A kung fu fighter in a disco

I really like it. The more autotune the better as far as I'm concerned.

Favourite tracks: "Love Lockdown", "Say You Will", "Coldest Winter", "Robocop", "Heartless"

Least favourite: generally any of the uptempo ones. "Amazing" is annoying. I have never listened to their 8 minute 'bonus freestyle' at the end and I am planning on pretending it doesn't exist.

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'Heartless' is where the autotune really starts to grate on me - there's an awesome panpipe thing going in the background but the vweee-vwooor on the chorus is too distracting. Perhaps he should have got Cher to do backing vocals instead?

I really like 'Say You Will' - massive long epic right at the start! Also I like the fact that there's hardly any snare drum ANYWHERE = scientifically more emo.

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(And where snare drum replaced by tribal drum = EVEN MORE emo)

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"Say You Will" is BRILLIANT for trudging home from work at night when it's freezing.

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I really love the use of autotune in 'see you in my nightmares' (GOTH JAMZ): the way the voice veers into that burbling soar punctuated by certain words grated out so hard that the autotune doesn't even work.

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Oh yes that's a good one! There's a whole verse on one of the other ones where the autotune is being overloaded w/ Kanye's misery. It is great!

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'See You In My Nightmares' is definitely a standout - the rawness when their voices crack! 'Welcome To Heartbreak' is another highlight for me, just cuz that synth melody is GORGEOUS.

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(have to say that 'Nightmares' is VERY NEARLY scuppered by Weezy going "you think your shit don't stink but you are Mrs PU" oh god just SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP)

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The endless live thing at the end is...just terrible in every way.

I love 'Amazing' because it's like an inverted version of Young Jeezy's 'Put On' - Kanye's guest verse there (which is ushered in by this sort of awkward episodic pause and gently abstract piano) is the first time I heard him really going hard with the Autotune, and it all comes full circle on 'Amazing' with Jeezy's "proper" rapping ushered in by the awkward episodic pause and distant howling wolves. Um, all that said I think 'Put On' >>>>>>>>>>> anything on 808s (and Kanye's verse there >>>>>> any of Kanye's verses on 808s). But that's more because 'Put On' is Single of the Year material, and 808s is just an excellent curio.

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I love Kanye's bit in "Put On" but the rest of it is a grind - I think it's Jeezy's voice, it's too thick and croaky for me. (I liked it on "My President" cos he sounded like he'd been up all night yelling).

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jeff-worrell.livejournal.com

Is "Amazing" the same song as "Amazin'" on The Recession? (I've not heard 808s yet but the Jeezy track is excellent.)

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On first listen, I seriously love this, in much the same way as I love Luomo's 'the present lover', which is my go-to standard for, uh, 'records made infinitely more emotionally affecting by distancing effects' or something. basically music that is like 'i'm a cyborg but that's okay'? Turning into a robot only makes everything sadder!

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dubdobdee.livejournal.com

i blame brian aldiss!

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NOT EVEN ROBOTS CAN SAVE US FROM EMO

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Despite it not sampling Black Sabbath or Radiohead I really like 'Paranoid' - it's basically a completely meta CHEER UP GOTH anthem with Pointer Sisters synth stuck on the top for good measure.

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I find it v amusing that the entire album is about feeling paranoia and loneliness except the song called 'Paranoid'. (Which, yes, I really like - contra Tom I think the isolated moments of levity are welcome relief from the claustrophobia of the rest of it (much as that's mostly great). Hey I seem to be quoting from my own review (http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/nov/21/kanye-west-808s-heartbreak) here.)

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Least fave so far: 'Street Lights', which just doesn't really get anywhere (tho I expect I might be missing something subtle that I will get on a future listen).

'Bad News' makes a better fist of the same thing, better zapping noises and Actual 808 beats being used for the purpose that god intended (ie going 'Bim-BUNG-BONGGG').

