FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
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ALTHOUGH one cannot always agree with…
PHOTO CREDIT: W. VanDerper/Def Jam
what Kanye West says and his political ruminations, one cannot fault the music from the man! He has created some of the best albums of the past couple of decades. I admire his creativity and innovation. He is definitely a Hip-Hop pioneer and, debatably, one of his finest moments came in the form of his fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, of 2010. The album celebrated its tenth anniversary in November - and I think it is one that still reverberates and moves people today. With enormous songs like POWER, Monster, and All the Lights in the pack, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a classic, no doubt! More than that, the album is a complete work that is so full of ambition and different sounds. Some critics have likened the album to an artist’s palette and approach – a work that has different styles; much like we differentiate different artistic movements. I would advise people buying My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy on vinyl, as it is well worth investment – and the vinyl is good value for an album that runs in at nearly seventy minutes! Rather than give a big background to the album and the sort of themes that inspired the album, I want to bring in a couple of reviews and a great article that looks back at My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy ten years after its release. 2010 was a year where West was not exactly overly-popular with the media and the public. The album was conceived during West's self-imposed exile in Oahu, Hawaii, at Avex Honolulu Studio following a period of legal and public image controversy.
West took to the stage after Taylor Swift was awarded Best Female Video at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards (claiming Beyoncé should have won the award and not Swift, I believe). He was horrified with the ensuing media response. Amid the widespread negative response to his behaviour, his scheduled tour with Lady Gaga to promote his previous album, 808s & Heartbreak, was cancelled. Maybe West felt that he needed to reinvent himself or immerse himself in work and deliver and album that would get his reputation back on peak and help him to win back some respect and affection. He definitely did that with the masterful My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy! I love the album and every track has its own skin and relevance. I am a big fan of sampling, and we get to hear so many different artists and older songs fused together superbly. Take Devil in a New Dress, which contains samples of Will You Love Me Tomorrow by Carole King and Gerry Goffin (performed by Smokey Robinson); Hell of a Life contains samples of She's My Baby, written by Sylvester Stewart (and performed by The Mojo Men) – it samples of Stud-Spider by Tony Joe White and portions of Iron Man, written by Terence Butler, Anthony Iommi, John Osbourne, and William Ward (performed by Black Sabbath)! In article from last year, High Snobiety reflected on the impact and importance of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy:
“Prior to MBDTF, West had carved out a lane of nerdy blue-collar rap and DIY production. In fact, for a long time, his industry peers respected him more for his beats than his raps. This all changed with his 2004 debut album The College Dropout, which put the Chicago-raised rapper on the map with his quirky backpack raps. His subsequent albums, Late Registration (2005), Graduation (2007), and 808s & Heartbreak (2008), only solidified the certainty that Kanye was onto something great.
“And so what did we get? An album with so many great bars that it pleased hip-hop heads. An album with so many catchy hooks and melodies that it pleased the masses. An album with so much opulence in its production that it pleased producers, composers, and music snobs alike,” Cuchna tells us. “It's hard to make a case against the album. It's bulletproof. And Kanye's ability to actually pull an album like this off and achieve his goal (he did win back the public, generally speaking) speaks to his creative powers, and why he's a level above most working artists today.”
Speaking on the Dissect podcast, Cuchna boldly stated, "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy elevated hip-hop into another stratosphere, and cemented Kanye West as one of the world's premier artistic visionaries [...] The irony of Twisted Fantasy's legacy is that while it's influence is often stated, it's rarely heard, as few (if any) have the imagination and skill required to replicate it. Hundreds of years from now, Twisted Fantasy will be among the finest artifacts of the 21st century."
In the ultimate realization of a troubled genius with a lot to get off his chest, MBDTF Kanye abandoned the stripped-down approach of 808s in favor of maximalist production, grandiose ideas, far-flung samples, and, most importantly, sincere storytelling. “What sometimes gets lost in all of Twisted Fantasy's decadence is the very vulnerable storyline that runs through the album, as Kanye examines fame under a microscope, trying to make sense of how everything he worked to achieve could suddenly be taken away”.
