The Best Producer Alive?

Alright. Alright.

No matter how hard it is for me to say this, Kanye did it again.

Wait, before you call me a jockrider and a flip-flopper by me saying he did it again, I mean that he was able to convey and achieve what he wanted to do with this album musically. I still dislike "Love Lockdown." I still think his lyrics (which are notoriously known for being simple and gimmicky) are sub-par. But let's get one thing straight.

THIS IS A POP ALBUM.

There is no hip hop. There is no rap. Yes, this might be a pop album written from the perspective of a hustler, but isn't that the point? This type of music has been done before by distorting voice, using synth and echo (Kate Havnevik, Imogen Heap etc). But never has it been so dramatic, infusing disco and African-rhythms. He has some of the best rappers on the Earth in Jeezy and Wayne come in and buy into it. But most of all, he is able to paint a picture with this album. His lyrics don't necessarily have to be that great, because it feels like he's just talking to us on this record and because singing is such an emotional mode of communication, he wanted us to hear every single word this time round. And we do...but more about pacing later.

We've all played pariah to the bevy of emotional altercations and situations Kanye has gone through this year. He lives his life in front of cameras and perhaps he knows thats why we could understand this record. In many Kanye tries to make this album sound as sparse and shallow as possible, but the sonic layerings end up pretty complex starting with the anthem-like "Say You Will." This song almost gives you feeling of a dirge-type setting with the choir singing over the simple drum pattern over the fx effects giving the resonance of rain falling in a pitter patter pattern.

This can act as a positive and then as a negative for the track, "Robocop." Robocop is bloated as fuck and it frustrates me. This could have been a great song, but what makes this album great is the suble balance between vocal track and instrumental track. His voice is already weak and during some of the softer moments, it plays to his advantage because the fragility works for him. Him trying to sing over Robotic sounds mixed with the robust synths and strings just doesn't work at all. The instrumental is interesting, but the vocal track is a waste. Plus it sounds like something out of Hans Christian Anderson's B-sides and Kanye rambles about nothing towards the end. "Stop, Drop, Roll, Pop/Bitch I'm cold/I, take that go/Throw that bow/Oh, that was slow, that can go/That you know, took em' to the back, you know/Back in the flo' and went back in the door/back in the door."

As odd as Robocop seems to be in the album, some of the pacing and order is a bit intriguing. One of the standout tracks, "Amazing" featuring Young Jeezy almost divides itself in half as Kanye sings one of the more celebratory, Kanye-ish tracks on the album. The second half features a lively, entertaining Jeezy and adds a decent sprinkle of swagger (over his trademark sample, "yeah" that was manipulated to make him sound more like the Cookie Monster than himself) to the track as a whole. It's "amazing" that these tracks can sound so good even though he sounds more like Kermit than Kanye at points. Also embedded in this track are these avian/animal cries that seems to be peppered through the album as a whole. Consciously this might not do anything, but subconsciously it definitely adds to this natural, organic theme of heartbreak steadily taking hold from begining to end. Heartbreak is so ethereal and penetrating that the wild screams of animals are the screams that is ringing in his head from his heart and soul. My theory on this album is that he is trying to create a soundscape for his soul and thoughts. And everything incorporated in these songs are the manifestation of everything he feels inside. His success in doing it are the reasons I think he is the best producer alive right now.

This urban, toe-tapping, thumper-of-a-track flows into the 80s, disco-y track "Paranoid" feat. Mr. Hudson. This is definitely the club banger of the album. It definitely harkens a weird mix between Michael Jackson's Thriller/ABBA's Dancing Queen/John Travolta's Saturday Night Fever/M83's Saturdays = Youth. Its melody is so infectious I had to play the track at least four times before I could move on.

Anyways, this album is nothing special lyrically, but the production value on over half the tracks are genius. "Welcome to Heartbreak" beautifully uses piano, cello, and synth drums to create this brooding, urban banger while the strings turn "See You In My Nightmares" into a lush, stylished arena-sized pop ballad. The secret factor to the success of this album will go to the drum effect he uses throughout this album. Partway through I was expecting to hear Nick Cannon yell "Drumline." Chalk it up to the Roland TR-808 Drum Machine. The shit is classic. This is used especially well in the album's last track, "Coldest Winter," as it turns this tribute to his mother into a forceful, pop hit that really ends the album in a bittersweet moment. Mr. West can do a lot, but it may be too much to convert hip-hop heads towards his corner on this one, but he converted me.

"I'm a monster
I'm a maven
I know this world a changin'
Never gave in
Never gave up
I'm the only thing I'm afraid of." - Kanye in Amazing...

8.0/10

Best Tracks - Say You Will, Amazing, Paranoid, Coldest Winter


This. Is. Truth.