Monthly.

The June 'classic' swap review (sorry for delay)

I gave Tim: 'Paul's Boutique' by The Beastie Boys.

Tim gave me: 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' by Kanye West. 

******************************************************************

So....

I have listened to this album several times. 

I was going to say it was so so. 

Patchy. 

Over blown with some fairly acceptable tunes. 

I feel this would be a bit lazy of me. 

There has been a lot of effort gone into it. 

Better give it a decent send off.

I like a good serving of hip hop but more of what I feel is a gentler, more thoughtful brand. The DJ Shadow, Quantic, Blackalicious, De La Soul, Stones Throw, Sound-bombing kind of thing. Ah...Lovely..

Anyway...Kanye West:

My head did nod a lot. 

However the lyrics were dull and often appalling. 

To top it all there are those bloody vocoders again.

He seems like a fellow with a lot to say and is rather fond of himself (to say the least). 

I realise that pop music should be larger than life. Humble doesn't seem to sell.

Mr West has big ambitions and an obvious talent. However I find it all a bit to cluttered and overblown. There is just too much going on. Just as I was beginning to enjoy a certain nugget another rapper pops up and starts blabbering on about some other ‘ridicul-uss...middle finger in the air if you don’t really care.... “ type balls. At times the whole thing made me visibly wince with embarrassment. When it was weak (a fair chunk of the album) It was VERY weak.

I think that Kanye was hoping that if you throw enough raps, rhymes, off kilter keyboard stabs and celebrity guests in the soup that he could create a masterpiece. Don’t forget to sprinkle a bit of soul here and there, ‘put your hands in the air’, a heavy layer of some truly cringeworthy rhymes and some deep political noodlings to show how ironic and clever it all is.

I would have enjoyed it a hell of lot more if it was stripped back and beefed up. Maybe just use one theme at a time. There are some great dark sounds in there and repetitive grooves which I really like. They just didn’t last long enough.

Pompous at times with some light showery, interludes to add a little enjoyment.

My advice?  Mr West think about leaving at least 2 albums worth of guff out and don’t invite your mates.

You overstretched yourself. Ladies seem to like you so why not try not being so rude to them? 

Worth a shot but calm down and focus next time.

The critics may like it. I didn’t. 

Maybe I’m not meant to get it. I didn’t. 

Sorry Kanye.

3/10.