BUY Evista ONLINE NO PRESCRIPTION

Autotune seems to have come full circle. Everyone loved then hated it when Cher (Cher!) scored a hit with it, then we came back around when everyone started worshipping Daft Punk a few years after Discovery came out. Now that all the rappers are copying T-Pain, everyone’s annoyed again. I think if Jay-Z ever releases an AutoTune track some hip hop guys are going to actually start listening to rock again.

ahhh, matt, you were doing just fine until you threw T-Pain under the bus. he’s written some good, melodic pop songs . . .and can actually sing without the studio effects. far from being overwhelmingly shitty.

“a very deliberate continuum of vocal expression” might be giving him a little too much credit, although i’m not against giving an artist the benefit of the doubt so as to satisfy myself that I’m spending my time with art rather than with shoddy, throwaway product. I do it all the time. And, like you, I’m trying to do it with this album. Part of me thinks it’s refreshing to hear something this spontaneous and underproduced. On the other hand, if he was aiming for “art” - and there are quotes that suggest he was - musically, he could have gone a lot further, maybe paring it down even more or just making stronger melodies. So, I don’t think this is the album some of us want it to be, which doesn’t stop if from being a pop curiosity.

I thought about the points you’re making here and I don’t know that what I wrote was so silly - did i ask for “fucking merzbow”? When I say it would be nice if it had gone further, I mean that it’s often pretty mind-boggling and frustrating that albums - those empty 70 minute canvases - generally come out sounding so similar. All that space and you can fill it with anything, why is it that most everything has a beat, layers, lots of bass, a big thick sound, and repeated verses and choruses? You’ll say that’s pop music and I guess it’s true. And while I agree with you that it has a different sound from his previous albums - I didn’t say I wasn’t giving him any credit - isn’t it possible that it’s not really as big a departure from the standard fair as you think it is? I’ll just say it - I’m bored with pop music. I wish albums would “go further” in one direction or the other. As listeners, I don’t think it serves us to be satisfied with it being almost different. I don’t think that’s so ridiculous. And I think there is a lot of room yet to experiment in before you’re at the merzbow extreme.

When I said it sounded spontaneous and underproduced, I meant those terms to be complimentary, though “underproduced” might not have been the best word. I meant “underproduced” as opposed to “overworked” (Kanye might appreciate the fashion comparison). It sounds like a few elements were chosen for each track and that was that, whereas a lot of people would start layering on the details, introducing variation, building up the textures. When I said “spontaneous”, I had the same thing in mind, not necessarily that it was done off-handedly.

You’re right that my talking about “art” is problematic. My complaints with the album would be worth more if it were anything other than a pop album. But anyway, I was generally in agreement with you. No need to get upset. From what I’ve read of your blog, we’re not really on opposite sides.

No, of course it would be terrible to have a formless ambient thing, just as if would be for him to make a noise album. But again - I think there are imaginable things to do with a pop album before we have to resort to either of those anti-forms. Does everything on a pop album have to be sequenced, for example? I’d love to hear a keyboard as prominent as the one in Paranoid played in live. What about something that wasn’t as heavily compressed, the same elements but taking up less space? What about trying to do something with old-school panning of the instruments - Deerhoof did that on The Runners Four and it was like a revelation. Why not try something like that in a modern r+b album (is that what Kanye’s is?). I’m not saying these things would even be good ideas but there must be hundreds of things that would sound interesting that aren’t being tried. This Kanye album is really not that far out. The big news, as you say: he’s singing. But a musician tossing out everything he used to do and trying new things doesn’t make it a new and different experience for the rest of us. We still have to measure his singing against other albums with singing. And I guess I don’t see why we should applaud him for meeting his fans half-way (that’s how the equation works, right?). He’s not really under any obligation to them.

by the way, “One More Time” is autotune, “Around the World” and “Human After All” are vocoders. The vocoder sound has a crunchy saw wave quality, while autotune is just a human voice with the pitch being adjusted in unnatural ways.

i hate this new Kanye West album. it’s tragically bad departure from an abnormally consistently tuneful hip hop artist. Where r the hooks? this is his least pop album as I far as I can tell.

I think this is a fun track, full of energy and spunk! I think what what is most compelling here is that Kanye really seems INTO it. Sorry, his passion for what he is doing totally sells it for me. That, and the synth sound that sounds like something from 1985 (Go West, maybe?).The autotune just modernizes and freshens the very retro feeling I get from this track.

“You worry ’bout the wrong things, the wrong things” - indeed his detractor are!

Matthew, have you given Paul McCartney as The Fireman and his “Electric Arguments” a listen?

In my humble opinion if Kanye had put this out as the songwriter and producer collaborating with a great singer , people would love it (including me). I give him credit for branching out and wish more artists would try it…..but someone close to him should tell him that his vocals are too weak (even with autotune) to be great live.