After all, Lou Reed is one of the most influential songwriters in the history of rock music, and Metallica is freakin' Metallica. Who would've guessed that that same group that made this forgettable album would go on to become one of the most acclaimed rock acts of all time? (Also, for what it's worth, closer "Blow Out" kinda rips.) Heck, a non-album single from this era was a bouncy little number called "Pop Is Dead," which tells you everything you need to know about the band's mindset. There are jokey songs about self-gratification ("Thinking About You"), entries in the Britpop sweepstakes ("Anyone Can Play Guitar") and the types of songs that sound like they were recorded by a new band making a debut album ("Stop Whispering"). Yes, "Creep" is the song that launched Radiohead into the mainstream and remains a generational classic to this day, but the rest of the band's 1993 debut is, to put it lightly, rough. Sure, it's easy for Radiohead purists to dunk on the band's 2003 effort, "The King of Limbs," as being its most disappointing effort following a nearly untethered run of game-changing rock records, but if we're being honest here, "Pablo Honey" still sounds like the work of a completely different band. And while some were able to "put up" with West's antics 'cos the music was at least redeemable, the bottom dropped out on "Jesus is King," and his Sunday Service Choir's follow-up record tanked in the charts. Despite some dynamic production choices, the poorly-thought-out metaphors about Chick-fil-A and lines about the IRS taxing him so much he has to raise the price of his merchandise sound utterly discordant with his new spiritual message. Yet even with his increasingly erratic political views and frighteningly uniformed public statements, people were still excited for his long-rumored gospel album - until they heard it. Since then West's bold vision let him experiment and push his sonic further, slowly spending his artistic capital on an ever-dwindling fan base. Declared a classic the second it dropped, this "Fantasy" was immediately dissected and critically fawned over while shoving nearly every act associated with it (Bon Iver, Nicki Minaj, etc.) into the mainstream. When Kanye West dropped "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" near the end of 2010, it solidified his status as one of the greatest rapper/producers of all time.
0 kommentar(er)
