is probably in my top 3 now. I don't know what happened. The lyrics show welcome vulnerability, the guitar solo is beautiful, then there's that wonderfully atonal distorted screech that serves as a backbeat. It's not perfect but I love it to pieces.

Fantano has horrible taste in music and every point he made in his review was wrong.
 
Does anyone else find "I keep it 300, like the Romans" especially funny?
 
This album will definitely be in my year end Top 5. I LOVE it.

However, like previous albums, I'm still having problems reconciling with the misogynistic lyrics. I know we've had this discussion before, but how do others feel about that?

Also, compared to other artists out there, do you feel that Kanye gets a pass, so to speak, from critics and the public regarding his lyrics?
 
Also, compared to other artists out there, do you feel that Kanye gets a pass, so to speak, from critics and the public regarding his lyrics?

To an extent. It hasn't always been this way, he was a pretty poignant lyricist for the first couple of albums but really started gravitating towards punchline rap with Graduation and never recovered. People think he's funny, musically creative and slightly insane so most let him off the hook, but yeah, I wouldn't mind another album of socially conscious Kanye.
 
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