That's a good review. I feel the same way. After reading a million reviews and listening through it's kind of hard to know where to start. The best reviews are written after about 6 months or more (or 20 years later) of continued listening and revisiting. Exile on Main Street got some bizarre crappy reviews upon it's initial release and I remember Scrooged (it was on last night, so it's topical) getting completely panned when I saw it at the theater. Seems to be pretty common and make complete sense why our initial reaction is only the tip of the iceberg. That's why all reviews kind of inherently suck.

I think all the reviews could almost be summed up to something along the lines of:

With mainstream hip-hop falling further and further towards being nothing more than adult-themed nursery rhymes, it's gonna take someone with the sway of Ye to shake shit up a bit, and this was the record to do it.


or even more concise:

It's gonna take a Kanye to undo some of the damage Wil.i.am has done to music.

I'll stop talking about this in a minute, but I agree that maybe we won't look back that this later and say these were some amazing songs that we need to hear again, but it's culturally significant.

Rap has always lyrically showcased a boastful bravado about how amazing the artist is, as stated by himself, but this is one of those rare occasions where he's boastful, but constantly admitting he's equally flawed, and he's ashamed of some of his behaviour.

Instead of his music being an advertisement for why he deserves money and fame, he turned a mirror on himself and looked at everything. Finally, for a minute, hip-hop became less fake posturing and actually started 'keepin' it real'.

Again...it took some balls.
Granted those balls still have diamonds in their teeth, but still...

Alex, I'll take "The CD that I have no interest in ever listening to" for $800, please.

Does anyone really believe that article in the Times was a game changer or that some rock purist actually exists and cites Springsteen as the epitome of a real rocker? Sounds like wannabe crap. Sure the kids are alright. That doesn't make the latest pop star an artist or a genius.

Hold Steady? You high?

Just noticed the piano in Kanye's 'Blame Game', track 11 is sampled from Aphex Twin's 'Avril 14th' from the album DrukQs. Its the tail end of the Aphex song, at about 1:38.

Andy Samberg of all people actually sampled that Aphex Twin song last year. Did it better than Kanye, even though I love that Kanye song and have been totally immersed in this album for the past month.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/16771/saturda ... ran-so-far

Money, please. I get loose off of orange juice.

It says a lot about a record when it's lowest moment is a guest appearance from Chris Rock. I love Chris rock but his bit doesn't work for me. It's the only part I skip on the record (too long and not very entertaining). Other than that I just keep this one playing 24/7 in the car.

...and I had thought through the first few listens that maybe Pitchfork was just trying to move more product.

Wrong.

Again.