Kanye West- My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (****½)

Kanye West and Axl Rose just might be kindred spirits.

Both are rampant egomaniacs, trying to live up to the legacy of their debut albums. Both are prone to very embarrassing, and very public, meltdowns, as well as a taste for the lavish and expensive (Egyptian style chains for Yeezy, music videos with dolphins for Axl).

Funny enough, they even share a love of Nine Inch Nails.

Yet the thing that really binds them together is their legendary perfectionism. Both men labor tirelessly in the studio, leading them towards completely different creation processes and vastly different kinds of public reception. Rose worked sans democracy on Chinese Democracy for 14 years, hiring and firing whomever he saw fit to create (what he believed would be) rock n’ roll’s last great opus. West, on the other hand, took a more inclusive approach on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, coaxing inventive ideas from his co-producers so he could create his hip-hop Sistine Chapel (and doing it in a fraction of the time). Rather than having others fit his mold, West took was interesting about THEIR musical output and applied it to his post-808s renaissance, creating an album that’s destined to be a high art and commercial smash.

As a result, West achieved what Rose could only dream about, a record that balances his need for international acceptance and unmatched grandeur.

West’s Fantasy is all over the place, a 13-track traffic jam of machine gun beats, prog rock pomp, spaced-out drums, Tanqueray-laced soul, and some of hip-hop’s biggest names on the microphone. “Dark Fantasy” kicks things off with a galloping beat, RZA’s spectral, string-laced production, and a gaggle of arresting gang vocals. From here, it just gets stranger. “Gorgeous (Feat. KiD CuDi & Raekwon)” revels in its plodding, doom-drenched bass line, while “Lost In The World (Feat. Bon Iver & Alicia Keys)” is awash with pristine, auto-tune laden atmosphere and dense tribal drumming.

Yet on first listen, Fantasy sounds disarming, and almost feels like overkill.

The long list of guest contributors doesn’t help. Case and point: West enlists no fewer than 11 different people on the spazzed-out, horn infused blast of “All Of The Lights” (For those keeping score at home: Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Elton John, Fergie, John Legend, The-Dream, Tony Williams, KiD CuDi, Charlie Wilson, Ryan Leslie, and Elly Jackson). On paper, fans will wonder if it’s a gimmick to hide thin music, but the truth is West’s excess never feels stale. Instead, he paints with a master’s touch, always careful to keep the music busy without feeling claustrophobic. Fantasy’s lead single, “Power (Feat. Dwele),” mines everything from military style drumming to electrifying 80s style synthesizers, and still feels like a song rather than a Pro-Tools experiment.

This is why Fantasy operates so efficiently; these pieces are songs first and foremost, rather than a sterile collection of sounds.

Fantasy’s music is incredibly dynamic despite its eclecticism, and provides a vehicle for West and his guests to rhyme with confidence. Though West has never been the most gifted MC, his raps on Fantasy drip with forcefulness. He means what he says, and surrounds himself with expert MCs that share that quality as well. “Monster (Feat. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj & Bon Iver)” is a mid-album highlight that features some of the Fantasy’s most twisted wordplay. Over a gurgling, swampy beat, West (“I’m living in the future/So the present is my past/My presence is a present/Kiss my ass…”) and Minaj (“Pink wig/Thick ass/Give ‘em whiplash/I think big/Get cash/Make ‘em blink fast…”) steal the show, each one double daring the other to take their rhymes to another level. That sense of vocal sportsmanship has largely been lost in mainstream hip-hop, and it’s refreshing to hear these performers try to resurrect it on Fantasy.

Still, for as great an ensemble effort as the album can be, West makes it clear that this is about HIS beautiful, dark, twisted, fantasy, keeping up with the raw emotionalism and introspection fans heard on 808s & Heartbreak.

This time, however, West does not isolate himself in a compressed prison. He parades his flaws and fears on Fantasy, which range from his celebrity bravado (“Runaway (Feat. Pusha T)”), his impulsive nature (“Hell Of A Life”), and his fear of feeling powerless (“Lost In The World”). On “Blame Game (Feat. John Legend)” West even goes so far as to share fault with his scorned lover (“On a bathroom wall I wrote/‘I'd rather argue with you/Than to be with someone else…’”), providing the background for his feelings, but never a justification.

He leaves that up to his listeners.

That’s the biggest change here, and an important one. Fans are treated to a new kind of Kanye West, one that’s aware of the context he finds himself inhabiting, and one who succeeds where Axl Rose would fail. Ever since the Taylor Swift incident, West has realized an overblown sense of entitlement made his career a difficult one to sustain. On Fantasy, West has found a way convey his ideas by showing us, not telling us. He chronicles his pitfalls in vivid honesty, displaying how he was seduced towards self-destruction by his fame, his desires, and his ego. Masterfully, in one fell swoop, he gets listeners to empathize without being exploitative, something a Jay Leno interview could never grant him.

All in all, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy finds Kanye West using his illusions correctly. He lets his chopped, skewed, baroque, and cinematic take on hip-hop do the talking for him. Unlike Axl Rose who might have responded 14 years too late, Kanye West got the last word on his critics. He told us “I’mma let you finish…,” and when the media was done, he dropped an album that finds him artistically and emotionally unmatched by his hip-hop peers.

Key Cuts: Dark Fantasy, Power, Monster (Feat. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj & Bon Iver)

Sounds Like: Intimacy (Bloc Party), The Blueprint (Jay-Z), 8 Diagrams (Wu-Tang Clan)

Click on the artwork to sample My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy for yourself!