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Man, I was expecting brilliance after opening with No Church in the Wild, and then, while I wasn't feeling Lift Off, when I got to Niggas in Paris, figured that was the confirmation. But after that the only other one that *really* caught me was Murder to Excellence. There are several other decent songs, but even Who Gon' Stop Me and Why I Love You don't seem as *interesting* as anything off MBDTF (or Blueprint or The Black Album for that matter). "Decent" is aiming low for Kanye these days. ("Otis" seems at least like a big swing, even if it's a miss for me.) Oh, and I guess H.A.M. is worthwhile, even if it's kind of goofy, too. On the other hand, three great songs off an album really isn't bad, and maybe I just need to give a few more listens to some of the others.
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Aug 9, 2011 03:59
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Something about New Day makes me really emotional. Possibly my favourite.
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Aug 9, 2011 04:16
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I don't know. I think Gotta Have It and That's My Bitch are pretty good.
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Aug 9, 2011 04:25
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onefish posted:Man, I was expecting brilliance after opening with No Church in the Wild, and then, while I wasn't feeling Lift Off, when I got to Niggas in Paris, figured that was the confirmation. But after that the only other one that *really* caught me was Murder to Excellence. There are several other decent songs, but even Who Gon' Stop Me and Why I Love You don't seem as *interesting* as anything off MBDTF (or Blueprint or The Black Album for that matter). "Decent" is aiming low for Kanye these days. ("Otis" seems at least like a big swing, even if it's a miss for me.) Oh, and I guess H.A.M. is worthwhile, even if it's kind of goofy, too. It would be a chore but I'm sure if you go back to the MBDTF thread during release day most people say they are underwhelmed. It seems to happen with Kanye. I'm not saying that being underwhelmed is only a first listen type of thing, but that there's a good chance the album will grow on you.
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Aug 9, 2011 04:34
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KidDynamite posted:Does Illest Motherfucker Alive really start with 3 minutes of dead air? That's going to be annoying to play in the car. Good song too. Assuming you use iTunes, right click the track, hit Get Info, go to Options, set Start Time to 3:00. No more dead air. Album is sick. Some of the beats are so good that I just want to vibe out to the them on loop all day. Niggas in Paris would've benefited from not having the switch in the last minute though. I'd have loved another verse from Jay. His first is probably the hardest one on the album. The only tracks I'm not really feeling are Lift Off and New Day. New Day has some of the best rhymes from Kanye, but the beat doesn't really work with his flow, and I don't really dig the All of the Lights-esque strings that come in at the end of the hook.
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Aug 9, 2011 05:54
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A whole day and iTunes didn't contact contact anyone about the otis goof. Time to email.
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Aug 9, 2011 06:04
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Definitely a very good album. Favorites: No Church in the Wild, Niggas in Paris, Gotta Have It, Why I love You, The Joy. edit: with Niggas in Paris and Why I love You leading the field by a pretty wide margin. Jack's Flow fucked around with this message at 16:10 on Aug 9, 2011 |
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Aug 9, 2011 09:49
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No Church, Niggas in Paris, Murder to Excellence, New Day & The Joy are my favorite tracks. On the surface this seems like a flawed, but enjoyable release. I think this album will benefit from subsequent listens.
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Aug 9, 2011 11:41
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Sweet Baby Jesus!
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Aug 9, 2011 16:07
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Yes. Frank Ocean deserves this blowup like no one else I can think of
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Aug 9, 2011 17:01
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Listening to it now (just got done Illest Motherfucker Alive and just started Why I Love You), and I'm really enjoying it. It doesn't sound like it'll be as replayable as My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, but a lot of the verses are ridiculous and I dig the flow.
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Aug 9, 2011 17:31
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Of all the songs I have to say I'm not a fan of New Day. Doesn't help that I hate the original I guess. Made in America is a loving great song though.
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Aug 9, 2011 18:16
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A review that addressed some of my concerns: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6844020/let-eat-cake
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Aug 9, 2011 18:22
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I swear Murder to Excellence rips off Fabolous - You Be Killin Em on the underlying beat.
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Aug 9, 2011 18:33
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Absolutely loving No Church in the Wild, that opening hook is unreal.
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Aug 9, 2011 18:41
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Personally I still think MBDTF and 808s were better.
