Jay Z and Kanye West ‘Watch the Throne’ – Review

Jay Z and Kanye West are unquestionably the two biggest stars in rap, and possibly the best as well. So surely a collaboration album couldn’t fail? Well in many respects ‘Watch the Throne’ doesn’t fail; It’s a massive, skyscraper sized, gold-plated, stadium ready record, featuring the most expensive samples money can buy and guest appearances from the likes of Beyonce, La Roux and Frank Ocean. Needless to say it shifted nearly a million units in its first week alone.  Both Jay and Kanye’s last solo albums were their biggest and most over the top to date and, in certain respects, this album is even more ambitious and dramatic. So If that’s what you were expecting then ‘Watch the Throne’ is a roaring success, but if you were after something more substantial or exciting then you may well be disappointed.

Whilst ‘Watch the Throne’ is somehow even bigger than ‘The Blueprint III’ or ‘Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy’ it’s more streamlined and less chaotic. In fact it arrives in what can only be described as an understated manner. Opening track ‘No Church in the Wild’ is a slow burner, dominated by a Frank Ocean chorus and a couple of verses from Jay. When Kanye steps in, quite late in the day, he steals the show with a line about how doing cocaine off the body of a black woman makes her look like a zebra. Classic Kanye no doubt, but it’s too little too late to save this song. Beyonce adds a bit of energy to track two, ‘Lift Off’, but for some reason the track fails to “lift off” in truly spectacular fashion. It’s only on first single ‘Otis’ that things really get going. This is a chooooon in which both Jay and Kanye manage to convince you they are the coolest men in the universe whilst unleashing some funny one liners that prove they still know how to have some fun. The antics get wilder on ‘Niggas In Paris’, which is built around a quote from the Will Farrell comedy ‘Blades of Glory’.

However, not all of the album is as ‘chillaxed’, and as it progresses the mood becomes more serious, with themes of race, nationality, wealth and politics becoming central to the conversation. ‘Made It In America’ works in this respect, but ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ and ‘Murder to Excellence’ are considerably less successful. ‘That’s My Bitch’ is a strangely addictive song but it’s strikingly similar to one of the hip hop parodies from Chris Liley’s ‘Angry Boys’ show. The sexist chorus is a just a bit embarrassing, the beat a bit too clinched, and the sample has been used countless times. It’s just far too predictable to work. The album closer ‘Why I Love You’ is also a bit underwhelming – the duo are at their best when they are trading verses, but their solo raps are a bit unmemorable and a bit too familiar a lot of the time.

Part of the appeal of Kanye’s excellent ‘Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy’ was hearing him knock down some of the public perceptions. He revealed a human side that hadn’t been seen before, and his confessionals were fascinating. ‘Watch My Throne’ just reinforces these perceptions; it’s the stereotypical big budget hip hop album and for the most part it’s pretty joyless and arrogant. In fact, I like it when Jay and Kanye cut loose, as on ‘Otis’, but far too often they are trying to get away with meaningless rhymes or straining to be serious, as on ‘Murder to Excellence’. I’m left feeling a bit confused as to what they were trying to achieve – was this meant to be a serious and innovative rap album or was it meant to simply be a chance for Kanye and Jay to let off some steam and have fun? It sounds like they weren’t sure either which has resulted in an inconsistent, incohesive, clichéd and sample heavy mess. From time to time they show why they are the best rappers (and why Kanye is the best hip hop producer) but they do it far too little to make this the classic album it wants to be.

5.5/10

Kanye West ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’

Kanye West  is often drawn to writing about lights – on ‘Graduation’ it was the ‘Flashing Lights’ of the paparazzi that compelled him and repulsed him in equal measure, on ’808s and heartbreak’ the ‘Street Lights’ flashing reminded him how quickly moments can pass. That song in particular captured the sense of regret and melancholy that haunted Kanye’s last album. On ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ he is once again using lights as metaphors, but not just street lights or flashing lights but ‘All of the Lights’. ‘Cop lights, flashlights, spotlights, strobe lights, street lights, all of the lights, ALL OF THE LIGHTS!’ The song features an assortment of some of the most succesful talents in hip hop and pop – Elton John, Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Kid Cudi, La Roux, Bon Iver and John Legend. On this album no expense is spared, the overindulgence mark is passed in the first ten minutes and yet everyone comes out smelling of roses. After making perhaps the best minimalist hip hop album last time round Kanye’s now successfully made the best maximalist one as well.

The samples are eclectic, from The Byrds to King Crimson, Bon Iver to Aphex Twin, and they are used a lot more imaginatively than on previous albums. I’ve always felt Kanye has used his samples far to obviously in the past, sometimes using them as an easy reference point for a feeling he was too lazy to convey in other ways (see ‘Stronger’ or ‘Good Life’) but here the samples are more appropriate, more a part of the whole and they are used in combination with original music, solid beats and some unusual effects. ‘Power’ is a good example of where an unexpected sample (borrowed from ’21st Century Schizoid Man’) is used as a backdrop for some brilliant rhymes.

