Whats the best kanye album ?

whats the best kanye album ?
imo 808s is his best album desu

PERSONAL TASTE INCOMING.

MBDTF>LR>CD>Graduation>Yeezus=WTT>TLOP>808s

s

really really bad taste
i will fight you irl

Fuck it I'm going with TLOP. It's grown on me more than any other album this year. The fact that it seems like a 'mess' is one of it's strengths.

>really really bad taste
Now now, let's not be rude to eachother.

Why do you like the album so much?

i like all yeezy albums
why do you think 808s is his worst when its his best ?
explain YOURSELF

I agree on 808's. It's so different from the rest of his work that it's little surprise that it's as polarizing as it is, but polarization works both ways. Some hate it because it's different and some love it because it's different. I'm in the latter camp and wish he would go back to being a sadsack that makes cold, sparse music.

MBDTF>Yeezus>808s>TLoP>Graduation
I'm really not a fan of CD and LR, only listened to them once through so not really fair to rank them; I do like songs on them, but as a whole thing I'm not a fan; listened to TLoP the otherday: a lot better than I remember, Graduation I'm really not a fan of; has a few good songs granted

Kanye has one of those fanbases where if anyone disagrees that all his albums are masterpieces theyll personally attack you

>we've reached a point where CD and LR are starting to be seen as lesser works

Maybe it's because I've liked Kanye since 2005 but this is weirding me out.

yeezus is his 2nd best

I agree. TLOP is the epitome of a grower album - when it first came out, I thought it was his weakest album, but now I am thoroughly convinced it is as strong, if not stronger than MBDTF

For a man who's known for making amazing beats that album had some of the worst he's ever made in his career. The autotune I wouldn't mind if the production behind it were more interesting.

Definitely give LR another listen, man. A lot more lush production than CD had (though CD was still great).

But I've never personally attacked anyone.

Am I being a Kanye fan wrong?

I haven't listened to TLOP yet; what do you guys think is the best version?

That, I disagree with. Yeezus is his only album to date that I outright dislike. I'm not the biggest fan of Graduation or TLOP either but I still think they're decent. Yeezus simply struck me as a mistake.

Nah not saying they're lesser, I'm just not a fan of them, I think it's the style I don't like outside of a few songs. I tried to give CD another try the other day but I just wasn't feeling it.
Started a few years ago with my friend showing me MBDTF and Yeezus, didn't like Yeezus as much at first (same with 808s) but then started to really like them later on
I definitely will give it another listen, there have certainly been a good few albums I didn't like as much at first

I love the instrumentals on 808's with a passion. They even manage to elevate lesser tracks like Amazing and See You In My Nightmares to decency.

Not him, but I've got a pasta I made explaining why I like CD, at least, if you're interested in reading it

Sure, sounds interesting

>Amazing and See You In My Nightmares
>Decent

There's 2 songs I like on the album. Try to guess which ones.

>Yeezus simply struck me as a mistake.

i dont get how you can think that

Paranoid and Robocop, the songs that even 808s detractors like.

...

It's all flash and no substance. New Slaves is the only time on the album he says something even remotely interesting, and musically the album peaks with On Sight before becoming a relative disappointment sonically. Black Skinhead is still okay and Guilt Trip has a pleasant instrumental but aside from that the album was one big miss for me.

If you don't like kanye's albums in the order
Yeezus > Graduation = MBDTF > CD > LR > 808s

you are a pleb

'substance' is a meme word
yeezus was great and your only criticism is that you did not personally like all of it

>LR
>Second worst

Nah man.

Wasn't hard to predict. It's like saying Only Shallow and Sometimes are the only good songs on Loveless, or that Paranoid Android and Karma Police are the only good songs on OK Computer.

LR is still a really good album I just like it less than the others

808s sucks dick though.

>Paranoid Android
>Paranoid

>Robocop
>Karma Police

...Huh....weirdly fitting.
Also I liked 'A Love Surpreme'....

>808s sucks dick though.
Now that we can agree on.
Still don't get why LR is lower than CD and Grad tho. Maybe swap Grad and LR and I'd agree more.

