Last week we took a brief hiatus, as I had no commute Monday morning.
Why?
Whelp, a bunch of provinces in Canada decided that there should be a holiday to spend with your family. As a result, Family Day was born. Every body gets paid to sit and home and come up with plausible excuses for why they can't spend this free time with their families.
It was fun.
I played some Minecraft and worked on Databats tunes. Great times.
I digress, however. Here we are with the last Monday Morning Commute of February. For various reasons, many of which I consider relevant temporally, we'll be discussing Kanye West's My Dark Beautiful Twisted Fantasy. I quite like this one. Hit the jump with me, and we'll get started.
baby kanye had all sorts of SWAG
Monday Morning Commute #4 : My Dark Beautiful Twisted Fantasty - Kanye West
this is an interesting cover, eh?
Monday Morning Commute #4 : My Dark Beautiful Twisted Fantasty - Kanye West
Album: My Dark Beautiful Twisted Fantasy
Artist: Kanye West
Artist: Kanye West
Release Date: November 22, 2010
Recorded: 2009 - 2010 Avex Recording Studio (Hawaii) Electric Lady Studios, Glenwood Place Studios (California), Platinum Sound Recording (New York)
Producers: Kanye West, Jeff Bhasker, Bink, DJ Frank E Emile, Jay-Z, Kyambo Joshua, L.A. Reid, Lex Luger, Mike Caren, Mike Dean, No I.D., Gee Roberson, RZA, S1
Performers: (brief selection. see the wiki for the whole list.) Kanye West, Drake, The Dream, Dwele, Fergie, Elly Jackson, Elton John, Alicia Keys, Kid Cudi, John Legend, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Chris Rock, Amber Rose, Gil Scott-Heron, Teyana Taylor, Justin Vernon, Tony Williams
Peak Chart Position: 1 (US, Canada,)
Label: Roc-a-Fella, Def Jam
Listening Device: iPhone 4, them stupid earbuds.
Track Listing:
1. Dark Fantasy
2. Gorgeous (ft Raekwon, Kid Cudi)
3. Power*
4. All of the Lights (Interlude)
5. All of the Lights (ft. Rihanna, Fergie)*
6. Monster (ft. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, Bon Iver)*
7. So Appalled (ft. Jay-Z, Pusha T, Prynce CyHi, Swizz Beats, RZA
8. Devil in a New Dress (ft Rock Ross)
9. Runaway (ft. Pusha T)*
10. Hell of a Life
11. Blame Game (ft. John Legend)
12. Lost in the World (ft. Bon Iver)
13. Who Will Survive in America
*singles
Kanye West is an American Rapper, singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, director and fashion designer. His career started on the other side of the console as a producer for Roc-a-Fella records, in the year 2000. After gaining notoriety for producing "This Can't Be Life" on Jay-Z's The Dynasty: Roc La Familia, Kanye's work went on to be featured prominently on Jay-Z's The Blueprint. His work in the 00's proved to be a goldmine for Roc-a-Fella as he went on to produce records for Talib Kwali, Mos Def, Ludacris, DMX and Monica over a very short period of time. West struggled for some time transitioning to the role of the artist, as record companies weren't willing to bite due to his lack of "street image", but after continued success with Jay-Z, he was eventually given his opportunity.
I've been a casual fan of Kanye since sometime around when "Jesus Walks" dropped. It's a gritty little beat with an epic video. Quite nice. As for this album, my interest was piqued after watching a live performance of "Runaway" on Saturday Night Live.
The use of samples there really hooked me. I love me some Kanye sampling. So while I missed "Power", the lead single from this offering, I proceeded to go out and grab the album pretty shortly thereafter.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (ugh I hate typing that without the punctuation) is 'Ye's fifth studio album, following 2010's live VH1: Storytellers performance album and 2008's 808's and Heartbreak. Kanye's first album in 2 years was an anticipated one, as the troubled star had spent some time out of the limelight after a series of events from his mother's death to the Taylor Swift/VMA's debacle had him laying low for a little while.
