My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Great Quality and SelectionThe CDs arrived in excellent condition with no scratches or playback issues. Each one played clearly and delivered great sound quality. The selection offered exactly what I was looking for, and it's always a plus to have physical copies for collection and reliable playback. Whether for casual listening or adding to a music library, these CDs were a great buy. Very satisfied with the overall purchase.

A solid portion of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy earned its premiere on YouTube in the form of a half-hour music video for the single "Runaway." Opening the album with the same song as the video, titling it "Dark Fantasy," Kanye gives the first words to a female narrator, a fallen phoenix. With a choir of oohs and aahs in the background, she says "you might think you've peeped the scene. You haven't, the real one's far too mean. The watered down one, the one you know, was made up centuries ago. It made it sound all whack and corny. Yes, it's awful, blasted boring. Twisted fiction, sick addiction, well gather round children, zip it listen!" A grand piano chord quickly follows this short narrative and so begins Kanye's latest epic production.Kanye is no stranger to grandiose compositions. Even his debut album, The College Dropout, had nearly an hour and twenty minutes of music with standout tracks like "Jesus Walks" paving the way for a new generation of artists. However, never before has Kanye blended so many genres of music together or taken so many musical chances on one record. Even a simple glimpse at the guest list is enough to make the heads of fans spin. Elton John, Chris Rock, Rihanna, Fergie, John Legend, Kid Cudi, Rick Ross and Jay-Z all on the same album? Bon Iver on a hip hop record? If there was ever any question as to how this could all work, a single listen to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is all the proof you'll need.Although the entire album has an unquestionable flow that keeps every song fresh and intriguing, there are two tracks on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy that truly capture what Kanye West has built his career up to. The first is "All of the Lights." Complete with its own cello and piano interlude, "All of the Lights" throws an entire brass section into the mix and allows Rihanna as many if not more of the featured vocals in the song. Although strings and brass have all been used within the realm of hip hop before, the stylistic blend between classical, fanfare, and club worthy beats in less than a minute feels natural and effortless on "All of the Lights." The second feature track is, appropriately, the lead single "Runaway." Opening with a minimalist piano part similar to the end of Nine Inch Nails' "Closer," Kanye takes the listener on a six minute journey with some astute lyrics of self-reflection. As the beat abruptly ends and leaves the piano on its own once again, one may think the track has finished, but an additional 3 minutes of deep staccato strings behind a vocoder solo offer proof of Kanye's desire to push the boundaries of acceptable singles in today's pop culture.Kanye West is not perfect. You know it, he knows it, and we all know the media exploits his imperfections to no end. Sure, he made a fool of himself on stage when he stole the spotlight from Taylor Swift at the VMAs. Yep, he sent a racy photo of himself to a woman that ended up on the internet. OK, his last album, 808s & Heartbreak, put a few nails in Auto-Tune's coffin, but like him or not, he's a visionary and a musical mastermind. With three phenomenal albums, The College Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation, already under his belt, Kanye West enters his second decade of musical production with his best solo release yet. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy has once again upped the standards of rap that he himself set.Similar Artists: Jay-Z, Dr. DreTrack Suggestion: "All of the Lights"

Kanye West is undoubtedly one of the most unapologetically honest rappers to ever pick up a microphone. He knows what he is and what he's doing and as such, produces some of the most self-aware and truthful music in the industry. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is the penultimate Kanye album in a long line of already highly competent albums and one of the best albums of 2010.This is the ultimate realization of the themes that have shaped his music career. Materialism, rejection, love, loss and sadness, MBDTF has a very dark overtone about it and the more you listen to it, the more you begin to feel as though you're delving further and further into West's subconscious. Similar to 808s and Heartbreak, Kanye lets it all hang out. He's unrelenting, unconcentrated and strangely focused. Like an expert sniper, he zeroes in on his target and strikes with precision. There's no nonsense, just an unfiltered display of raw emotion.Lyrically, this is Kanye's strongest and most consistent work yet. Where he showed glimpses of greatness on the track Gone from his second album, Late Registration, he now seems capable of replicating that level of lyricism across an entire album. The level of depth and complexity in his rhymes has exceeded that of any other album he's released so far. Kanye's greatest asset in my eyes is how self-aware he is and it shows in his rhymes, such as in the song Gorgeous in which he says "I'll choke the South Park writers with a fish stick". This line sounds appropriately cathartic within the tone of the song itself.Guest appearances are also excellent, demonstrated best on the feature heavy tracks Monster and So Appalled. Jay-Z is as lyrically potent as one would expect from such a veteran in the industry but it is Nicki Minaj that surprised me most on her verse on Monster. She outshines both West and even the venerable Jay-Z in her performances, playing with many differing lyrical and vocal styles in her just over a minute long verse. I was very impressed and I saw for the first time why she has been surrounded with such a great amount of hype in her short career.In terms of cohesion, this is one of the most well put together album I've heard in years, second, at least recently, to Janelle Monae's The ArchAndroid. Each track flows logically from one song into the next. Layered perfectly, building on the foundation of the song before it but still sounding fresh. The album's title almost perfectly reflects the music contained within it as you really get a sense that this has come from the darkest recesses of Kanye's subconscious and is reflected in not only his and his guest's lyricism but the production behind it.My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is an amazing album that really comes together in every way. It's the most consistently brilliant, cohesive and lyrically impressive album Kanye West has released since 2005's Late Registration and is easily one of the best albums released in a year that was already quite good for great album releases. It remains to be seen whether or not Kanye West can top himself with his next album going forward but based on what he has done here, he seems perfectly capable of pulling it off.

This album is amazing, top 5 hip hop album in my opinion. The vinyl sounds clean, extra depth and soundscape that you would miss on a CD or streaming. The albums feel sturdy and a good pressing, plus the extras inside the album are great accompaniments. Highly recommend for any Kanye or hip hop fan wanting to add to their collection. Runaway sounds absolutely wonderful.