Missed the list: Kanye West 808s and Heartbreak
Categories: Upbeats and Beatdowns
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Every year, in the weeks after I have submitted my year-end best-of lists, I take a few days to go through everyone else's lists to catch things I overlooked, ignored and missed out on. This has been a ritual since the days I was only making those lists for myself, and it's yielded some great stuff -- last year, for example, I discovered Yeasayer, one of my current favorites, when the band made multiple year-end-best lists. Originally, I'd ignored it as another hipster flavor-of-the-week band. Oops!
This year, I haven't had time to really dig into the lists (too
busy!) but one thing I totally missed the boat on is currently in heavy
rotation at Chez Moi: Kanye West's 808s and Heartbreak. I've
never been a fan of Kanye before (good thing my girlfriend is --
thanks, honey!), and the first time I heard this disc it annoyed me so
much I wanted to punch someone -- preferably him -- in the face. But
after a few listens, the ultra-minimalist aesthetic and amusing,
well-constructed tunes really captured my imagination. I could still do
without the auto-tuned vocals (dude, there are so many cooler ways to
sound robotic than the fucking auto-tune software...), but it does kind
of fit. Anyway, if I had really listened to this disc before my
year-ends, it almost certainly would have made the top ten. It's
really, really good. Now I just need to find a few days to really look
at all the lists and find out what else I missed...
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