My attitude approaching Kanye’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” was one of cautious optimism. Other than that, though, I chose to have little to no expectations. A good choice it seems, because if anybody expected an apology for all previous mistakes, this album is far from one. Here, Kanye cranks it all up to 15 (he had already broken 11 some time ago.), and the results are nothing short of crazy. Crazy good.
The album opens up with “Dark Fantasy”, and its refrain seems a mission statement: “Can we get much higher?” After dropping some instant landmark-pop-culture-quips (like “Sex is on fire, I'm the King of Leon-a Lewis” or “mercy, mercy me, that Murcielago”) and showing us yet again how big his ego can actually get, he floors us with sad realizations (“The plan was to drink until the pain over/But what's worse, the pain or the hangover?”). The whole album is like this: there are moments when he boasts like few other can, but he never lets us forget how haunted he actually is (or thinks himself to be, it doesn’t really matter).Gorgeous’ hook is perfectly tackled by Kid Cudi, and this song most resembles the old Kanye, at least in a lyrical sense. Raekwon guest stars here, reminding us why he always will be one of the best.
“Power” is up next and it might just be the most exuberant song Kanye’s ever made. It’s here that the albums scope becomes apparent. Power’s the moment where Kanye passes being an artist (singer, composer, producer, whatever) and becomes something more. If Van Gogh had been a singer, this is what cutting his ear off would have sounded like. Power’s second half is especially beautiful, with Kanye realizing this would be “a beautiful death”. The production values are sky high throughout, but if there’s one track I’d have to single out as a testament to West’s talent as a producer, this would be it.
After something as draining as “Power”, listeners need a moment to catch their breaths, so a short interlude introduces another highlight (really, when an album is so scarily good, how must the highlights look like?). “All of the lights” is chock full of surprises, from a touching nod to Michael Jackson’s still painful absence, to an unrecognizably good Fergie (who would have guessed she can be THAT good on the microphone?),to Rihanna’s best hook of her entire career (hands down) to (still conscious?) a piano solo by Alicia Keys and Elton John. I’m going to repeat that just in case you skipped that last sentence. Elton John guest stars on “All of the lights” That’s reason enough to buy the album. But underneath all that glamour, it’s still fundamentally sad, its lyrical themes brushing on solitude, betrayal and relationships destroyed by fame.
The next tracks are two gargantuan group efforts. The first one is aptly called “Monster”, in which Kanye reminds us all again that it’s a privilege we’re his contemporaries, that he’s the titular Monster and that he doesn’t care. The absolute gem here is Nicki Minaj’s verse, a collosal boast that will surely keep people up at night. Remember her name,because she’s about to go nuclear.
So Appalled is Kanye’s best team-up with Jay-Z (and a tantalizing taste of what’s to come with “Watch my throne”, their upcoming collaborative album), and the latter’s best verse in years. The two are joined by Pusha T, Prince Cy Hi, Swizz Beatz and The RZA and despite all the guests on these two tracks, they’re still all Kanye.
After passing its half mark, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” switches to sentimental mode, and Kanye’s still hauntingly melancholic. What’s scary about this album is that its egotistical moments do not detract from the sad ones, but enhance them. Every boast is better and more poignant because we know West has his demons he’s been trying to get rid of (just check out his Twitter feed, it’s easily the most fascinating one by a singer). “Devil in a New Dress” is a love song, with heavy soul influences, about short-lived romances that come up while touring. It’s sad, almost solemn, and when Rick Ross comes along and drops a verse that has absolutely nothing to do with that theme, one may think that it might diminish its value. It doesn’t, because for these 13 songs, Kanye can do no wrong.
“Runaway” might be this album’s highest peak. Kanye admits that perhaps he’s gone overboard (“you’ve been putting up my shit for way too long”) but then immediately decides to toast for all the assholes, douchebags, scumbags and jerk-offs of the world. Kanye suggests we should turn around and leave. By this moment in the album, it’s impossible. By the time West electronically distorts his voice (a la Radiohead circa 2001) it becomes obvious we’re in the presence of greatness. Here he strips his soul bare and blows away whatever doubts listeners might have: “Runaway” is a monumental achievement both artistically and humanly. “Hell of a Life” features portions from Black Sabbath’s Iron Man, among others. Here, West dreams about getting in a serious relationship with a porn-star: marriage, kids and a big wedding. He’s thinking about a new creed to live by (“No more drugs for me/ Pussy and religion is all I need”), but by the end of the song, he gives it up. A song with such an up-tempo beat to it would have been a chart -topping single but have no depth to it. Kanye forever crushes the myth that grandiose production values detract from an album’s sentiment. It’s a sad, and the following song is positively heartbreaking.
“Blame Game” features John Legend singing his heart out, complex lyrics presented in three different voices (all in Kanye’s head, obviously), a eye-watering narrative that ends with a fictional conversation between Kanye’s former flame this song’s about and Chris Rock. It’s not the last surprise West’s got in store though: “Lost in the World” is a meld between a touching Bon Iver ballad and West’s stream-of-consciousness final words in the album, that practically define it. (“Your my devil,your my angel/Your my heaven, your my hell”). The song imperceptibly passes into the albums closer, passages from a Gil Scott-Heron spoken word poem about The American Dream. It couldn’t have closed any other album.
Rumors abound about the cost of this masterpiece (about three million US dollars), about Kanye’s strict rules while recording, including a dress code. They matter of course, but only in adding to the album’s allure and mystery and not its quality. You could get lost in this album: it begs to be listened from one end to the other. Songs meld one into another, attack your senses and make you forget inferior albums of the past. It’s a rewarding, exhausting experience that deserves to be taken seriously. Do not break it up in this song or that verse. As a listener, you owe it to yourself to listen to this album at least once as it was meant to be.
It’s hard to judge an album’s historical importance weeks removed from its launch, but I have a feeling that “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” will be regarded as one of the few albums that ended up actually being important and not just pretentious. When people will look back, they’ll refer to this album as “The Kanye Singularity”. That one moment when everything else faded, and for a little while at least, there was nothing else besides him, and his Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
10/10 Stefan
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