Put 808s on the same tier as Yeezus and I'll agree 100%.

It's the pinnacle of Heavy albums

why does nobody consider cruel summer but also factor in watch the throne ?

I thought the 2 tracks on loveless were When You Sleep and Sometimes. I thought most people disliked Only Shallow since it's so noisy.

All tracks on WTT had some involvement from Kanye while about half of Cruel Summer didn't.

WTT was 2 people and Cruel Summer was for the label.

Cruel Summer didn't have all Kanye. Now what I wonder is why people don't consider Eyes Closed.
MBDTF>LR>TCR>Japanese Grad>Eyes Closed=808s=Yeezus>Standar Grad=WTT>TLoP

Isn't 'Japanese Grad' only 1 or 2 tracks different from the original? Why is 'Standard' so low in comparison.

Also what's 'Eyes Closed'?

>'substance' is a meme word

And you wonder why I don't like Yeezus. There's no good defense for the album on that front, hence why people always dismiss it. Sorry that I think Yeezus is 40 minutes of pretty flickering lights, and I'm sorry that I'm not impressed by that. I don't expect much depth from an artist like Kanye but to me, Yeezus is especially devoid of it. He did decently enough with the albums before it but I feel he dropped the ball with Yeezus.

808's is just his heaviest album

True to an extent, but Only Shallow is the quintessential shoegaze song, the one people know Loveless for.

Graduation is one of his better albums stop posting on this board

Graduation is as close to bog standard pop as the man ever put out. It's competent but unremarkable.

CD > MBDTF > 808s > LR > Yeezus > Graduation > TLOP

Yeah nah, Japanese Grad is really high because of Bittersweet + Good Night are great songs, but without those the album's lower and more boring points are a lot more obvious.

The album has no boring points.

so you admit your a kanye hater ?
why are you here ?

I like Kanye, just not Yeezus.

Barry Bonds and Drunk and Hot Girls were pretty boring, it really sucks that it's right in the middle and one after the other

>I don't expect much depth from an artist like Kanye

Drunk and hot girls is really good though. You just have bad taste

DAMN IT!
WHY DOESN'T ANYONE THINK
LATE REGISTRATION IS OBJECTIVELY BETTER THAN MBDTF

I see, thanks for informing me

Because it's not. It's a great album but MBDTF is a far more cohesive and complete album. It understands its concept better than Late Registration.

just listen to the final version. honestly not much difference between the different cuts and saint pablo is a good song

>808's production is bad
Alright that's where you lose me. I think the production is incredible and possibly the album's biggest strength. Some of the tracks are downright beautiful (Say You Will, RoboCop, Street Lights, Coldest Winter)

yeah and the two tracks that are on it are much better than a majority of the rest of the album

bittersweet poetry is top5 kanye songs for me

College Dropout is not without musical merit
>helped make chipmunk soul a popular element to the Chicago sound >Graduation Day, Jesus Walks, and The New Workout Plan have experiments in autotune which foreshadow Kanye's later work on 808's
>I'll Fly Away is a barbershop tune on a rap album
>Spaceship has an unconventional time signature (6/8) for hip-hop at least, and we get to hear what rapping to such a time signature sounds like
>Jesus Walks has the lush production we see from Kanye later in his career; we hear marching band drums and chanting, pitched up soul choruses, autotune singing and regular singing, along with the normal strings and claps, all on the same beat sometimes at the same time
>Get 'Em High has Kanye playing around with the mixing on Talib's verse
>The New Workout Plan's beat has prominent string elements that increase and decrease in volume, and drop in and out at a few points before the later half of the song, at which point the beat changes almost completely, has a decently unconventional song structure, and introduces multiple tempos at one point
>Two Words plays with structure by having the rap verse spill over into the chorus, this also happens on Get 'Em High and Never Let Me Down I think, and has a nice little choral crescendo
>Through The Wire has unique vocal inflection and a chorus largely overshadowed by spoken dialogue, something fairly strange in a single
>Family Business keeps the chorus fresh each time; more singing is layered in each time around, singers come in and out at different points, and all this is interspersed with audio recordings
>Last Call has that amazing and appropriate 8 minute outro with constantly changing and pausing backing instrumentation; he even breaks the flow and keeps it fresh by rapping a small chorus bit during it
>putting all this in the context of what was popular in rap at the time makes these even more amazing
Cont. in next post

I really REALLY want to, but the skits and Hey Mama bring it down for me.