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Aug 9, 2011 18:47
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x TOMMYBOY x posted:Yes. Frank Ocean deserves this blowup like no one else I can think of Oddly enough is part of one of the strongest tracks (No Church in the Wild) and probably the worst (Made in America).
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Aug 9, 2011 18:49
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Quantum of Phallus posted:Absolutely loving No Church in the Wild, that opening hook is unreal. I guess I'm the only one, but I dislike both the words and the singing of the hook. I like the verses though
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Aug 9, 2011 18:52
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That's My Bitch needs a lot more love. Beat/sample is redic.
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Aug 9, 2011 18:55
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Anyone who ordered from that http://watchthethrone.shop.musictoday.com/ link get any kind of shipping confirmation yet? The link doesn't actually work anymore so I don't know how to check on such things.
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Aug 9, 2011 19:14
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Listened to this a few more times and it seems to me like Jay is only along for the ride. That's not to downplay his contributions, as I think he did an excellent job on the album, but I feel like Kanye is the major driving force behind the whole thing. Pretty sure most people kind of assumed that was the case anyway, but it just gets reaffirmed once you listen to it more. I tried not to compare it to anything they had done previously so that it could stand on its own, but I can't help but think it's mostly a continuation of MBDTF. I know going back and listening to 808s after MBDTF was talked about in this thread before, but if you listen to those two and now this (in order of release), it's pretty fascinating to hear how each one progresses into the other.
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Aug 9, 2011 20:05
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This album is already really growing on me. I was a bit dissapointed when I first heard it yesterday, but by now I like every song besides Made in America (which has pretty good rhymes but that intro... ugh) Loving the second side starting from Who Gon Stop Me to the end (skipping Made in America)
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Aug 9, 2011 20:21
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gently caress your wars like Eddie Murphy's couch  How did I miss that the first couple of times through?
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Aug 10, 2011 00:42
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webmeister posted:gently caress your wars like Eddie Murphy's couch I still get bits of Kayne's stuff I missed the first dozen times. Took me loving forever to figure out what 'They thought I was burnt up like Pepsi did Michael' meant.
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Aug 10, 2011 00:55
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I find it deeply amusing that the hip hop radio stations (DRIVE TIME COMMUTE SHUT UP) are randomly playing the songs from the album (obvious and feq: otis). Its Kid-A redux a decade later. (DO NOT start that debate. Rather I'm bringing the comparisons of "no singles")
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Aug 10, 2011 07:25
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goddamn do I love track 12.
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Aug 10, 2011 13:30
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incoherent posted:I find it deeply amusing that the hip hop radio stations (DRIVE TIME COMMUTE SHUT UP) are randomly playing the songs from the album (obvious and feq: otis). There have been two singles released so far from this album.
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Aug 10, 2011 14:29
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Hearing Jay-Z say "Pete Rock, let the needle drop" stirred up some old school vibes...I love "The Joy".
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Aug 10, 2011 16:01
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Otis comes out tomorrow http://www.mtv.com/videos/news/680622/exclusive-otis-teaser-clip.jhtml#id=1668192
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Aug 10, 2011 17:46
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The problem that I really had with listening to WTT was that with Dark Twisted Fantasy everything transitioned so well and the order of the tracklist seemed really planned out (which I think all kanye albums are)... but with WTT it's not a front-to-back album. Each song is good on it's own, but nothing blends and most of the time it's really awkward. And even though I really like the beat and chorus, LIft Off might be my least favorite Kanye song. goldblums eyes fucked around with this message at 19:27 on Aug 10, 2011 |
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Aug 10, 2011 19:24
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glassy-eyed bambi posted:with WTT it's not a front-to-back album. Each song is good on it's own, but nothing blends and most of the time it's really awkward. Was thinking exactly the same today. WTT seems more like a collection of songs than an album with a cohesive concept.
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Aug 10, 2011 19:38
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Quantum of Phallus posted:Was thinking exactly the same today. WTT seems more like a collection of songs than an album with a cohesive concept. The outros that build up to Illest Motherfucker Alive didn't suggest cohesion to you?
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Aug 10, 2011 20:33
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NeuroticErotica posted:The outros that build up to Illest Motherfucker Alive didn't suggest cohesion to you? Was that the fade out in Why I Love You or the several minutes of dead air? That, you know, led up to a track only on the Deluxe Edition. Also does Russel Crowe actually do anything on Illest Motherfucker Alive?
