Review: Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

this ballerina looks surprised to see me.

Kanye West is one of those artists I can’t help but defend.  He’s one of the more talented artists out there today.  People tend to focus on solely on the negative aspects of his personality and discount his music as a whole, which is really quite a shame.  In reality, he’s everything a great artist should be.  He evolves over time, he’s not afraid to be different, and he’s a little odd.  2004′s The College Dropout was a refreshing rap record that focused less on the conventional subject matters of the time (getting laid and drunk) and more on complicated things like the nature of family and God.  Late Registration, released in 2005, was in a similar vein – but on a higher level as far as musical arrangements go.  In 2007, West completely switched his style up with Graduation, which retained a similar lyrical style on top of synth-y party beats.  2008′s 808s and Heartbreak, West’s most controversial album stylistically so far, was a minimalistic (and underrated, in my opinion) experience where Kanye refrained from rapping in favor of autotuned vocals.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, the next step in Kanye’s artistic development, is the exact opposite of everything 808s was.  It’s full of rapping as opposed to singing, the musical style is more complex, and it sounds huge. It’s also a fantastic look into the lifestyle of the eccentric West.  And it’s his best album yet.

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Kanye West’s New Single, “Power” Review

Is there a more polarizing rapper than Kanye West?  There’s a large portion of mainstream music fans that hate him, which is unusual for an artist of his popularity, and magazine writers (who usually praise his albums) continually berate him for his egotistical attitude.  Here on Nick Reviews, however, I like to focus on solely the musical aspect, because I really don’t know Mr. West personally at all, and never will, so I could care less if he interrupts Taylor Swift at any award show.  Despite all his critics and haters, West continues to put out good music, and “Power” is no exception.

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Review: Warpaint’s Exquisite Corpse EP

Warpaint is an LA band consisting of Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman on vocals and guitar, Jenny Lee Lindberg on bass and vocals, and a “revolving door” of drummers.  I’d say a large portion of the band’s popularity stems from the fact that actress Shannyn Sossaman was the band’s original drummer, and Emily Kokal once dated Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante (which was how i found out about the band).  He also mixed the first five tracks of this EP.  I guess they would fit into, and are mostly described as being in, the “shoegaze” and “indie” genres but I hate classifying music in that way, so you should just listen for yourself. (Click “More” to read the review).

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