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'Street Lights' is easily my least favourite of the proper songs - it really is a terrible indie dirge. I don't mean that it is inspired by indie, or that it wants indie critics to approve, like the rest of the album does, but that it actually sounds like something a bad indie band would come up with.

"Spoilt little LA girl" repeated ad nauseam is another ughhhh moment.

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jauntyalan.livejournal.com

i'll give this another go on ipod sometime.

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The Tears For Fears lift on "Coldest Winter" was a massive tip of the hand for me - the whole thing makes the most sense to me as an uptight overcoat-laden New Pop record, much like "The Hurting".

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I was just about to say something along the lines of 'Tears For Fears WTF'...

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General background - you all probably know about Kanye's mum dying this year, but he also split from his fiancee (the designer Alexis Phifer).

I think Kanye's lyrics on 808s are mostly quite bad, clumsy and solipsistic, with the occasional flash of really evocative poetry, but he mostly gets away with this because a) the music frames them really well, and often elevates them beyond what they are on paper (eg the sudden distortion on "system overload"), but more importantly b) because clumsiness of expression is something very real and resonant when it comes to heartbreak - some of the most moving confessional lyrics are those which express how hard it is to piece together a confession. This especially applies to Kanye - even more significant than the new sonic territory is the sense that this is new emotional territory for him, and he doesn't really know how to deal with it.

The way he resorts to cliche on 'Heartless' is interesting, esp in conjunction with that folky melody - lyrics like "how could you be so cold as the winter wind, yo" don't particularly move me (and lyrics like "how could you be so Dr Evil" actively piss me off), but there's this sense that Kanye's tapping into...a library of cliches for the heartbroken? I don't know where I'm going with this thought but having mulled it over for two weeks now maybe someone else can pick it up!

There's probably lots of fertile ground to think about when it comes to Kanye's own American Psycho inspiration - the music is SO stylised/stylish, it's almost like he doesn't know whether he wants to hide his feelings or expose them. Sad, minor-key melodies, but such polished production; obvious emo lyrics, but cliched to the point of meaninglessness. It's a very vulnerable album.

Overall I think I've only seen people either overrate this album, or kneejerk hate on it. In the context of Kanye generally it's probably going to be a detour, an excellent curio which keeps me very interested in the arc of his career but which doesn't match up to his previous work at all.

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a library of cliches for the heartbroken

see also comment on 'dry your eyes' pre-overplay (even if you hate it)

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ugh by 'comment on' i mean 'discussion about'. wherever that happened - nylpm? i feel like swygart wrote something good on it.

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hmm I don't think I ever read that? prob cuz I hate that song so so much...the comparison I had in my mind was

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hmm I don't think I ever read that? prob cuz I hate that song so so much...the comparison I had in my mind was <a href="http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?showall=true&bookmarkedmessageid=49&boardid=41&threadid=63281"something I said about Tori Amos's 'Baker Baker' once</a>.

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fucking html.

here. (http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?showall=true&bookmarkedmessageid=49&boardid=41&threadid=63281)

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"Skinner talks in the words of others, the words we're told to say now, because he finds himself hurting that badly he can't quite express it in any other way"

yes i think so! & also the square table (http://freakytrigger.co.uk/old-ft/nylpm/2004/07/the-square-table-8-the-streets-dry-your-eyes/) on it, I guess.

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chezghost.livejournal.com

sorry to just quote me from ilm but: like this more than i expected to, esp. say you will, welcome to heartbreak, paranoid, robocop (altho the singing gets a bit much on this) and bad news.

kanye pulls the change in style off altho i would still like to see a change of sound too (as part of my ongoing campaign against 808 over-reliance)

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jeff-worrell.livejournal.com

Not heard this, but I like "Love Lockdown" and "Put On" a lot. Some of the zings on ILM about it have been quite amusing - while a bit depressing at the same time IYKWIM - there's nothing like an established hip hop act abandoning rap to get the internet all riled up, is there? (cf. Outkast)

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