Also Sup Forums would castrate me.

Robocop yes, Coldest Winter and Street Lights MAYBE, Say You Will hell no.

Fair enough.

>good variation in flows; Kanye raps slow at times, normal speed at times, quickly at some points, and sometimes interrupts his flow mid-beat, and the featured artists (GLC, Jay, Talib, Common, Twista, Mos, Freeway) mostly bring their unique flows to the table, so each track sounds fairly different in terms of delivery
And these are more opinion-based reasons why I like it so much
> Kanye's rhyming is mostly basic compared to similarly lauded hip-hop artists across his discography, but on this album in particular, it adds to his artistic integrity, along with the album's intention: he was a producer from a middle-class background trying to make it as a novice MC fairly late in the game (late 20's), and the rhyming and overall diction reflect that; it's "delightfully flawed" if I could describe his raps succinctly. You really get the impression that this is his own style and voice that present themselves in his raps. This trait of Kanye's (the basic rapping) does become more indefensible in subsequent albums, however.
>has an admirable underdog to champion story that can pretty easily win you over, and is a classic element of hip-hop
>has a number of daring called shots which pretty much all came true at some point, so they end up being quite funny
>does what Kanye wanted it to do as stated in one of his interviews, which is "whatever you may be feeling in any particular moment, I have a song about it on my album," it expresses defiance, frustration, longing, disdain, uncertainty, hope, confidence, sadness at points, sexual desire, hype, triumph in the face of adversity, camaraderie, familial warmth, and celebratory merriment
>has some of his most classic punchlines and braggadocio, coupled with the more heartwarming verses about his faith in God, his girl, his recovery from injury, and his family, and sometimes these two things happen at the same time, which definitely become moments to remember

And one more coming up

Because I think the quality between albums are quite small, I like them all very much, so those 2 tracks make a big difference as well as an impact. Eyes Closed is a mixtape that was released before MBDTF, Kanye was going to make that his last album after the whole Taylor Swift media attacks thing, but then made MBDTF and WTT and kept making music. It's pretty solid, has some really cool songs, thought looking at the tracklist now I probably put it a bit too high, probably closer to Pablo. Though it has Never See Me Again, which goes for a long time but it's a pretty cool song, since it was meant as a "Goodbye everyone", I quite enjoy it.

>has Kanye's characteristic ego, but a little bit more down-to-earth so it's not as off-putting; there's good balance
>all the songs come together to present Kanye's multifaceted personality in an amusing manner
>overall, it just oozes spirit, resolve, and ambition, something which I've personally always struggled to find, so to hear someone find those things and have it all pay off was a really awesome thing to see for me

I really gotta find that album.

And then I went on to say that the pre-Yeezus albums did decently well on that front. He comes across as a relatable underdog on CD and LR, celebrates his rise to fame on Graduation, laments the loss of his mom and spouse on 808s, and paints a vivid landscape of fame-fueled manic depression on MBDTF. He's saying or doing something on these albums. With Yeezus, I can't find a point beyond maybe retreading MBDTF but a little crazier. It lacks the thematic focus of that album too - MBDTF ebbs and flows, peaks and valleys. Yeezus just sounds like it throws everything but the kitchen sink at listeners and hopes that something sticks, and when it does have something like New Slaves or I Am A God it never actually goes anywhere in the long run. I just feel it's too slapdash, or if he's trying to be spontaneous then he forgot to actually make that work instead of just doing it.

So yeah, there it is. I know all of this definitely isn't enough to counter a gut response to a piece of music like what you had, but maybe it'll enhance your experience of listening to the album a bit more the next time around. Hope it helps.

