'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,' Kanye West

Kanye's new album is worth the hype.

'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,' Kanye West
Kanye West

Hate him all you want, but there’s no denying Kanye West is pure entertainment. Twitter rants and award show stunts? Better than TMZ. A bizarre 35-minute video to introduce the new album? Couldn’t look away. Of course, none of it would matter if the music wasn’t just as entertaining, and Twisted Fantasy is a stark reminder that Kanye the Artist is even better than Kanye the Controversy.

Nobody else in mainstream music makes a record this ambitious, incendiary and musically agile. It’s all in the details: the disfigured beats and gurgling underbelly of “Monster,” the cocksure drama of “Hell of a Life,” the windowrattling thump of “Power.” While the chorus of “Runaway” gets the headlines (“here’s a toast to all the scumbags”), it’s the minor-key piano and apologetic swooning that make it so damn unforgettable. But what’s his dark twisted fantasy? I dunno … 3 million Twitter followers?

DOWNLOAD: “Runaway”

WATCH: 

Andrea von Kampen, Sarah Walk @ The District Bar

Tue., April 16, 8 p.m.
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