West ended up blockbooking Avex Recording Studio's entire facility (3 studios in total) in Hawaii for an indefinite period of team, and enlisting a who's-who of hip-hop to create an album of "music by committee". Engineers were on hand 24 hours a day, and Kanye often slept at the studio, recording when inspiration struck. The process was a very fluid and modular one, with West recording multiple songs concurrently in different rooms of the studio. As inspiration rose or faded, he'd move from room to room, laying down vocals, working on beats or supervising recording. A "no tweeting, emailing or talking" rule was instituted at the studio to prevent leaks, but this is the age of leaks, and it obviously didn't work. Kanye was livid, remarking "We're never going to work here again! We're going to work in hotel rooms!" it sounds funny, but he did it on his record Watch the Throne with Jay-Z.
The album is in its way an amalgam of his work to date, a grand sweeping pastiche of symphonic elements, samples, baroque and beats - with a dash of electro for fun. It's also fairly pop. Whatever you want to call it, it's definitely Kanye. It's also incredibly dense, in that West is certainly swinging for conceptual territory with this one. Lyrics are rife with rather introspective and mature themes like excess, celebrity, death, self doubt, decadence and hedonism. It's all very zeitgeist-y... oh, and a little misogynist.
Musically, it's quite ambitious, blending together a variety of styles rather seamlessly. While sticking to his tried and tested tools, 'Ye incorporates elements from various styles of current and retro music. West's MPC fits incredibly well amidst horn sections and string parts. Vocoders and Grand Piano? Yes Please. It's an interesting dichotomy between high and low throughout, and handled in a rather intelligent manner. It makes for quite a few in depth listens. It must be said, Kanye is likely the reigning master of the sample. While not as prominent as they are in his last few albums, their use in M.B.D.T.F. are so fantastic it's hard to argue with their usage. It's hooky and it's broody. It's lush and it's minimal. It's beautiful and dark (heh, see what I did there?) It's all rather philosophical
kanye interrupts a real life philosoraptor
It's a lengthy listening, clocking in at 68:36, but most of the time you don't feel it. While there are plenty of albums over an hour that have filler and tend to drag, that isn't the case here. While the argument could be made that the album starts off a little slowly, I think it creates a pretty solid "narrative" at least from a musical standpoint. "Dark Fantasy" is essentially your typical short voice over hip hop intro, but hey, Nicki Minaj is cool. "Gorgeous" starts to pick things up a bit - it's really hooky. The inclusion of the guitar loop is really neat, and the chorus is nice. Things really pick up with "Power", though. Matter of fact, while I somehow didn't really take to this song when it first came out, it's essentially a synecdoche for the entire album, and a damn good one at that. The samples ("21st Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson and "Afromerican" by American funk band Continent 6) are quintessential Kanye. Individual elements of the song all harken back to his roots - chanting ala "Jesus Walks", a harsh, choppy beat like "Crack Music" the thick brooding instrumentation that ties back to 808's... the whole thing informs this work quite well. It's great.
The album gets pretty bombastic at time. "All of the Lights" is huge, both in terms of number of performers and musical ambience. Giant Horn section. At the same time, the record can also be quite minimal. "Runaway" while at its peaky is quite noisy, is pretty quiet for the majority of the song, centering around a quiet laid-back beat and a piano.
One of the best parts of this album outside its complexities is the variety of performances on it. While it stands as quite obviously Kanye's best work to date, it features great work by a tonne of additional people. Nicki Minaj, for instance - her verse in "Monster" is legendary, plain and simple. Rihanna and Bon Iver add so much depth and texture to "All of the Lights. Kid Cudi and Raekwon both tear up "Gorgeous". The depth of great performance by various artists really creates an aura about this album that's hard to shake. And on the point of that, top notch mixing has each performer sounding both individual and yet good in the context of the album. This takes tweaking, it's not as easy as it sounds. Bonus points for the subtle distortion on the vocals, and the less than perfect double-tracking. Both of these facets add a nice layer of authenticity to the listen.
Stand-Out Tracks:
- "Power"
When this track drops, it drops. I'm not sure I've actually ever heard a more aptly titled song, this one genuinely sounds powerful. The bassline is fat, and hooky - great punctuation. Several vintage rhymes in this one, and over all just a great, great performance.
- "All of the Lights"
The toms based beat in this one is wicked, and sets the tone for an aggressive, frantic tune. This is one of the tracks where the ensemble cast really shines. While Kanye takes the brunt of the rhyming and handles it well, Rihanna's vocals really set a fine melodic tone to the track, and Fergie's verse is a lot of fun. I love love love the trumpets, and really think every album should have an epic trumpet track. Just sayin'.
