Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
- Written by Joe Bates
Whilst he was never the shy and retiring type, in the time since his last record Kanye West has cranked his public image into overdrive. Loosely beginning by jumping on the stage to challenge Taylor Swift in an encounter that unfortunately didn’t lead to any diss tracks on either side, Kanye has become larger-than-life: through Twitter and releasing a song a week through his G.O.O.D. Fridays project, through surreal extended videos, through multiple album covers, and, bizarrely, through an extended exchange by proxy with George Bush. There are new things every day for entertainment journalists to sink their teeth into. This is a good thing; the rise of personalities like Kanye and Lady Gaga is a reaction to featureless and uninteresting pop stars, and now at least we have artists attempting to make their every action a creative one. But it doesn’t necessitate good music, and in the case of Lady Gaga, the image is the ambition and the music takes second place. In the run-up to this album, too, it was hard to imagine that Kanye West’s music could keep up with his ever-expanding personality.
But, hey, he’s Kanye West. His career trajectory so-far is perfect– three great albums, and then 808s and Heartbreak, an intriguing misstep, light on songs but confirmation that Mr West was committed to innovating. The new album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy sees West returning to hip-hop but combining his new experimental energy with his knack of creating great beats. It is also probably one of the stranger rap albums of recent times, with emphases seeming less on bravado and tight rhyming and beats, and more on structure, on sudden left-turns and, occasionally, on pure excess. The latter focus brings out some of the albums more questionable moments but also its most inspired.
The structures particularly feel new to hiphop – choruses enter at unusual times, verses end suddenly as the beats shift and transform under them. 'Devil In A New Dress' is a good example; over a trademark (though not acually produced by him this time) classic soul sample, Kanye's verses stop and start and digress at will, giving the impression of a spurned lover drunkenly venting about their ex. The deviations from traditional hiphop structures give the songs room for more emotion and power and also make them tantalising live prospects. The songs tend to have multiple parts which whilst not always successful – the end of Runaway features Kanye doing a vocoder solo for three minutes, which is a lot duller than it sounds – does make sure each song is a big statement. It is never a case of a rapper just riding a beat, even when the beats are consistently excellent.
As well as the beats being excellent, the selection of guests seems to include every rapper enjoying big commercial success at this moment. It is a big return to rap for Kanye, and at times seems like a sheer celebration of it, with guests queuing up to try and outdo each other on the triumphant single 'Monster' and fabulous album centrepiece 'All of the Lights'. However, it's surprising how little the songs depend on the quality of the rappers. There is no real need to quote snippets of verses when the songs are more about the performances, the music and the atmosphere that the songs create. Kanye's actual rapping skills have been criticised, in some cases deservedly because his lack of flow can sometimes hamper his beats, but on this album his verses tend to fit the style of the songs perfectly. And here again, he is bringing something new to the table – the confessional, unsentimental style of his verses on songs like 'So Appalled' and 'Blame Game' stand out compared to standard rap fare. His sense of humour is also often great, although in the outro to 'Blame Game', he and Chris Rock inadvertantly manage to be more creepy over an Aphex Twin sample than Richard D James has managed in a long time, which is saying something.
Overall, though, the songs are epic in a good way, and on the rare occasions they fail, they fail trying to acheive something new, the best type of failure. It's been a while since artists of Kanye's stature have managed to combine their commercial impulses with a restless creativity, an urge to go beyond what is needed to keep their fans happy. Hopefully this album will put more pressure on others to keep up with it, as whilst it might not be his best album, it is his most encouraging in its experimentation. It is a brilliant and strange record, and that it is a major release from a major artist is incredibly heartening.