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Aug 10, 2011 20:41
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This album is fine. I don't think the strongest song here touches anything on ye's last album. Jay seems soooooo tacked on. This hardly ever feels like a real colab and not something kanye just asked jay to be on. Jay is just a guest on kanye's songs. This is Jay Z and Kanye West. this album should have been a lot more than "These 4 songs are pretty good!"
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Aug 10, 2011 20:42
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I think the album works a lot better without the bonus tracks, and I'm pretty sure they agreed which is why there's the 3 minutes of silence. They want to make absolutely sure that you know "Why I Love You" is the actual end of the album, and everything else is just "deleted scenes" so to speak. I think there is a through-line in the album, both production and content wise. The production is dark and gritty, probably the darkest, grittiest stuff Kanye has done. Lyrically, the album seems to be about the complicated relationship between Jay and Kanye and the ways they view things differently because of their drastically different goals / personalities. That being said, a good portion of the tracks on the album really don't seem to fit in to this. See: Otis
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Aug 10, 2011 21:32
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This album has been really growing on me for some reason even though I was disappointed with MBDTF (possibly due to the expectation game or possibly because I'd heard a lot of the outstanding tracks off of it by the time the album dropped). Jay Z does seem to kind of just be there, but I don't mind because he's a much better lyricist than Kanye. The little dissonant horn motif is kind of cool.
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Aug 10, 2011 23:13
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I really, really like the album, but I think there's absolutely no way it could have lived up to the hype, because think of the circumstances that led up to it; it's two of the best rappers of the past 10 years, who have been friends/colleagues for about as long as Kanye's been in the business, less than 9 months after Kanye's best album, which to a lot people was the best album of 2010. I can't imagine any CD that lives up to the massive expectations that people had for it, and WTT definitely doesn't (like has been said, it's fuckin' Kanye and Jay-Z, this should have been the poo poo times a billion), but separated from that, it's pretty good.
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Aug 11, 2011 06:17
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I think Watch The Throne would've been acclaimed as much as MBDTF was if it had come out first. As of now, it's hard to listen to Watch the Throne without thinking of it as the slightly inferior kid brother of Dark Twisted Fantasy. It's still pretty drat good in it's own right, but will always be compared unfavourably to what came before. That said, Murder to Excellence is a loving fantastic track. That bit where the bass kicks in at the start 
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Aug 11, 2011 06:39
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Yoshifan823 posted:I really, really like the album, but I think there's absolutely no way it could have lived up to the hype, because think of the circumstances that led up to it; it's two of the best rappers of the past 10 years, who have been friends/colleagues for about as long as Kanye's been in the business, less than 9 months after Kanye's best album, which to a lot people was the best album of 2010. I can't imagine any CD that lives up to the massive expectations that people had for it, and WTT definitely doesn't (like has been said, it's fuckin' Kanye and Jay-Z, this should have been the poo poo times a billion), but separated from that, it's pretty good. I agree with most of what you said but I think the album did a pretty fine job of living up to the hype, really. Did it live up to it? No. But could it? No. To me it seems like no matter how great this album was, with the expectations behind it, it was never going to be what people were hoping for. That being said, I'm one of the few in this thread who wasn't too big a fan of MBDTF. It's definitely not my favorite Kanye album (hell, it's not even my second favorite) but it's still great and I can see how it and all of the praise surrounding it could sour someone on Kanye's next project. About the cohesion of the album and Jay's presence on it, I agree that it's definitely a more Kanye-centric record than a Jay one, and on a collab, especially one as huge as this, that's a rather large negative. However it's one of the only things I find really off about this album, and in the end that still makes for a pretty good outing for these two. As for the cohesion thing, I don't know if this album has a "theme" so much that it has a "feel", but one track I'm quick to single out as not fitting too well in the grand scheme of the album is Lift Off. While I like the song a lot (sorry about that, hope it doesn't invalidate my post) it doesn't sound like any other track on the album at all. I'll give it a pass for that though since it's so close to the beginning of the album, and at that point, a lot of the tone hadn't been set yet. Perpetual Ascent fucked around with this message at 10:48 on Aug 11, 2011 |
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Aug 11, 2011 10:45
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I was definitely hoping for more mid-verse interplay between the two like in "Why I Love You". That kind of stuff really gives you the sense that they are in the studio together spitting.
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Aug 11, 2011 18:20
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