- "Who Will Survive in America"
I think the only thing I don't like about this track is its placement on the album. Closing things off, it seems a bit of a tonal outcast, mostly due to being "instrumental". Of course, now let me correct myself and say it's not instrumental, it just features vocal samples of the poem "Comment No. 1" from Gil Scott-Heron. The themes of the poem fit pretty well within the album's quasi-apocalyptic, somewhat nihilistic tone, and were it the opening salvo I think it would set the stage rather nicely. Either way, it's great poem, and features a sick beat that I can never keep still during.
(Honourable Mention: "Monster" Nicki Minaj's verse. splurt. "Hell of a Life" pseudo-Iron-Man samples? Kim Kardashian precognition? arpeggiators? boom.)
Trivia:
- The beat for "Runaway" is a pretty deep cut of a sample, featuring the first 10 seconds of "The Basement" by Pete Rock & CL Smooth. It's sped up, 'cause it's Kanye.
- Kanye contacted Jason Vernon from Bon Iver to clear a sample of "Woods" the two got to talking about music and life in general, as well as their approaches to recording. They quickly hit it off, and after inviting Vernon to Hawaii, the two eventually collaborated on 9 of the tracks on this record.
- Art for the album was of high priority for Kanye, and he sought out George Condo to produce it in entirety for the album. The cover, a characterized portrait of Kanye straddled by an armless phoenix (or so they say) was rejected by multiple stores, which was evidently West's goal. To create the rest of the art for the record, Condo and West would meet for hours daily and listen to rough cuts of the record. Nifty.
Verdict:
This is by far Kanye's best work to date. It's a sprawling continuum of his career, and it sounds great. It was a pretty big omission at the Grammy's that year considering it's most likely the best release of the year. If you haven't, I definitely advise giving it a listen, though be warned, it has its misogynist moments.
Stand-Out Tracks:
- "Power"
When this track drops, it drops. I'm not sure I've actually ever heard a more aptly titled song, this one genuinely sounds powerful. The bassline is fat, and hooky - great punctuation. Several vintage rhymes in this one, and over all just a great, great performance.
- "All of the Lights"
The toms based beat in this one is wicked, and sets the tone for an aggressive, frantic tune. This is one of the tracks where the ensemble cast really shines. While Kanye takes the brunt of the rhyming and handles it well, Rihanna's vocals really set a fine melodic tone to the track, and Fergie's verse is a lot of fun. I love love love the trumpets, and really think every album should have an epic trumpet track. Just sayin'.
- "Who Will Survive in America"
I think the only thing I don't like about this track is its placement on the album. Closing things off, it seems a bit of a tonal outcast, mostly due to being "instrumental". Of course, now let me correct myself and say it's not instrumental, it just features vocal samples of the poem "Comment No. 1" from Gil Scott-Heron. The themes of the poem fit pretty well within the album's quasi-apocalyptic, somewhat nihilistic tone, and were it the opening salvo I think it would set the stage rather nicely. Either way, it's great poem, and features a sick beat that I can never keep still during.
(Honourable Mention: "Monster" Nicki Minaj's verse. splurt. "Hell of a Life" pseudo-Iron-Man samples? Kim Kardashian precognition? arpeggiators? boom.)
Trivia:
- The beat for "Runaway" is a pretty deep cut of a sample, featuring the first 10 seconds of "The Basement" by Pete Rock & CL Smooth. It's sped up, 'cause it's Kanye.
- Kanye contacted Jason Vernon from Bon Iver to clear a sample of "Woods" the two got to talking about music and life in general, as well as their approaches to recording. They quickly hit it off, and after inviting Vernon to Hawaii, the two eventually collaborated on 9 of the tracks on this record.
- Art for the album was of high priority for Kanye, and he sought out George Condo to produce it in entirety for the album. The cover, a characterized portrait of Kanye straddled by an armless phoenix (or so they say) was rejected by multiple stores, which was evidently West's goal. To create the rest of the art for the record, Condo and West would meet for hours daily and listen to rough cuts of the record. Nifty.
Verdict:
This is by far Kanye's best work to date. It's a sprawling continuum of his career, and it sounds great. It was a pretty big omission at the Grammy's that year considering it's most likely the best release of the year. If you haven't, I definitely advise giving it a listen, though be warned, it has its misogynist moments.
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