New Music from 11/23/2010 - Kanye West, Smashing Pumpkins, and French Horn Rebellion

Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Polarizing hip-hop artist Kanye West releases his fifth full-length album and first since 2008's 808s & Heartbreak.  West has cited Maya Angelou, Gil Scott-Heron and Nina Simone as his musical inspirations for this album.  No offense to Kanye, who is a wonderful musician and producer of music, but the original version of the album cover he was planning on using was absolutely horrible and the relatively vanilla cover you see to the right is a marked improvement over his "WTF?!?" original. 

The album opens with "Dark Fantasy" which has a complex, orchestral opening with angelic singing that transitions to a really catchy rap as the bridge to the song.  It does a good job of presenting the complicated blending of styles that West is so adept at.  "All Of The Lights" will definitely be a future single with horn playing similar to what you might hear in a Basement Jaxx song but with more classic hip-hop sensibilities in the actual formation of the song.  Also, the female vocals (it sounds like a Rihanna clone but I couldn't find who actually performed the singing) add an extra layer to the song and make it a likely song you'll hear in a club in the not-too-distant future.  My favorite song is "Runaway" which has a very simple four note piano opening that slowly builds into a really elaborate and beautiful song as West quickly layers on the other instruments and vocals as the song builds to a muted but poignant crescendo.  "Blame Game" (feat. John Legend) starts off with a slow tempo piano opening that gracefully segues to Legend's always welcome singing although the spoken word part at the end makes it a tough single to add to your MP3 player. 

Overall, it's another well produced and well performed album by Kanye West.  The arrangement of the music, as usual, is extremely complex without being over-produced.  Hardcore fans of West will be slightly upset though because of the thirteen tracks, about half had already been released on West's website as part of his G.O.O.D. Fridays music series throughout the past year and two of the tracks are basically interludes that last between 60~90 seconds.  However, no matter what other craziness West has going on in his life, he sure hasn't lost his ability to write and compose damn catchy music.  I probably like his Graduation Day and Late Registration albums better than this one but Kanye, even when he's not at the absolutely top of his game, still manages to put out an album that's better than 98% of what else is currently on the market. 

Score:  9/10
Song(s) to Sample:  "Runaway" and "Dark Fantasy"

Smashing Pumpkins Teagarden by Kaleidyscope Vol. 2: The Solstice Bare - An EP by the off-and-on again band from Chicago still being fronted by Billy Corgan.  The overall concept for the Teagarden by Kaleidyscope opus is a total of 44 songs released sporadically over time.  The first volume collected the first four songs released plus a bonus track if you bought the vinyl album.  This volume follows the same pattern with four tracks in total plus a bonus track if you buy the full box set album.

The EP opens with "The Fellowship," a mainstream rock song that has hard sounding guitar and keyboard work.  The melody (especially the part done on synthesizer/keyboard) remind me of an early Muse song although Corgan's warble-y singing voice isn't as good a match as Matt Bellamy's to this type of song.  "Freak" is a much better match to the Smashing Pumpkin style with heavy guitar playing and a catchy bridge and refrain.  "Tom Tom" employs an acoustic guitar and a more ballad-like feel, at least initially.  The song then introduces harder pounding drums and moodier vocal work to make a more complex rock song.  "Spangled" has a more alternative feel with a jangly melody and a more somber tempo.  I felt this was the most control the band exhibited on the four tracks and the subdued vocal work a better fit for the now older Mr. Corgan.

The overall concept is a very interesting idea but the music Smashing Pumpkins give us today just doesn't sound as fresh or as relevant as it did when they were in their prime.  Billy Corgan's vocal work, while still sounding familiar, doesn't have the same punch as it used to.  It'll be interesting when they finally string all 44 songs into a completed mega album to see if they can form a cohesive piece of work from the individual pieces but it's not worth getting the individual pieces alone if these are the best songs the band can come up with today.

Score:  5/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Spangled"

 French Horn Rebellion This Moment - The band consists of two brothers originally from Milwaukee but now performing primarily in New York.  One of the brothers was actually a French horn player for the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra but decided that way of playing music was too rigid for him so they decided to form this band instead.  The band has a heavy synth-pop sound with some electronic influences.  Vocals are prominent on every song (so it's not a strict electronica album) although the band doesn't shy away from synthesizing them.  

Okay, this EP is five tracks long and from those five tracks we only get two different songs.  You get the original "This Moment" plus three remixed versions of the song and you get a song titled "Last Summer."  "This Moment" is actually a very catchy song that begins with a fast tempo synthesized sound.  The hook and the chorus will both sweep you along and get you caught up in the song.  "Last Summer" is a slower tempo song with less vibrant singing.  It's not a total downer song but there isn't much interesting in it either, at least until the song goes on a complete tangent with a circus-like melody.

"This Moment" is a very good song and is deserving of its own single.  The remixed versions are above average although only Kap 10Kurt remix really bringing anything new to the song.  "Last Summer" is more awkward than good and sounds like a poor B-side to "This Moment".

Score: 7/10
Song(s) to Sample:  "This Moment"