Top 5 Albums that Disappointed in 2008
Kings of Leon-Only by the Night
I wanted to like the new album but there was no new ground explored on this album. The family Followill just made an album that made them appear to be sexier and rockier, but it didn’t reel me in, instead, it pushed me away.
Ben Fold-Way to Normal
Ben Folds needs to stop cussing so much on his albums. It was funny at first but now, it’s kind of annoying. I will never forget how the Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner changed my life.
Death Cab for Cutie-Narrow Stairs
There were too many creative muscles the band was trying to flex on this record that it kind of got lost and had no direction.
Kanye West-808s & Heartbreaks
I’m all for Kanye being confident and being the superstar he wants to be, but when he bucks to a trend, it’s lights out for Mr. West. The use of the vocoder was suppose to be sparingly.
Bloc Party-Intimacy
Le sigh. I don’t even know where to begin.
I agree with all of them except Kanye, I hate that vocoder stuff but the album has really great tracks except RoboCop.
but he sounds so whiny, even my wife was hating on the album and she’s loves him….
I agree about Kanye 100%. But in general, not just on this album.
I feel like Kanye’s just a master ripper of everything that was once cool, or is on it’s way out. He somehow manages to package boring raps in neat little consumable pop packages, and people buy it because it’s Kanye. I sometimes wonder where music would be without the king of mediocre pop.
damn, that’s pretty harsh, but probably well deserved. so, let me pose a question to you, what fad was he copping on college dropout or graduation day? i’m just playing devil’s advocate and curious as to what your response will be…
I just feel like Kanye’s whole style/demeanor isn’t original…and I know that not much is original these days, but his attitude tells me that he thinks he invented the rap game, or re-invented it at least. And maybe he did, making it more hipster than it’s ever been. It’s something that always bothered me about Diddy, the idea that he created something that he didn’t, and I guess that’s the biggest turn off for me with Kanye. And he plays the part Diddy did back in the 90s, from his insistence on being vocal on every track he touches lately down to his blinged-up Boyz II Men/old white man style. And also like Diddy, Kanye produced SO MANY really good albums (Ludacris, Jay-Z, Trina, T.I., Foxy Brown, the list goes forever), I kind of wish he had just stuck to that.
But to his credit, I thought “Through the Wire” was a great single. The high-pitched Chaka Kahn sample mixed with the simple honesty in his struggling voice was refreshing. He seemed humble but proud, and in a place like the rap game, that is hard to find. But I thought “Jesus Walks” was a little much, and “Gold Digger” was annoying (maybe more so because Jamie Foxx sounds foolish to me.) By the time Graduation came around, I had a low tolerance for Kanye. I thought “Stronger” was annoying and pompous. To me, it was kind of like, okay, Kanye, I got it. White people are all over your shit, and then you solidify it with Daft Punk. Yawn.
I guess not being well-versed in his non-singles makes me an ill-equipped critic of Kanye’s body of work. And my arguments against him could be made against many rappers I like. Lil’ Wayne made my Top 10 this year, and he while continues to intrigue me, I bet he annoys the shit out of other people. I’ll admit that my mind might be changed if I saw Kanye live, just as my love for Weezy was solidified by his stellar performance at Summer Jam this past summer.
So maybe I should re-tract how strong my criticism is of Kanye and chalk my dislike up to him just not being one of my favorites. Thanks for calling me out, Julio! 🙂