I am going to finish off soon, but I want to introduce a couple of reviews – just to show how critics have reacted to such a phenomenal album. This is what AllMusic wrote when they assessed My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy:
“As fatiguing as it is invigorating, as cold-blooded as it is heart-rending, as haphazardly splattered as it is meticulously sculpted, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is an extraordinarily complex 70-minute set of songs. Listening to it, much like saying or typing its title, is a laborious process. In some ways, it's the culmination of Kanye West's first four albums, but it does not merely draw characteristics from each one of them. The 13 tracks, eight of which are between five and nine minutes in length, sometimes fuse them together simultaneously. Consequently, the sonic and emotional layers are often difficult to pry apart and enumerate. Nothing exemplifies its contrasting elements and maniacal extravagance as much as "All of the Lights." Rattling, raw, synthetic toms are embellished with brass, woodwinds, and strings. It’s a celebration of fame ("Fast cars, shooting stars") and a lament of its consequences ("Restraining order/Can't see my daughter"). Its making involved 42 people, including not one but two French horn players and over a dozen high-profile vocalists, only some of which are perceptible. At once, the song features one of the year's most rugged beats while supplying enough opulent detail to make Late Registration collaborator Jon Brion's head spin. "Blame Game" chills more than anything off 808s & Heartbreak.
Sullen solo-piano Aphex Twin plays beneath morose cello; with a chorus from John Legend, a dejected, embittered West -- whose voice toggles between naturally clear-sounding and ominously pitched-down as it pans back and forth -- tempers wistfully-written, maliciously-delivered lines like "Been a long time since I spoke to you in a bathroom, ripping you up, fuckin' and chokin' you" with untreated and distinctively pained confessions like "I can't love you this much." The contrast in "Devil in a New Dress," featuring Rick Ross, is of a different sort; a throwback soul production provided by the Smokey Robinson-sampling Bink, it's as gorgeous as any of West's own early work, yet it's marred by an aimless instrumental stretch, roughly 90 seconds in length, that involves some incongruent electric guitar flame-out. Even less explicable is the last third of the nine-minute "Runaway," when West blows into a device and comes out sounding something like a muffled, bristly version of Robert Fripp's guitar. The only thing that remains unchanged is West's lyrical accuracy; for every rhyme that stuns, there's one deserving of mockery from any given contestant off the The White Rapper Show. As the ego and ambition swells, so does the appeal, the repulsiveness, and -- most importantly -- the ingenuity. Whether loved or loathed, fully enjoyed or merely admired, this album should be regarded as a deeply fascinating accomplishment”.
If you have been wary of Kanye West in the past or are not sure about his music, I would definitely urge you to give My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy some time. One does not need to know about Hip-Hop or West’s career to appreciates what the album says. It is packed with so many great musicians and sounds that one needs to come back a few times before everything absorbs and is fully realised. I will end by bringing in a Pitchfork review from 2010:
“The haunted, Aphex Twin-sampling "Blame Game" bottoms out with a verse in which Kanye's voice is sped up, slowed down and stretched out. The effect is almost psychotic, suggesting three or four inner monologues fighting over smashed emotions. It's one of many moments on the record where West manipulates his vocals. Whether funneling some of his best-ever rhymes through a tinny, Strokes-like filter on "Gorgeous" or making himself wail like a dying cyborg in the final minutes of "Runaway", he uses studio wizardry to draw out his multitudes. Tellingly, though, he doesn't get the last word on the album. That distinction goes to the sobering tones of Gil Scott-Heron's 1970 spoken-word piece "Comment #1", a stark take on the American fable. "All I want is a good home and a wife and children and some food to feed them every night," says Scott-Heron, bringing the fantasy to a close.
On "POWER", Kanye raps, "My childlike creativity, purity, and honesty is honestly being crowded by these grown thoughts/ Reality is catching up with me, taking my inner child, I'm fighting for custody." The lines nail another commonality between the rapper and his hero. Like Michael, Kanye's behavior-- from the poorly planned outbursts to the musical brilliance-- is wide-eyed in a way that most 33 year olds have long left behind. That naivety is routinely battered on Twisted Fantasy, yet it survives, better for the wear. With his music and persona both marked by a flawed honesty, Kanye's man-myth dichotomy is at once modern and truly classic. "I can't be everybody's hero and villain, savior and sinner, Christian and anti Christ!" he wrote earlier this month. That may be true, but he's more willing than anyone else to try”.
One can argue that West was just as striking on his debut album, The College Dropout (2004), or its follow up, Late Registration (2005). I feel My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was him on another level! Go and listen to the album and, if you can, pick up the vinyl and experience one of the best releases of the 2010s – if not the very best! I think there are plans for West to release his tenth studio album, DONDA, some time this year - although there have been some delays and rumours that may mean we have to wait a while longer. Whilst we await that, investigate the staggering My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and…
IMMERSE yourself in its genius.