Just one more post about Kanye West

I reviewed The Life of Pablo with my friends AJ, Matty, and Stefan on the Indieheads Podcast, and you should check it out if you haven’t had enough Kanye forcibly shoved down your throat in the past few weeks. The world is scheduled to keep spinning now, assuming he doesn’t drop the threatened revised/deluxe edition of the album.

WHY? – Eskimo Snow

The following is an old and imperfect essay that birthed the idea for this blog. My original writeup can be found here as part of an ongoing weekly thread done by a buddy of mine. Otherwise, here’s a slightly revised version that still doesn’t QUITE fit the general tone of my blog.

When I signed up to do this review, I originally requested to write about Alopecia, an almost perfect album that deserves praise and adoration as it can get, but, at the last second, I decided to change to Eskimo Snow, a difficult, uncompromising record. I did this for a handful of reasons; for one, I felt like Alopecia already has a certain level of recognition where indie-oriented folks are going to discover it simply because of the weight of its name. However, I primarily chose Eskimo Snow because I think that Eskimo Snow often falls into Alopecia’s shadow, with some fans of the band having written it off and many people checking out WHY? just listening to Alopecia and not digging deeper.

I have a complicated relationship with this record; while I love it, nearly two years ago in late January, when I was really, deeply into this album, I almost killed myself. Though I am in a much better place and have a better outlook now, returning to the orgy of depression and twinkling melodies that comprise this record was, admittedly, challenging for me to do. However, I think returning to the album was worth it.

In many ways, it would be apt to call Alopecia and Eskimo Snow two sides of the same coin; the former, though still quite bitter, has a definitive optimism to it and the latter is considerably bleak; the former is a meticulously crafted and nuanced piece of art and the latter is a looser, more freeform work aimed at sounding almost like a live recording; the former with a focus on autobiography and the latter with a focus on direct feeling. Ultimately, Eskimo Snow is a raw, hard take on Yoni Wolf while Alopecia is a more refined and deliberate take on the band’s somewhat eccentric lyricist, and though Alopecia is incredible, I think Eskimo Snow benefits from this. The songs don’t follow any kind of normal structure and just focus on these little snapshots of Yoni’s life and emotional status.

The album starts off with a brief second of building ambience, a loud clang of a xylophone key, and the second comparison Yoni made between himself and Jesus during this era; “I wear the customary clothes of my time, like Jesus did, with no reason not to die.” This is also the first mention of death in the album, and far from the last. Death haunts this record in a way entirely unique to itself but common to the human condition; it’s just there, ever present, creeping up at unexpected times. This is not only a strength in its own specific right, but a strength of the record in general; Yoni’s lyricism is less complete here than it was on Alopecia (it’s mostly scrambled thoughts stacked up against each other, one after the next), and while that prevents him from telling the normal-events-through-an-eccentric-lens stories that make that record great, it does allow him to portray the human condition and give us a greater insight to who he is as a person.

This “incompleteness” shapes the instrumentation and song structure (although perhaps it was the other way around in the writing process), which turns the album into a series of working parts and transitions, each building out of the last while the last falls away like a used wrapper. This is not only fascinating as a listener, but an effective match to the lyricism and a feature that makes the album feel like it’s always moving, always progressing. It keeps it fresh, and the delicate balance that the instrumentation strikes with the lyricism made for a uniquely individualistic record and, in my opinion, gives WHY? a claim to a second truly great record.

Office Chart 2/19/16

A summary of what I’ve been listening to this week:

1. “Father Stretch My Hands” by Kanye West (from The Life Of Pablo)
2. “Fly Shit Only” by Future (from Evol)
3. “Oh Shit” by The Pharcyde (from Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde)
4. “Staircase” by Radiohead (single)
5. “Modern Soul” by James Blake (single)
6. “It’s Gonna Take An Airplane” by Destroyer (from Your Blues)
7. “If I Were A Bell” by Miles Davis (from Relaxin’ With The Miles Davis Quintet)

Raprock The Movement was bad, but Raprock The Genre doesn’t have to be

For those of you too young to understand the above image, I sincerely apologize for exposing you to it.