The skits are funny and Hey Mama is great, but I can see why they'd get in peoples way of enjoyment. I personally don't put LR higher than MBDTF beacuse I think it flows better and there's rarely a slow point in the album, for me it's just the second half of Blame Game, the rest are incredible non-stop beautiful instrumentation and/or production with some of my favourite lyrics by Kanye. I love the maximalist and feature heavy approach, I thought it fit him incredibly well. Plus, the iTunes exclusive track is a great song, really fitting of Kanye.
It's pretty easy to find, just search up Eyes Closed download, it's a mixtape so it's free and it should be one of the first results.
Pretty cool read. Didn't know Spaceship was in 6/8.

im not reading your essay
wtf is your deal ?

Yeezus > MBDTF > CD > Jap Graduation > LR > TLoP > 808s > WTT > Standard Graduation > CS

808s is really good imo but you have to be in a certain mood to listen to it, which is why it's lower down on the list

Was pretty interesting to read.
I tend to take a while to start to like things much, usually fairly neutral at first, so it wouldn't be fair to not give it a few more spins, and it's not like I don't like Kanye a lot
>has a number of daring called shots which pretty much all came true at some point, so they end up being quite funny
You happen to remember these? Sounds
interesting

Listened to a bit over half of LR again just now, it's certainly pretty good, and Gold Digger will forever be my jam

Eyes Closed is on datpiff for what it's worth, I googled it myself about twenty minutes ago or something

I'm just explaining myself, man.

ok i read your essay
yeezus was an experimental project
it wasnt meant to be a cohesive story
maybe you do not like that

I'll concede that I like it when Kanye sounds like he has this podium and an intense desire to drop a truth bomb on motherfuckers like on On Sight or New Slaves. In those moments the album is great, but those moments are so damn few and everything else just seems like it's wasting my time.

Yeah I really enjoyed it too. The only parts I HATED were So Appaled and the outro to Blame Game.

Without the outro Blame Game would probably be in my top 10 Ye tracks.

imo music does not need to have a message or meaning
music just needs to sound good regardless of message

>hating So Appalled

why though

I don't get why so many people dislike So Appaled, I thought it has some of the best verses in the album, everyone's verses is great, the instrumentation bothered me a bit when I first heard it but I quite enjoy it. My only grip with it is that Kanye says "That was a little joke, voila" Instead of "That was a little joke, haha", fuck.

I thought most people liked it? It's probably my favourite Ye track

To each their own I suppose. I prefer a harmonization of theme and music to create a greater sense of mood and atmosphere. Makes the package that much more complete to me. It actually goes a long way in making 808's my favorite - the themes of isolation and sadness resonate wonderfully with the minimalistic music. Evem the autotune works in harmony with the themes, the whole thing just works for me.

Most times I hear people argue the weakest track from MBDTF, So Appalled seems to be generally considered to be it, though I'd say Blame Game myself, since it sadly drags too long for my tastes.

That's my problem with it. All the other beats are amazing at that one is just....fucking trash.

Would you think differently if the outro were cut out? (Cause I would)

Both are my least favorite because I think they both drag. That said, Blame Game's skit is kinda funny and Kanye's vocal manipulations on it are pretty cool.

like i said in the op 808s is my favorite and its actually my favorite for the same reasons you say
i consider yeezus my 2nd favorite for different reasons

From Spaceship
>I deserve to do these numbers/The kid that made that/Deserves that Maybach
This is a little more vague, since it could be referring to how he was doing at the time, but it could also be taken as him saying he deserved the fact that CD almost went Gold in its first week

From Jesus Walks, and this is probably the longest one
>So here go my single dog, radio needs this
>They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus
>That means guns, sex, lies, videotape
>But if I talk about God my record won't get played, huh?
>Well if this take away from my spins
>Which'll probably take away from my ends
>Then I hope this take away from my sins
>And bring the day that I'm dreamin' about
>Next time I'm in the club, everybody screamin' out [chorus]
This is a direct acknowledgement of the hip-hop mainstream at the time, which was 50 Cent-type gangsta rap. If you listen to the outro in Last Call, you'll find that this was one of the main reasons so many people didn't want to sign Kanye: he wasn't from the hood and didn't rap about hood-related things. In that time, for the major record labels, it was hood or bust, they wouldn't sign you otherwise. This, coupled with the fact that Kanye is a producer-rapper, made him a hard sell to labels like Roc-A-Fella and Capitol Records. This single was a big risk in this type of mainstream hip-hop environment, but Kanye banked on its success anyway, and lo and behold, when it was released, it became one of Kanye's biggest hits; it had the highest debut on the Billboard Hot 100 the week it came out.

