Pretty damn good.

I actually find it pretty unpleasing to my ears. Let's agree to disagree....

musically i like most of it quit a bit, but lyrically it's his most degrading and misogynistic album to date.

'I'm In It' especially.

that stuff just doesn't really interest me these days. so in that regard, i don't foresee listening to it too often sadly (it also doesn't really have too many hooks save for 2-3 tracks)

last track is my favorite by far tho

I'm on board with these guys--it's just an ugly record. Historically Kanye's narcissism and misogyny have been offset by humor, vulnerability, and musical variety--he's always seemed like a guy forever at odds with his own impulses, a physical manifestation of the angel and the devil on the shoulder duking it out. The devil wins here. This album sounds like the complete and total corruption of the human spirit, and it's as offputting in music as it I suspect it is in real life.

i just have no interest in this. i don't get the kanye thing.

yeah... no

i dont really listen to rap anymore

black skinheads kinda cool i guess

I actually enjoyed Kanye going more Rick James hedonist in the last one so I'm thinking I'll actually dig this. A lot of people who listen to rap do it for the feeling it gives them. If the shit makes me feel like I'm 10 feet tall after it's done, I don't care what they're really saying. I much prefer asshole Kaye to polo shirts n' Adam Levine Kanye, but I guess I'm in the minority.

i haven't heard the whole album yet, but i'll stand by my initial impressions of his SNL performances. the more i've thought about things, i get the distinct impression Kanye is biting Tyler, the Creator's style on this one (which isn't a good thing in my opinion).

Eh. I mean, it's considerably darker thematically and musically in comparison to all of his other records, but I'm not sure it's this morally bankrupt thing you make it out to be. The second half demonstrates a balance between his more misogynistic, angry impulses with humor and vulnerability. Like, I mean, the closest comparison to this record are his last two records which were ultimately very serious records as well and were almost exactly like this so I'm not sure what you're getting at.

And yes, I made an account just to say this.

I really love this record, by the way.

I tried to listen to Kanye over the years but I just can't tough it out. I've got zero interest in ego-tripping, misogynistic, narcissistic crapola.

Don't really know why I even bothered posting in this thread if that's the way I feel. Sorry - carry on.

Well, sure--I did say it sounded like a corruption of the spirit--I do think the musical elements matter, certainly more so than whether or not Kanye actually has a vacant soul, which is not my place to decide. Like I said in another thread, I appreciate what Kanye is trying to do here--historically, both in the contexts of artists' own careers and musical culture as a whole, stark minimalism has been a stock response to excess, so to me this type of album is a completely sensible follow-up to "Dark Twisted Fantasy." So maybe my issue is that I just don't really care for what Kanye's music is at the core, when you strip all that excess away--for me, his dark impulses work better when they're offset by the buoyancy of more melodic samples, by humorous asides tossed in strictly for humor ("too many Urkels on your team/that's why your wins low," that sort of thing) rather than just clever ways of saying something nasty. Additionally, I think the auto-tune on this record was a huge artistic misstep; "808's and Heartbreak" was a brilliant album, in part, because it was an instance of a master artist challenging himself to create an emotionally affecting record using what was largely accepted as a tacky recording gimmick and outdated beatmaking equipment, and pulling it off better than anyone could have anticipated. It's not a versatile enough artistic device for an artist of Kanye's caliber to use beyond that; listening to it here reminds me of all those Leonard Cohen albums with his deep, poetic verse recited over those chintzy Casio beats. To that end, what momentum this record has just falls apart for me after "New Slaves."

As for the moral implications of the record, I think I'm just reaching the point in my life where I'm prepared to call a spade a spade with this stuff. Context matters, yes, but misogyny is misogyny--the dismissive, subhuman language used to describe women in these songs bothers me a lot more the more women I have in my life whom I wouldn't want to hear spoken about in that manner, and I'm past the point of caring whether being sensitive to that means that I'm not "getting" a certain means of artistic expression. And beyond that even, I just get bored with tedious, redundant subject matter, especially in a genre of music where lyrical focus is paramount; just as I've grown tired of pickup trucks and patriotism in country music (not that I listen to much of it), I've had my fill of animalistic sex and materialism in rap. It's true that, over the years, many records that espouse those very things have become fixtures in my listening routine--those were tastes that were formed in a different frame of mind, which now have the benefit of having a place in my personal history. But I also find myself turning away from a lot of new stuff because it just sounds like the same old shit.

Ultimately, Kanye West has made a lot of music that has affected me over the years, so I'm not prepared to write this album off forever--it hasn't been out long enough to merit that kind of judgment anyway. I do like "Black Skinhead" and "New Slaves." But the rest I'm in no rush to hear again anytime soon.

So...do you have a blog or byline or something where I can read more of your stuff? You broke that down in a way that was exactly what I felt about the album and even music in general at the same time.

he's got a book

Thanks!

I have a blog and a book, both of which are linked through my signature. I haven't updated my blog much in the past year but there are at least four years worth of yammering on there.

Not a huge Kanye fan, but for me, him being an asshole really has nothing to do with the art that he puts out.

I'm so used to not reading signatures (this is the only board I visit with them) that I totally spaced on that. I'll buy your book when I get home as the work computers block paypal.

Also: So do you feel this is part of getting 'old' wherein people stop trying to listen to new music? Because I like to think I'm still 'with it', but then I remember Abe Simpson said the same thing and I start to wonder.