I got to thinking about Rap Rock and Nu Metal while working on a writeup discussing Incubus’ If Not Now When, and ultimately came to the conclusion that raprock isn’t inherently bad. There are plenty of examples of rock and hip hop mixing and doing it well since the original Nu Metal/Rap Rock movement back in the late ninties and early aughts–to name one phenomenal example, go look at N*E*R*D*’s entire debut album, and if you want to go deeper, all the albums it influenced. Just last year rap rock had some great additions in a few of the songs from Death Grips’ Jenny Death (an album whose title seems rather silly when taken out of context and put next to their name) and “Deathcamp,” the opener to Tyler, The Creator’s new album.

Rap Rock was bad because of who was doing it, not because of what it is. The nu metal bands high off the drama of the 90s that are popularly associated with and were at the forefront of rap rock at the height of its popularity, as well as some less than stellar contributions from the hip hop world (looking at you, Run DMC), are what have set and moulded public opinion of the genre as, well, bad. I think ultimately the issue with these songs and albums is that the source material that it was coming from was already bad. With the Run DMC cover, the song they chose was already trite and annoying, and with the nu metal raprock bands, their writing was going to be dumbed down anyway, regardless of what genre they were making; even without the rapping, Linkin Park was still going to be cliched, angsty poo, Limp Bizkit was already going to be douche-core, and Creed was always going to be the band your retrospectively abusive High School boyfriend was really into. These bands weren’t bad because they were raprock, they were bad because they were bad.

Office Chart 2/12/16

A summary of what I’ve been listening to this week, because this is not a Kanye West Blog:

1. “Company In My Back” by Wilco (from A Ghost Is Born)
2. “Aint No Time” by Future (from Evol)
3. “Don’t Let Me Down” by The Beatles (from Let It Be… Naked)
4. “There Will Be Tears” by Frank Ocean (from nostalgia ULTRA)
5. “Lower World” by At The Close of Every Day (from Zalig Zijn De Armen Van Geest)
6. “The Mother Lode” by Thom Yorke (from Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes)
7. “Tell Your Friends” by The Weeknd (extended cut)
8. “Pink Rabbits” by The National (from Trouble Will Find Me)
9. “Girl” by Jamie xx (from In Colour)
10. “Dragon” by Adult Rodeo (from The Kissyface)

First Impressions of The Life of Pablo

We discussed Yeezy Season 3 and Kanye’s new album, The Life of Pablo on the Indieheads Podcast tonight. Listen here:

Speaking of Kanye…

Here’s the incredible full version of The Weeknd’s “Tell Your Friends,” featuring strong verses from Kanye and Drake and a wonderful extended outro.

On “Facts” by Kanye West

Being a Kanye West fan in public can be complicated. The dude is pretty hated in some circles–from frustrated ex-fans to curmudgeonly non-Kanye West fans who really only know him for getting up on awards show stages when he shouldn’t have. Or, sometimes you will get people who think all this here rippity rap music is bad and just know that Kanye is a popular rapper and hate him for that. Then, throw in a few racists and you’ve got a more complete cast of characters, but there are still plenty of others who don’t fit the bill. No matter who it is, however, it’s probably better to just stay quiet until you are in the company of like-minded individuals.

I am a massive Kanye West fan. I am also a Drake fan, and I am a fan of some of Future’s work, especially his stuff on What A Time To Be Alive and the brand new Evol. I love the song “Jumpman.” With all that in mind, you’d think I’d love Kanye West’s relatively new song/freestyle, “Facts,” which finds Kanye using the flow from “Jumpman” and effectively covering the song with his own lyrics. You would be very, very wrong.

