Album Rating: 4.0

not sure what you mean by uninspired. like i just literally don't know what that means. but i will say, whether you like who the person is or not, you can't say that kanye isn't completely honest in his lyrics, and beyond that he is actually quite personal and introspective with his lyrics

Album Rating: 4.0

"Spaceship I'll admit I am the 'king of context' in reviews which sets me against the style of most writers here but I write what I tend to enjoy reading and I like a review to have some sort of flow/angle beyond 'man I love that snare sound at 5:17'"



again with the extremes



Anyway, conversely I will say that a pet peeve of mine are reviews that simply go on about fluffy things for the majority and don't touch on the music itself enough. That is what the art is all about, the actual music. If you want to talk about the personality and greater context a bit, I think that's great and most times an essential part of a review. But it should be more of a 20/80 split, in my opinion. Rather than the bulk. And if in the minor section where the reviewer does actually speak on the music, if they are being overly vague in their reasoning, I mean to me the opinion/rating becomes unjustified and the review as a whole is redundant and makes me question if the reviewer actually has reasoning.



Just my two cents.

Album Rating: 4.0

~*this is not a personal attack ilu im just being critical of the amateur critic ITT*~

Album Rating: 0.5 | Sound Off

Guitarded - his lyrics are personal but they're just not either profound or entertaining on this one, navel gazing meets diorama with little magic in there for me



I'd also look at the argument differently in that I believe great music should generate something near unexplainable for the listener that can't be broken down technically - hence reviews that just focus on the nuts and bolts can also totally miss their target.

Album Rating: 4.0

i disagree completely and think good writers can articulate that well

Album Rating: 1.5

Great review, I like a lot of Kanye's shit but this is a completely worthless album.

Album Rating: 0.5 | Sound Off

Guitarded - you don't think music can possess an unexplainable quality for a listener? Woah, that's about the most polar opinion I could have with anyone here, a lot of my reviews have tried to communicate this belief. There's science to music but mostly it's totally unexplainable and illogical as far as I'm concerned, and by that effect I love the fact reviews are trying to wrestle with their own fundamental impotence - an inherently impossible endeavour but their worth is in the struggle

Album Rating: 4.0

Being able to articulate one's emotions is like the primary quality of a good writer Doof. Sorry dude but I am 1000000% sure of that. Sure, the quality may be unexplainable for a listener, but then that listener is simply not good at articulating their thoughts and therefore are not going to be a great critic. It is in their inability to convey through language their thoughts and feelings towards the art that makes it unexplainable. Not that there is some voodoo magical spiritual bullshit going on.



They may be unable to grasp the reasoning, but that simply means they aren't great at articulating their own thoughts.



Do some reading of Russian literature, writers like Dostoevsky delve into great detail what a person is thinking, feeling, and how they react to things emotionally. Check Crime and Punishment.

Album Rating: 0.5 | Sound Off

Guitarded I wouldn't write if I thought I was totally incapable of such but I'm also aware there's a point with evaluating anything in art where it doesn't matter what degree of self analysis you employ you'll come up lacking and its best to embrace that.



I've heard people say 'the world is beautiful - shame about humans'. Without humans there'd be no beauty, it's in the eye of the beholder - nothing has inherent qualities of beauty, greatness, etc.



Saying all that this review was easy cos the album is ugly as fuk.

Album Rating: 1.5

Album is shit. agree. Also, its sad that the studio engineers are actually responsible for his production yet they will never get the credit.

Album Rating: 0.5 | Sound Off

Well I think the term 'producer' has a wider meaning in this context than just the technical elements of each element of the production - it's having 'the vision' for all the details - but I get where you're coming from...

Album Rating: 4.0

Sure, you will never be able to live a day nor minute in one's shoes completely based on reading the written description thereof, no matter how articulate that writer is, however I think every good music review should be at minimum able to succinctly defend it's reasoning in direct regard to the music itself.



Fun discussion, we're meta af rn, but anyway I was never implying you were a bad writer Doof whatsoever nor that you were incapable of what I am explaining, I'm just giving my opinion as to what makes a good review in general.



If it weren't for different styles of writing, everything would be a bore innit

i dig parts of this but you can't even argue the lyrics are poor relative to some of his other shit

like i thought this was a really good opportunity for him to fully flip the kendrick-esque compton slums life at its lowest type shit onto a polar perspective from the top of the game in terms of celebrity and all that entails, the money, pressure and attention but he phones it in with cheesy shit a lot of the time. which is frustrating because sometimes he's doing exactly what i just described really well

also the fact half the songs just aren't good for me and apparently a lot of others

Album Rating: 0.5 | Sound Off

Ah yeah guitarded I wasn't in defence mode at all, I mean I toyed with adding an extra para to add examples and track descriptions but just decided not to make this too unwieldy and get into 'kicking a dog that's already down' territory. But it was a close call and I knew some people would be unhappy - esp those who enjoy the album.



What I believe Kanye is most successful/highly regarded for musically is lacking on this album is pretty much the sound off, you'll just have to believe me I could list copious examples

Album Rating: 2.5

Kanye loves Kanye. Agreed with review, if a tad harsh

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

Ya'll crazy, album is tight.

Album Rating: 0.5 | Sound Off

The way he emphasises certain words here is flat out irritating - it'll be a poor line of lyrics anyway but then it's like he's waving how bad it is in your face.

Lol like that one line in highlights where he talks about him and ray j.

I haven't read the rest of the thread, Doof, but my comment wasn't meant to be a criticism. You made it known what you were writing in your comment. Personally I enjoy the more non-standard reviews on this site. If they're well done, like I would say this one is, of course.

Album Rating: 0.5 | Sound Off

Spacesh1p this was a bit of a 'two birds one stone' review - people called me out for rating Kanye albums as 'average' and asking for a review plus I do believe this review gets to the bottom of not only why I rate him at that level as an artist overall but also why I feel this particular album is at a standard below his previous work