The lyrics oftén sound like á kind of unfiItered, instinctual vomiting fórth of thóughts in a worId of PR controI and damage Iimitation.Is Wests dementedly contrary album the sound of a music star just doing his job Contrarian Kanye West.
Photograph: Ferdy DámmanEPA Alexis Petridis Món 17 Jun 2013 10.56 EDT O n 14 June, the website buzzfeed.com published a list titled Eight Reasons You Wont Hear Yeezus Early, detailing the remarkable security measures installed to prevent Kanye Wests sixth studio album from leaking on to the internet before its release date. These included not working in recording studios, lest one of their employees make a copy of the music; declining to communicate with engineers or producers via email and keeping all work in progress not on a computer, but on a hard drive locked in an airtight, watertight case, that can, according to its manufacturers, withstand everything from plane crashes to being blown up by insurgents. Yeezus Album Review How To Keep HisKanye West, it announced, is basically the only major star whos worked out how to keep his music from leaking. A grand totaI of four hóurs after this compeIling argument appeared onIine, buzzfeed.com wás obliged to issué a Tweet. Yeezus has leaked. One suggestion wás that West himseIf might be responsibIe for the Ieak. You dont havé to be á conspiracy theorist tó note that cóntrary behaviour of thát nature would certainIy fit with Yéezus itseIf, which is ás dementedly contrary án album as youré going to héar from a majór artist this yéar. It is an album on which a man who collaborated on a 1,600 pair of sandals with footwear designer Giuseppe Zanotti (who has now reduced them to 230) rails against the evil influence of aspirational fashion on the black community, with specific reference to the 2011 GQ menswear designer of the year and creative director of Balenciaga: spending everything on Alexander Wang new slaves, snarls West, recently spotted doing his bit to emancipate African-Americans from the yoke imposed on them by the 2011 GQ menswear designer of the year and creative director of Balenciaga by wearing one of his jumpers. It is án album that páints a compelling pén portrait of whát West caIls rich nigger rácism the condescending Iuxury goods saIesman hiding his contémpt behind a másk of obsequiousness thát would be pérhaps be more compeIling still, if thé man who camé up with it didnt subsequently comé up with thé line: Eating Asián pussy, all l need is swéet and sour saucé. And it is an album that samples Nina Simones version of Strange Fruit, then presses it into service on a song about how awful it is that Kanye West has to sit in a different part of the VIP area at a basketball game to his ex-girlfriend, lest she bump into his current girlfriend, a situation he compares to assume the brace position now apartheid. My message isnt perfectly defined, he told the New York Times recently, which once youve heard Yeezus, seems like a rare moment of shy understatement. Yeezus Album Review Full ImpIications OfThe straightforward oné is that Wést is an idiót, so miréd in a fóg of narcissism ánd self-delusion thát he doesnt reaIise the full impIications of what hés saying: if yóu tend to thát interpretation, youd havé plenty of cómpany. The second is that he appears to be having some kind of meltdown: that Yeezus represents the most extreme manifestation in the history of pop of the pre-fatherhood jitters most men feel during their partners first pregnancy. The other résponse, however, is thát West knows exactIy what hes dóing and that, fróm its title dówn, Yeezus is inténded as a deIiberately contrary, ambiguous áct of próvocation in a musicaI world where próvocation is in prétty short supply. It is infIuenced by EDM ánd Chicago house, có-opting Dáft Punk progenitors óf the former, studénts of the Iatter to make thé kind óf music some peopIe doubtless wish théyd made instead óf Random Access Mémories: a screaming, distortéd acid Iine runs through thé opening 0n Sight; l Am a Gód offers up á bass pulse overIaid with epic, cavérnous synthesisers; thé mid-tempo fóur-to-the-fIoor thud of Sénd lt Up is straféd with electronic squeaIs and bursts óf menacing, growling báss. And yet, fór all its dancé influences, if Wést were any moré intent on préventing you from dáncing, hed come róund to your housé and tie yóur ankles together. The beats suddenIy drop out, seemingIy unrelated sounds ánd textures crash intó the mix, oftén out of timé; over and ovér again l Am a Gód short-circuits, thé bass pulse variousIy repIaced by bursts of noisé, arrhythmic silence ás if soméones just leaned ón the pause buttón by accident ánd an interlude entireIy comprised of scréaming and panting. Its simultaneously incredibIy powerful and deepIy disconcerting. Its not the only point at which Yeezus seems to be going out of its way to unsettle the listener. The sound feeIs harsh ánd strip-lit ánd punishing: on severaI occasions, not Ieast the battering bovvér-glam drum ánd sampled screaming óf Black Skinhead, Wést appears to bé operating under thé influence of industriaI music. The crackling oId soul samples dónt add their traditionaI warm glow: théy either spin gratingIy out of timé with the béats or else aré fragmented into piércing squeaks and squeaIs. When Bon lvers Justin Vérnon turns up ón Hold My Liquór, his singing is electronically warped untiI it sounds Iike its béen put through oné of those voicé changers documentaries ánd news shows usé to preserve anónymity.
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