Kanye West should never have covered “Jumpman,” let alone release that cover on the internet. This isn’t because Kanye West is bad, or because he’s not good anymore, or because “Jumpman” was actually just a bad song in the first place. It’s because he wasn’t meant to play the part. Something Drake and Future alike excel at is effortless cool. This is why they made a great pair on What A Time To be Alive, and part of why they’re two of hip hop’s most popular artists right now. “Effortlessly cool” is not something I would use to describe Kanye by any means. Kanye is really quite the opposite, and that’s part of his charm: for his entire career (save Yeezus and perhaps My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy) ‘Ye has been the earnest, goodie-two-shoes try-hard of hip hop. “Earnest” seems very against public perception of him, but anyone who’s dived into Kanye’s discography knows that some of his best on-record music has been about how much he loves his mom and what Jay-Z’s friendship and guidance has meant to him. “Goodie-two-shoes” would also strike an outsider as being wrong, but not only has Kanye written songs about his strong belief in family values (and later how much he loves his wife and an incredibly moving song focused on how his mom will never meet his daughter), when he does portray himself like some kind of tough guy trouble maker, it’s all comparatively tiny offenses when put next to the foil of Gangster Rap. The worst thing Kanye describes himself doing in his music is a small theft from the Gap that he committed out of resentment towards his boss and or shift manager at the store. This is absolutely nothing in a genre that has had a rapper threaten to “sow your ass shut and keep feeding you and feeding you and feeding you,” especially when you consider that Kanye came up onto the scene when that type of music was most prevalent. Whether it fits your image of him or not, and no matter how well dressed he is, Kanye West is kind of nerd. Drake and Future are not nerds. They’re the cool new guys in hip hop. Drake is a heartthrob and Future spits out 15 club hits a year. Considering the fact that Kanye does not possess what made the original song great, it’s no wonder “Facts” is bad.

Listen to “Facts” on Soundcloud.

 

Stray Thoughts:

• I wanted to take a moment to talk about the lyrics. I wanted to focus on why Kanye could have never ever ever ever ever have made a good “Jumpman” remix/freestyle/whatever this monstrosity is, it’s still remarkable just how bad this song is. Kanye just isn’t really that good at bragging about himself. He’s had good lines here and there throughout his career, but the funniest “oh, you” lines where Kanye just sounds silly have always been when he’s bragged about his accomplishments. Not that he doesn’t deserve to brag—he’s one of the top selling artists of our generation and one of the most acclaimed. Something just doesn’t come together, ESPECIALLY on “Facts”. When Drake and Future brag, it feels like some sort of energetic factual statement about how awesome they are rather than straight up bragging about themselves. In “Facts,” Kanye sounds like he’s forcing it, and not even in a focused way. He jumps from topic to topic throughout the song, switching back and forth between dissing Nike and talking about random shit going on in his life, taking a single pit stop to give an unwelcomed opinion on the Bill Cosby scandal. It’s a trainwreck.
• I am more excited for So Help Me God/Swish/Waves/TLOP than any other upcoming album that I know about right now. “Only One,” “Wolves,” “Real Friends,” and “No More Parties in LA” are all some of the best songs that Kanye has made in his career, and any album with three of those on it is bound to be incredible. And, even if it’s not, it should at least be fun.

Stuff here soon

I was surprised to see that I’ve gotten 9 23 hits despite the fact that I haven’t actually made any posts yet! Also kinda disappointed that people found my blog and I didn’t have any content up. So, here’s a placeholder, and a schedule of when things are going to happen. Anything past this week in the schedule is really just spitballing, though.

2/9/16 @ 4pm EST: writeup discussing Kanye West’s “Facts.” This has already been written and scheduled, I just wanted to be organized about when posts go up so I’m waiting a little bit.

2/10/16: A playlist from my archives

2/14/16: Thom Yorke-style Office Chart

2/16/16: A writeup on WHY?’s Eskimo Snow, Incubus’s If Not Now, When?, or Sufjan Steven’s Carrie & Lowell, depending on what I feel like finishing

Planned essays:

Classic: David Bowie – “Fame” (classic)

Classic: Nick Drake – Pink Moon

What Went Wrong With Arcade Fire’s Reflektor