kanye west - college dropout

I wonder if my kids will know Kanye West even made music.

Even today, it's a commonly overlooked fact that he used to make brilliant rap albums. It's hard to feel bad for him, since it is his own fault he's a total jackass, but at the same, it's very easy to feel bad for the music.

There isn't a single bad track on College Dropout. Not even a mediocre one. Hell, even the skits fit into the overall theme remarkably well. At times it's stunningly personal, at others it's the same "Hey look at me I rap real good" MC nonsense, and at others it's a borderline gospel album. Singles like "Jesus Walks," "All Falls Down," and "The New Workout Plan" play beautifully against deeper cuts like "Spaceship" and "Two Words," flowing brilliantly from beginning to end. It's a hip-hop album that has a soul, one that manages to make even the most blatant singles undeniably original, a skill Kanye arguably brought back into the mainstream single-handedly.

This is a well rounded artistic statement from an artist now so deeply hated and ridiculed, South Park singled him out for an entire searing episode, christening him a "Gay Fish" in the eyes of a generation who, ironically, he proclaimed himself to be the voice of.

This is the same artist who can't lose a VMA without throwing a temper tantrum, the same artist who "wrote" an inspirational book made up mainly of clichéd sentiments and blank pages. If I played this album for my kids and told them it was by the same guy who interrupted Taylor Swift, they’d just laugh. And how could I blame them?

In this 2009 outlook, the album plays like a tragedy, almost completely opposite of Kanye's original vision.

The album at face value tells the story of a kid growing up in the ghetto, raised by his single mom, selling drugs to get along, fighting his way into college, only to be shunned by the people around him until he finally drops out, begins rapping, and is all of a sudden picked up by Jay-Z, who's now helping him record one of the greatest rap albums of the last decade.

In 2009, however, the album plays like an egotistical, immature rapper obsessed with fame revisiting his past, still making claims that he was shy, poor, and oppressed by the people around him, even though they're the farthest things from the truth. It's an album that simultaneously shows how far he's come, and how far he's fallen.

"A shorty [lookin'] up to the dopeman," rising from poverty to the point of superstardom, only to have it eat him alive, replacing it with a self-proclaimed "Voice of a Generation" who just can't get over how amazing he is.

College Dropout is a triumph and an embarrassment, a brilliant piece of hip-hop history that will follow Kanye to the grave, for better or worse, hopefully one day reminding future generations (and Kanye himself) that there was once a legitimate artist behind the ego.


Edited 6/7/2010

the pains of being pure at heart - the pains of being pure at heart

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's debut LP is perfect.

Too perfect.

The kind of perfect that does nothing original whatsoever, adds nothing to the state of music in general, and should result in the artists responsible having to pay substantial amounts of money to the numerous people they've blatantly plagiarized from.

Upon a second listen, it's simultaneously gorgeous and disgusting. Taken on face value, there's nothing wrong with it at all. In fact, it's pretty much brilliant—shoegazer pop riddled with perfect hooks, beautiful harmonies, all laid over an ever-present dense, ringing guitar feedback, creating a sound that's one part Beach Boys and another part Jesus & Mary Chain. What's not to like?

Everything.

Your average listener can pick every song on this album apart and point out exactly who and what they're ripping off at any given second.

It's borderline criminal.

Actually, scratch that. It is criminal. Somebody get me a lawyer.

The Raveonettes, the Jesus & Mary Chain, the Beach Boys, the Cure—hell, even the Beatles are getting a paycheck out of this. It is their music, after all, just crafted and molded into something semi-new sounding, just enough to fool the less musically educated among us.

Not that this kind of thing doesn't happen all the time, because it absolutely does. That is what rock and roll is made of, after all. The Raveonettes are a perfect example of this, and yet even they are getting robbed of their (un)musical merits.

Criminals robbing criminals robbing criminals, that's what this is. And even if I can't prosecute all the regular old criminals, since they pretty much make up music itself, the least I can do is prosecute these exponential offenders.

Justice must be served. This cannot and will not stand.

In the meantime, I'll be listening to this album. Again and again and again. Because damn it, it's still perfect.


Edited 6/7/2010

james brown - live at the apollo

I’m in the middle of writing last-minute papers on the Politics and Culture of Ireland that happen to be due in two days, but I still had to stop writing them to write down my thoughts on the album I’m currently listening to: James Brown – Live at the Apollo.

This has to be the greatest live album ever made. Maybe Live at Leeds, maybe some Velvets bootlegs, maybe a few Mountain Goats shows, maybe a lone few greats can stand up to this recording, but even that is doubtful. This is nothing short of a recording of a man in complete and total control of his audience, moving them to the point of hysterics with the sound of his voice, sending men, women, and children screaming at the top of their lungs with a single note or a single unseen movement. Even without visual aid, you cannot help find yourself mesmerized right along with them, focused intently on the insane energy rifling through every word, every cry, every sound coming out of his mouth.

It is nothing short of awe-inspiring. There are no modern comparisons to this kind of act. Kiddie groups like the Jonas Brothers have achieved similar levels of insanity with their music, but even that is more a result of corporate dynamics and TV ratings than anything else. This man used his actual ART to control the masses to this incredible degree, something unheard of in this day and time. No other artist could bring an audience deathly silent, only to cause spontaneous screams and cries of ecstasy with a single gasp. This is true magic on record, and absolutely must be heard by anybody with any interest in the unbelievable power of live music.