I am an Idiot for not having utilized this space for this purpose before - the Music Review. Yes, I, the champion of fresh music and clattering, attempted hipsterdom, haven't yet used MY OWN BLOG for writing music reviews. And it's is my joy and love. Writing and music and girlfriend and reading.
So, reader(s), eat my heart out, lest Amber Rose sees it - bleeding on my sleeve - and snatches it from me first.
You thought I was on the ropes before, writing poetry at three am. You ain't seen nothing yet. Class in six hours. For the love of Women, I was tucked-in and ready for sleep! And yet I emerge: Writer. Desperate, needing this. Crawling out of bed and turning on my desktop lamp (it's adorable and has a red shade, so help me). This is who I am.
This is who I am now: Music Critic. And what better way to start all of this off than
METASWAG
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy -- Kanye West
by Patrick Beane
It was obvious and unavoidable. Inevitable. How could we not all see it coming?
It is the masterpiece. The comeback from a fall that could only be important in celebrity culture. The Merriweather Post Pavilion. The statement in which he (Yeezy, Our God) declares that the superstar has just as much right to the working man's album as the working man her/himself. Kanye West's new record is exactly what everyone needed to hear. And everyone is loving it.
Rightfully so! Just listen to how ecstatic "All The Lights" is, how menacing "Blame Game" is, how aching and indulgent "Runaway" is. But all of the indulgence pays off - the flourishes and embellishments all contributing to a unified whole, something complete and powerful. This is Kanye at his biggest and most self-important, but his ego is being used to challenge the worth of his bigness and self-importance. An insanity that could only be contained by Twitter, being released and refocused into the strongest set of songs in his career.
Kanye confronts Kanye, discovers Perfection.
The record somehow eclipses the fact that the vast majority of its contents have already been distilled in a slew of weekly single releases and a 35-minute film. It is greater than the sum of its parts, and its parts are pretty great.
Lead single "Power" still retains its punch after all these months, the cold honesty of its coda justifying the bravado of its opening. "Devil In A New Dress" coasts along in haunting fashion, finds Kanye establishing a new comfort zone, his own style. Opener "Dark Fantasy" contains an origin story and a prophecy, all soaked in the most arresting music moment of the year (Nicki's opening monologue notwithstanding). "Lost In The World" is the gloriously cheesy catharsis earned by the whole ordeal.
It's hard to refrain from hyperbole when describing this stuff. But just listen to it!
I mean, the instrumentals alone are killer. So many of these songs take time to relish in the beats, the guitars, the cellos, the synths, the totally blown-up and tortured AutoTune. The songs are confident enough to bask in these moments, and by doing so, become Important. And they communicate with one another, depend on one another. Each song exists because of the song before it, all of them telling the story of Kanye's triumph. He turned this collection of great songs and made it an Album (Of The Year? All-Time?).
That the instrumentals are this bold and still allow breathing room for every name in rap to show up (great turns from Jay-Z, Nicki, Pusha T, and Raekwon) is a testament to the sequencing and production work by Yeezy. And to his skills at the mic! When did Yeezy come into his own like this? His voice is confident and distinctive, and never for a moment is his presence compromised by his guests. No one can deny the magnitude of this accomplishment, holding big songs together and making each of them his own.
This is rap that collects all the chiches and the problems, and spins them into a universal and human thread. Kanye took from the best and worst of his career and the genre, and created something that sounds absolutely essential. Totally of the moment and brand new.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy sounds like what hip-hop needs right now. Something that extends a hand to the past while embracing the present and showing us the future. The possibilities. Radio-friendly and dangerously personal. The title of the record is about as brashly silly and self-important as it gets, but it also rings genuine and true. Kanye is trying to prove that he's the best, but perhaps more importantly: if he's human, then we all are. For the love of humanity, for the love of Yeezy.
And your mom is going to love this album when you play it at Christmas. Your little brother already thinks it's the second coming. Your roommate doesn't mind that it's always playing. Your followers don't even mind it's all you tweet about. You and me, we just have to thank Yeezy. He taught us well.
Score: A+
Conclusions
Readers - forgive me. Rachel - be glad I got all this out of my system before lunch (you are my everything). Ros - come home. Rebecca - let's get creating. Rest of the world - goodnight, I probably love you.
