After the death of his mother and a rough break-up, Kanye West fell into a hedonistic lifestyle, which at its high points saw him making a brief career change into the self-indulgent world of Auto-Tune, and at its lowest, the infamous stage invasion at last year’s VMAs. In My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, the man takes a step back, and the music takes centre stage. Perhaps realising that the world was not yet prepared for another pure dose of Kanye West, he receives a lot of assistance from not only the usual suspects – Jay-Z, Kid Cudi and John Legend make appearances – but from any artist he takes a particular liking to; he enlists indie group Bon Iver, socialite Teyana Taylor and Elton John as backing singers, and samples the radical spoken-word artist Gil Scott Heron to close the album. By balancing such contrasting styles and moulding them to fit his own musical vision, Kanye lets his music do the talking.
That is not to say that the album isn’t filled with the idiosyncrasies and contradictions of Kanye West. In ‘Runaway’ he paints a brutally honest self-portrait, calling himself a ‘douchebag,’ ‘asshole,’ ‘scumbag’ and ‘jerk-off’ – while in the next song he is declaring that ‘pussy and religion is all I need’. The bleakest song of the album, ‘Blame Game,’ shows Kanye wondering how far he is responsible for a failing relationship, and is followed by a three minute skit by Chris Rock, who praises Kanye for teaching his girlfriend some new sex moves. By embracing his contradictions and presenting them, without apology, on this album, and accompanying them with the most advanced musical sound of his career, Kanye West has made a masterpiece.
Five stars