Discography Review - Kanye West
Before you read
This review is part of my New Year's resolution to listen to a different discography weekly. The reviews aren't bands/artists I've never listened to. Instead, the goal of this is to give artists a full chance beyond their "hits" as I feel many artists have "hidden gems." I am working hard to make sure while listening to not allow any pre-existing biases or other opinions to impact my reviews. With all that said, let's get into the review!
The Review
Kanye is a very strange artist to listen to. Some of his songs have a very odd flow with very random sections in them, and sometimes it actually works really well! Songs like "On Sight" and "Dark Fantasy" come to mind as examples of doing that well.
Kanye had a very solid first few albums that I felt had consistent quality. While Late Registration only has a few songs I would go out of my way to praise, I feel it has a very consistent flow and is overall a solid album. With that said, Graduation and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy are by far Kanye's best albums. Despite releasing in 2007 and 2010 respectively every single song in each album still stands very strong against the current-day releases. There is never a dull moment with those albums and both have made their way onto my list of albums I listen to regularly.
All that being said, Kanye's batting average is overwhelmingly low. He has incredibly strong singles and the features on his tracks are some of the best I've heard, however that does not leave much to be said about the rest of his releases. The albums Ye, KIDS SEE GHOSTS, and Watch The Throne all leave more to be desired. For the first two it could be the short track list, each only running about 20 minutes long. The worst thing is that most of his songs aren't even bad, they're just completely forgettable. Admittedly, I have not listened to very much Kanye prior to this week, and quite frankly I still feel as though I have not listened to much Kanye.
The Highs
The best albums (and my favorite tracks on them) were definitely
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
- Dark Fantasy
- Runaway
Late Registration
- Gold Digger
- Celebration
Graduation
- I Wonder
- Homecoming
The Lows
My least favorite albums (and my least favorite tracks on them) were
808's & Heartbreaks
- RoboCop
- Pinocchio Story
Watch The Throne
- Gotta Have It
- Lift Off
The Takeaway
Kanye is a great artist and shows off some really cool ideas in his music! I think oftentime he either does too much or does too less with his musical process, but when he hits that perfect balancing points he puts out some of the best rap and hip-hop I've listened to. He is absolutely worth a listen and is a solid 7/10 in my book.