Kanye’s flow as a rapper is often overlooked,and it is sometimes said that he doesn’t have the natural ability of the likes of Jay Z, Nas, Twista or Eminem, but it seems like now he may have actually embraced that fact. He takes a back seat on a couple of these songs, and often he doesn’t even try to compete with his guests, his rapping style seems to be slower and more considered than before, his verses are certainly more condensed and considered. Because of this I found myself paying more attention to what he is actually saying, and luckily for him what he is saying is much more interesting than how he says it.

If this album shows Kanye has learnt one thing, it’s how to embrace his many contradictions. ‘Lost in the World’ begins with a string of them – ‘you’re my angel, you’re my devil, you’re my heaven, you’re my hell.’ On this album, as much as ever before, Kanye is constantly (but at least now with self-awareness) contradicting himself; on one hand he sees himself as a god but on the other hand he is a constant failure. In the space of just a couple of minutes during the opening track Kanye goes from hedonistic legend (lines include ‘So much head I woke up in sleepy hollow’ and ‘Sex is on fire I’m the king of Leon’) to miserable poet (‘The plan was to drink untill the pain over but what’s worse the pain or the hangover’.)

The three songs that end this record are the most revealing about Kanye’s inner demons; the auto-tune on ‘Lost in the World’ and the downbeat piano that is at the centre of ‘Blame Game’ recalls the sadness of ’808′s and Heartbreak.’ At the beginning of ‘Blame Game’ he is  heart wrenchingly honest, saying ‘I’d rather argue with you than be with someone else’ and then he pleas for ‘someone to help.’ Gradually though the song devolves into a discussion about sex and ego. ‘I know you aint getting this type of dick from that local dude,’ he claims before adding ‘you should be grateful a nigga like me ever noticed you.’ Whereas Kanye has put out plenty of songs about how great he is and plenty of songs about how sad he is, on this album he is joining the dots between the two emotions. On these tracks it becomes obvious that Kanye’s ego is a mask, a defense mechanism when he gets hurt. Kanye is revealing why he is arrogant and in doing so he is rebranding himself as someone we can relate to, still a giant ego, but a human one.

Sometimes it isn’t so much about how good an album is as an album but how good it is as an event. Have you heard ‘Thriller’ recently? As an album it isn’t a patch on ‘Off The Wall’, it’s six of the best songs ever made strung together by three pretty average ones, it’s classic for many reasons but it’s strength as a start to finish record isn’t one of them. But it was an event – it had killer singles, groundbreaking videos, iconic imagery, there were those incredible live performances, Michael’s much hyped appearances on tv and at awards shows, his bizarre interviews, and an overall aura that people brought into.

Kanye West knows this as well, and he has done his damnedest to make sure that ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ is just as much of an event as ‘Thriller’ was. Of course it never could be, no matter how much he tried – Kanye is a rapper and a producer at the end of the day, not a showman in quite the same way as MJ. Nonetheless this album has been preceded by a string of free downloads, an excellent hit single, a 30 minute ‘short film’ (that is also pretty excellent) a webchat with fans, numerous tv interviews and award show appearances. Kanye has managed to create almost unprecedented hype for this album in a time when people aren’t really getting excited about anything, let alone the fifth Kanye West album in as many years. He has managed to twist his negative public image into something positive and in the process he has created a tide of good will towards him. He has embraced his arrogance, his rashness, and all his other faults and he’s made a pretty spectacular album (event) about it.

I don’t want to go out on a limb and say this is the best hip hop album ever made because, well, I’m not sure that it is – I’m not even sure I prefer it to ’808s and Heartbreak’ at the moment. But when I compare it to other seminal hip hop albums of recent times it holds up extremely well. This is just as cohesive as ‘The Black Album’ or ‘The Blueprint’, very nearly as experimental as ‘Speakerboxxx/The Love Below’, and much more interesting than ‘The Carter III’. It can’t quite match those albums in some other respects but ‘My Dark Twisted Fantasy’ is still pretty unbeatable in most areas. In many ways this feels like a landmark album; it’s the most epic, artful, ambitious, and captivating  hip hop record in a long time. All things considered Kanye West has achieved exactly what he wanted – he talks and the world listens, he is the best pop star on the planet right now. ‘Something wrong, I hold my head, MJ gone, A Nigga dead!’ Michael Jackson may be dead but his legacy of taking over the world through eccentric pop music lives on in Kanye West.

