Thankfully for us, the listener, “My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy” is probably Kanye West’s best work since Late Registration. I can’t think of anyone else in the music world that could put out something that is such an example of a grandiose musical spectacle as Kanye West is capable of. What makes this album great is that you can feel the emotional complexity of Kanye in both the lyrics and the production. It has spectacular highs and depressing lows with every bit of egotistical self declaration and low self esteem that he has shown ever since College Dropout dropped.
Another thing to point out on this album is the amount of star power present on the guest appearances. You have well known rap vets like Jay-Z, RZA and Raekwon of Wu-Tang Clan fame then you got new blood like Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, and Kid Cudi. Also thrown randomly in the album are the likes of John Legend, Alicia Keys, Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas, and even Elton John lays some piano tracks and some vocals to a song here. One song in particular (All of the Lights) features 11 different guests on the song. Granted most of them are instrumental guests or only have a single sentence or two of vocals. Still, when I saw the people featured on the song, it was unbelievable that Kanye was able to fit all those appearances in a 5 minute span.
The production on this album is also some of the best on one of his CDs too with Kanye bringing in RZA, No I.D., Jeff Baskher, and others to add more variety to the production level of this album and it shows. There are moments of Kanye’s “vocal samples to enhance a beat” technique, more guitar laden beats, piano infused beats, and even a few moments where it sounds more like an something out of a Nintendo-core band’s instrumentals than a rap cd.
One place where Kanye has improved is with his lyrical delivery and lyrics themselves. Not that he was really bad at it but he stepped up his game big time as if he had something to prove after "808s And Heartbreaks". His lyrics on this release range from self-aggrandizing, to romantic, to sexual, to escapist, to self doubting. No matter what the shift in lyrics are, they all feel real which is what makes Kanye West who he is. There are no frills to his personality and that is one of the reasons this reviewer is a fan of his work.
I would say my favorite track on “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” has to be “Blame Game”, which features John Legend.
The song sounds utterly depressing in tone and lyrical content. At the very end of the song during the last piano notes, there are clips of Chris Rock played to lighten the mood as if this were the musical equivalent of Greek drama, where they would do something funny to break up the tension of the dramatic play going on. Another track I have to point out is the second track of the CD titled "Gorgeous" which features great verses by both Kanye and Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon.
The first single off this album, “Power”, is another standout track as is “All of the Lights”(along with the interlude into the song which enhances the track as a whole).
If there is one knock I have on the album it is some of the guest appearances. Nicki Minaj isn’t that good and I kinda wonder why Fergie got the longest vocal part in "All Of The Lights" when there were more talented guests on the song who only got one sentence or two in it. Another knock on the album for me is the track “Lost In The World” which is the kind of auto-tuned song that you’d see on 808s.
Overall though these minor knocks are nowhere near enough to dampen my review of “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” in any way. It is worth at least a listen with an open mind (which I know is hard for some of the more opinionated Kanye West haters).
I rate it 4.5 fish sticks out of 5
Written by: Mike Falcone
Twitter: @BrainstuFalcone
Facebook: Michael Falcone
