Full disclosure: I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to hip-hop. For example, listening to Kanye's 808s for this assignment was the first time I heard auto-tune used in a non-ironic capacity. I had preconceptions of both of these albums -- Gorillaz based on the two tracks I had heard before, Kanye based on vague notions of him out there in the culture. My mental image of what Kanye would be was somewhere between what he was in 808s and what the Gorillaz were in Demon Days. I was hoping that all of Demon Days would be like the songs I was familiar with, but it wasn't -- it was quite a bit broader than that, and so while on first listen I maybe didn't enjoy it as much as I expected to, it is a broader, deeper, and ultimately probably better album than the one I was expecting to hear. (As of this month, that is officially known as the Blunderbuss effect.)
After reading Eric Everman's last reviews, I am listening right now to Kanye's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and while doing so isn't affecting my ultimate decision on 808s vs. Demon Days, it does make it a heck of a lot clearer. MBDTF is ambitious, sprawling, energetic, personal, charged. 808s sounds like a mediocre hip-hop artist trying to imitate the Kanye of MBDTF.
Demon Days is fun, kind of all over the place, to the extent that there were some dud tracks, but all in all enjoyable. I don't expect it to make the semifinals or anything but it beat the heck out of 808s.
Decision: Demon Days
Now I need to go listen to Blunderbuss...
ReplyDeleteActually, Nate, were you supposed to review XTERMNTR vs Demon Days?
ReplyDeleteGood catch, as 808s has already gone through to the next round. If we had a good moderator around here...
ReplyDelete