9/10

New from Kanye West

If you aren’t familiar with Kanye’s Good Friday then basically it’s when Kanye West releases a new song from his website every Friday. Simple. Truth be told I’ve been unimpressed by most of the free downloads so far but there have been a couple of good ones most recently. Below are ‘Lord Lord Lord’ and ‘Runaway’, which Kanye will be releasing as his next single. ‘Runaway’ is particularly good, it fuses the emotions Kanye unlocked on his last album with the style of rapping that made him popular to begin with.

New Kanye West

Kanye West has been out of the spoghtlight for a long time now, his Taylor Swift outburst was one step too far for many people so it’s probably for the best that he’s been keeping his head down.

But now he’s back and later on in the year he will release his fifth album,  ‘Good Ass Job’.  The first single from it is called ‘Power’ and it leaked earlier today. The song is a return to Kanye’s traditional hip hop sound after a brief flirtation with downbeat electro on his last album. I’m sorry to say that it isn’t that original or mind-blowing, but it’s a catchy tune nonetheless. Youtube keeps removing the video so you can listen to it at HypeM below – see what you think.

Here

Help for Haiti

Rock stars love to be seen doing something for charity. Cynical? Perhaps, but also very true. And so it is that two new charity singles are being released to benifit Haiti.

The UK will be releasing ‘Everybody Hurts’, a cover of the R.E.M song featuring the likes of Take That, Robbie Williams, Kylie Minouge, Leona Lewis, Westlife and Cheryl Cole. I don’t really care what their motives are for releasing the song, if it does well and raises bags of money then I can’t complain – even if Simon Cowell completely misunderstood the meaning of the song, even if it is the least cohesive sing along in history, even if it’s as corny as a Vanila Ice song, even if it hurts my ears.

The USA meanwhile will be re-releasing the Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie song ‘We Are The World’ with a new cast of singers and actors. It’s a bizarre and completely random list of stars, you have the likes of Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Pink, Miley Cyrus, Akon and Usher singing with old timers like Brian Wilson and Al Jardine of The Beach Boys, Tony Bennet and Celine Dion. At least the song is entirely appropriate for the cause, and again you can’t really complain, Haiti needs all the help it can get.

Below is ‘Everybody Hurts’

Mr Hudson ‘Straight No Chaser’ – Review

Mr Hudson and The Library’s debut album passed the world by without making any major impact. I remember really liking the cover, I remember listening to it once and being as impressed as I was repulsed by certain garish aspects of it. The level of musicianship was high, certain songs were catchy but the lyrics were cringe worthy at times and his singing voice was off putting if brilliantly English. I didn’t listen to it again.

So when I heard that Kanye West had adopted Mr Hudson as a protege, I was extremely surprised. This was more than random, it was absolutely bizarre. What did Kanye West see in this slightly out there, slightly old fashioned indie act from England? Obviously he saw something because Mr H has now become part of Kanye’s hip hop elite, working with the likes of Jay Z, Kid Cudi and Kanye himself. Now, at last, we can hear his much anticipated second album ‘Straight No Chaser’.

Obviously much has changed from last time round – most noticeably The Library have disappeared leaving Mr Hudson out front on his own – and this is very much a solo album. The natural sounds of the debut have also been replaced by more hip hop beats, vocoders and 80′s synths making this a much more contemporary album than ‘A Tale Of Two Cities’. It fits in quite snuggly with the more laid back trend of hip hop in the last two years heading in a similar direction to Kanye’s own ’808 and Heartbreak’, with less satisfying results. Mr Hudson was going for a mass market pop album and for the most part he succeeds.

First single ‘Supernova’ is one of the catchiest songs I’ve heard all year, even if it doesn’t quite sound as epic as the title suggests it should. New single ‘White Lies’ is another very enjoyable pop song that may have you singing along, as will ‘Knew We Were Trouble’, easily the best thing on here. And when Mr Hudson gets the formula right, as he does on these songs, this can be a very enjoyable, very English modern pop album. unfortunately there are far too many moments when the formula goes stale, when he repeats himself such as on the title track or the insipid ‘Instant Mesanger’. All the songs sound essentially the same, which is a shame after the last album’s eclectic nature. The best songs are the ones Kanye had a direct role in, and Kid Cudi also brings some class to ‘Everything is Broken’; its moments like this when you think Mr Hudson is worthy of all the attention he has received.

‘Straight No Chaser’ is a very satisfactory and enjoyable pop record, featuring some brilliantly catchy songs. Mr Hudson combines some English wit and humour with very American beats to good effect. However It is very hit and miss and I’m not sure if many songs will stand repeat listens. You can guarantee that many of these songs will be played on the radio for months to come, so if you buy this album expecting familiar, fun songs you will have a good time – if you expect anything deeper, in the mould of his last record, you may be disappointed.

6/10