Sullen solo-piano Aphex Twin plays beneath morose cello with a chorus from John Legend, a dejected, embittered West - whose voice toggles between naturally clear-sounding and ominously pitched-down as it pans back and forth - tempers wistfully-written, maliciously-delivered lines like 'Been a long time since I spoke to you in a bathroom, ripping you up, fuckin' and chokin' you' with untreated and distinctively pained confessions like 'I can't love you this much.' The contrast in 'Devil in a New Dress,' featuring Rick Ross, is of a different sort a throwback soul production provided by the Smokey Robinson-sampling Bink, it's as gorgeous as any of West's own early work, yet it's marred by an aimless instrumental stretch, roughly 90 seconds in length, that involves some incongruent electric guitar flame-out. 'Blame Game' chills more than anything off 808s & Heartbreak. At once, the song features one of the year's most rugged beats while supplying enough opulent detail to make Late Registration collaborator Jon Brion's head spin. Its making involved 42 people, including not one but two French horn players and over a dozen high-profile vocalists, only some of which are perceptible. It’s a celebration of fame ('Fast cars, shooting stars') and a lament of its consequences ('Restraining order/Can't see my daughter').

Nothing exemplifies its contrasting elements and maniacal extravagance as much as 'All of the Lights.' Rattling, raw, synthetic toms are embellished with brass, woodwinds, and strings. Consequently, the sonic and emotional layers are often difficult to pry apart and enumerate. The 13 tracks, eight of which are between five and nine minutes in length, sometimes fuse them together simultaneously. In some ways, it's the culmination of Kanye West's first four albums, but it does not merely draw characteristics from each one of them.

Listening to it, much like saying or typing its title, is a laborious process. Buy the album Starting at €16,39Īs fatiguing as it is invigorating, as cold-blooded as it is heart-rending, as haphazardly splattered as it is meticulously sculpted, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is an extraordinarily complex 70-minute set of songs.

Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.

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