RATING: 9.7/10
Kanye West’s new album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, his first album since 808’s & Heartbreak, his least commercially popular album, and a string of controversies after 808’s, is an avant-garde, experimental masterpiece. With indie folk loops, eloquent lyrics, and great rapping, MBDTF is sure to be among the great albums of 2010. Kanye West’s background as a producer is also clearly visible with excellent beats and dazzling production.
Kanye West became infamous in 2009 with his controversy at the VMA’s; he took the microphone from country-pop singer Taylor Swift in front of millions of viewers. According to Michael Preston of NBC in New York, “started 2010 in exile after his MTV VMA meltdown” (www.nbcnewyork.com). Furthermore, just two years ago West’s mother passed away, leading to emotional turmoil which was only exacerbated by the VMA incident, and made even worse by an incident when West heavily criticized George W. Bush on national television. It could be said that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a product of the negative feelings which West bottled up during the last two years.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is widely looked upon as a great comeback album (www.popeater.com). Senior Stephanie Verheyen said that, despite Kanye West’s past controversies with the VMA and with George W. Bush, “people still like him”. Many of the songs on his new album, such as “Lost in the World”, featuring indie folk rocker Bon Iver and “All of the Lights”, featuring R&B singer Alicia Keys, rapper Kid Cudi, and pop star Elton John, convey feelings of sadness and confusion, showing the importance of emotions in West’s album. Junior Adam Sneath viewed the album as a transformation of West, saying that “I thought it was different from his traditional style, but I liked it. It was kind of like a new Kanye.”
The production of the album, has been heavily praised by music sources such as MTV, with innovative sounds which Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times described as “Picasso-like, fulfilling the Cubist mandate of rearranging form, texture, color and space to suggest new ways of viewing things” (www.latimes.com). Senior Vijay Venkatesan said that “the production is great.”
The songs in MBDTF are also extremely consistent, different from 808’s& Heatbreak, which became a dichotomy between great songs and awful songs. Junior Paul Austin said that “Lost in the World was really good. Gorgeous is like my favorite. The whole album is amazing.” Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone says that, in MBDTF, Kanye is “blowing past all the rules of hip-hop and pop”, creating songs never seen before in the genre of hip-hop (www.rollingstone.com).