From Get 'Em High
>If you follow the charts
>Or the plaques or the stacks
>You ain't gotta guess who's back
Pretty self-explanatory, calling the success of CD in the charts.

From School Spirit
>I'mma get on this TV, mama
>I'mma I'mma put shit down
This could refer to just him being famous, or specifically, an appearance at the Grammys or something like that.

Cont. next post

Probably. I thought the Chris rock skit was pretty amusing, but after listening to it over 20 times I really just skip it half the time.
But yeah, I can relate to complaining about the beat, but after a while I really love it. Plus, I really love the whole "Famous life isn't that glamorous" thing that MBDTF has it going on the first half of the album, and So Appalled does it well.

It's funny, 808's and Yeezus are considered rather similar to each other, yet it's that critical factor of thematic cohesion that puts them on polar opposite ends of the scale for me.

From Two Words
>Most imitated, Grammy nominated
Doesn't really have to be explained, though this is also one of his pre-CD songs I believe, it was released on the Through The Wire single which came out in 2003

From Through The Wire
>I swear this right here, history in the making, man
Doesn't really need to be explained, but this was a shot called before CD was conceived, this song is Kanye's debut single released a year before on one of his mixtapes, even before he was signed to Roc-A-Fella, I think. If that's the case, then through in this bit too
>What if somebody from the Chi that was ill got a deal on the hottest rap label around?

From Family Business
>This is family business
>And this is for everybody standing with us
>Come on, let's take a family Grammy picture
Abi, remember when they ain't believe in me?
>Now she like "See, that's my cousin on TV!"
>Now, we gettin' it and we gon' make it
>And they gon' hate it and I'm his favorite
Calls his Grammy awards and calls his making it in the game in the first place

From Last Call
>I take my chain, my 15 seconds of fame
>And come back next year with the whole fucking game
>Ain't nobody expect Kanye to end up on top
>They expected that College Dropout to drop and then flop
Doesn't really need to be explained, though Late Registration can probably be thrown in with his Grammys as "coming back next year with the whole fuckin' game"

There's these

>I'll have a buzz bigger than insects in Texas
>Now is Kanye the most overlooked, Yes sir
>Now is Kanye the most overbooked, Yes sir

And to end on an amusing note, there's this
>Killin' y'all niggas on that lyrical shit
>Mayonnaise colored Benz, I push miracle whips
because he actually did get a mayo colored Benz before the album came out, but this couplet is one of his oldest lines.

*throw in this bit

its an anomaly
we love/hate the same albums for different reasons

There is one failed called shot though, on Never Let Me Down, he promises his longtime gf at the time's uncle that he's gonna marry her, but they split after he got famous because he was disloyal or something, pretty ironic. And we all know who we married later.

Thanks, that's certainly a lot of calls made

*he
Damn, I'm slipping today

No problem, he seems to be pretty good at it considering what he called on Hell of a Life later

Shit taste incoming (for reference, huge fan of noisy shit, mostly interested in Kanye for his production)

Yeezus > TLOP > MBDTF > 808s >>> CD = LR > Graduation

almost good taste

>interested in kanye's production
>graduation last
explain this meme pleb

(sorry but I actually haven't listened to graduation yet, only kanye album I haven't gotten to)

Given your stipulations your ranking makes sense.

Graduation sounds the most of its time IMO but it's ultimately like a less ambitious MBDTF.

MBDTF > TCD > 808S = Grad > Yeezus > TLOP > LR

>LR at bottom

Fucking. Nope.

bad taste