by Doobie on Fri Nov 12, 2010 10:55 am
TRACK BY TRACK REVIEW/THOUGHTS.
1. Dark Fantasy- One of the greatest intro's in rap music history. Seriously it is. It sets the tone for the whole album and isn't JUST an intro. It's a song of epic porportions and delivers harder then most songs on this album. The movie version was less beefed up then this one, I love the addition of Teyena Taylor and the extended intro/ ending. Perfect start to a perfect album. 5/5.
2. Gorgeous - It's hard to not give every song on this album a perfect score, and this one just continues where Dark Fantasy left off. Some of the best Kanye lyrics I've ever heard. Cudi on the chorus is perfect, as much as I love Cudi I'm happy he didn't get a verse. It would not have fit this song. I love this song personally, like I said before Kanye's lyrics are as intense as ever. I love the beat when Raekwon's verse comes in, this song was perfectly mixed. 5/5
3.POWER - One of 4 songs on the album that I have played over 100 times. This song brings energy, cockiness, agressiveness, and power on top of an absurdly good beat. Suprised when I heard Kanye didn't produce this. It is one of the most energetic tracks on the album, you can hear it everywhere from basketball games to school's chanting this song. Goes perfect with the social network trailer too. The only flaw I see in this song is some of the simplistic lyrics he raps...Guess what though? Another 5/5..
4/5. All of the lights interlude + All of the lights. - I am counting this as one song, cause it basically is if you listen to the album in order. The interlude is amazing. It sets the mood for the next song. The strings (or cello, I don't know my insturments.) and the keys are played perfectly, props to whoever did that. This leads to one of the most hyped tracks on the album which is All of the lights. The song itself is okay, but it has the best beat on the album. The beat alone gets me super excited. It has 11 features, even though most are background vocals. I like Cudi's part, fits perfectly.. But Fergie sounds incredibly out of place, and her lyrics don't really follow the theme of the song too me. Elton John sounds epic in this song though, I love his part at the end. So for this one it's a 4/5.
6. Monster - Another song released as part of his G.O.O.D Friday series, and another song I've played over 100 times already. This song is pretty fun to me, it is part of my 'get hyped playlist.' While lyrically the song doesn't offer much of a message, it does have some pretty dope ego-boosting lines. The one thing about this song is that Bon Iver does NOT fit at all in this song. Nicki Minaj's verse is overated too in my opinion. I hate when she starts screaming into the microphone. I'm also not a huge fan of these super collaborations. I like to hear Kanye as much as possible in a song. 3/5.
7. So appalled- This song (along with monster) don't go with the flow of the album. This song has too much going on at once, which doesn't really go too well with me. I've played this over 100 times too, and it was probably one of the least appealing G.O.O.D Friday songs he released. Let's just say I wasn't too excited when I heard this made the album. Besides Kanye, the only person with a good verse on this song was Jay-Z. RZA, CYHI, and Pusha T really weren't needed.. I would've just stuck with Swizz Beatz, Kanye, and Jigga. Another 3/5.
8. Devil in a new dress - One of my favorite's on the album, and the last of the 4 songs I've already played over 100 times (and I'm still not tired of this one though.) The beat is incredible (once again surprised someone other then Yeezy produced this, it was some guy named Bink.) and his lyrics are on point. The chorus is out of this world, and his verses match perfectly with this beat. I was worried when I heard Rick Ross was on this song, but I actually like his verse. The part where the beat breaks down and the guitar comes in just blew my mind. That is what a true artist does to perfect his work. The melody was just jaw-dropping. The album picks up after being weak the last few songs. 5/5
9. Runaway - The infamous song about douchebags, assholes, scumbags, and jerk-offs. One of the catchiest chorus' I've heard in years. EVERYONE is singing this. From little kids to parents. The song itself is dope, it lost it's appeal to me after the initial shock of him performing it at the VMA's. But, this song upped it's replay value by the changes he made. Adding the vocal samples too it was a good choice for Yeezy. The highlight of this song for me was the last 3 minutes of it. Believe it or not that part of the song makes me vibe so much. He said he changed his voice into a guitar using distortion so it isn't meant to be understood. You can just feel his emotion while barely making out a word he says. This is probably my second favorite sequence in the whole album. Because of that 'vocal guitar' effect I give this song a 5/5, the song runaway itself 3.5/5.
10.Hell of a life - This song made me laugh the first time I heard it. A song about porn stars, go figure. The vibe of this song is dope, I really like this song but can't put a finger on why. The chorus is pretty catchy and the song is very well put together. I love the whole ending sequence of this song but I do admit that nothing sticks out to me in particular. One day I'm gonna marry a porn star.. 3.5/5
11. Blame Game - My personal favorite song of the year, and very possibly of all time. I have never related to a song so much in my life. Everything he talks about in this song I've gone through over the last year in my most recent breakup. Literally, everything. Money for cocaine (well weed/drugs.), calling eachother a bitch and motherfucker, calling all night to no answer, calling her best friend to ask what she's doing and get lied too, one night she left an accidental voicemail of her and a guy talking about hooking up, all that shit happened to me. This song honestly made me cry the first time I heard it, that's how much I related too it. The chorus is great with John Legend, the sample is great (Avril 13), the verses are insane. The harmonizing before Chris Rock comes is just amazing. The speech Kanye makes after the 2nd verse is depressing. The Chris Rock part added some comedic relief to a very sad situation. It's funny but at the same time it isn't because it's something that actually happens. I think the Chris Rock part could be used as an 'interlude' as well though, cause there are times where you don't want to hear it. By the way the Chris Rock part is best heard explicit.
Continuing with blame game, the 2nd verse of this song is the best thing I've ever heard in music. The vocal effects he uses are insane!! If you hear it with headphones you will get the whole vibe of it, but its 3 different voices rapping one after another (all vocals done by him).. The 3 voices use 3 different tones, one is his regular voice which you hear come out of both speakers, one is a deep voice that comes out of the right one, and even deepers and screwed voice comes out of the left. He also does some of this effect in the 1st verse too, it works so perfectly and its so very well done. You need headphones to really experience this. I am going to listen to it in the car for the first time tonight. The song is a 5/5... I wish I could give it a 10/5.
12/13. Lost in the world/ Who will survive in America. - As much as I loved Lost in the world, the added drums didn't work on this track. I like the vibe and idea in this track, but it upsets me that Kanye only has one verse. Was superb verse, but still one verse. I love the sample of Bon Iver's woods. This song is a pretty good closing to a perfect rap album. Kanye isn't even a rapper anymore, no other rapper would be this creative and create such an amazing project. The Gil Scott Heron part is good, even though it's something that I can't listen too much. This song as a whole is a 4/5. If he didn't add the drums and stayed with the version that was in the movie, it'd be a 5.5
As an album, I can say this is the fastest I've fell in love with an album in my whole life. It quickly became my favorite album of the year, and I have not stopped listening to it since it leaked. I love it. The album to me is a perfect 5/5 and I suggest that EVERYONE check it out.
New York Knicks
As for the best song - I really liked the version of Runaway which was released before this album, it's a bit ruined in the album, I think it's a bit too long, but It's still my favourite, second would be All of the Lights with the whole interlude and the french horns, which are simply Amazing 
