evacuatewithstyle » Kanye West

Best of Music 2010

Amy — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 14:29:05 +0000

“You’ve probably heard or read, many times over, that the world of music is a fragmented one–all of us paying attention to our own personal scenes, streams, and cubbyholes, barely aware of what’s happening in the next one over. So when December rolls around, we have this annual problem: It’s harder and harder to say what defined the year. It depends on what music you follow, which magazines or websites you look at, whom you talk to, and how your ears work…

That said, every December, when it comes time to make these kinds of lists, it feels steadily harder to say anything authoritative about which records were the ‘most important. The best any one person can say is ‘This was my year.’”

- Nitsuh Abebe’s “The Year in Pop”

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Read the rest of Best of Music 2010 (1,141 words)

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Post tags: American pop, BoA, end of year review, f(x), JYJ, Kanye West, Korean pop, Miss A, SHINee, Taeyang

Stuff I listened to this year; aka, music of 2009

Amy — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 03:04:20 +0000

Time for an end-of-year post. In addition to the music post, which I also did last year, I’ll also be doing a drama post because…I watched a lot of dramas :Db

Favorite albums of the year:

Eternal Morning’s “Soundtrack to a Lost Film” – This album was released in 2007, but I’ve only gotten around to loving it this year. The pieces make me feel like I’m wandering around, submerged under water. Everything looks illuminated, but hazy too, so I don’t know what I’m looking at, yet I want to keep looking. This album makes me feel a jumble of things, but most importantly, it makes me wish I could set every single song to moving image so as to truly make it a soundtrack.

Kanye West’s “808 and Heartbreak” – I like this album better than anything he’s ever done. Yeah, it’s a mystery to me too. But the short of it is that I’ve always been wary of Kanye West because he samples SO much and this album is 80% refreshing and new. “Love Lockdown” is one of my favorite songs ever.

Super Junior’s “Sorry, Sorry” – I basically talk about this album ad nauseum in the rest of my favorite song review, so read the ramble after the jump!

The Bird and the Bee’s “Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future” - Delightful new find of the year. Their sounds are really whimsical and I love the lead singer’s voice because it sounds so clear. If The Bird and the Bee’s music were a person, it’d be a person who’s good at pushing away pangs of disappointment and loneliness when he/she has to deal with the rest of society. But hey, being sad is still being sad, and I feel the album does dip into more melancholy territory in the second half.

Epik High’s “Map the Soul” – Tablo’s writing never strikes me as pretentious even though I can see how it can come across like that to other people. He’s very sharp with his words and his music (as well as Epik High’s music) reflects that aspect of him, along with the qualities he admires in other musicians.

This is “Cipher” from the album.

[See post to listen to audio]

I will NEVER forget the atmosphere in Irving Plaza when Tablo jumped on stage to sing this first line. I can see is so clearly in my head: Beatbox DG does about 5 minutes of beat boxing and then he signals the start of the “Cipher” performance and the crowd goes crazy. Tablo speaks into the mic from backstage and the cheers get even louder. We were all anticipating, but even that is not enough to describe the mood of the audience. Even watching fancams now, my heart still pounds in anticipation of Tablo jumping on stage and whipping the audience with water as he raps his first line.

Favorite songs of the year:

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Read the rest of Stuff I listened to this year; aka, music of 2009 (1,864 words)

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Post tags: Big Bang, Dong Bang Shin Ki, end of year review, Epik High, Kanye West, Kyuhyun, SHINee, SNSD, Super Junior, Taeyang

Kanye West for Bathing Ape

Amy — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:32:22 +0000

(via hypebeast)

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Post tags: Kanye West, menswear, street style

I love talent

Amy — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:53:24 +0000

Song starts at 3:46. Lydia Paek covers Kanye West’s “Heartbreak.” I LOVE IT. I have an unusual amount of love for Kanye West’s much-hated “808 and Heartbreak” and thus I get excited whenever people cover any of the songs I really like. Ms. Paek rocks the hell out of the song and adds a fair amount of swag & flav (yes I did just use those terms, consecutively) that the original didn’t have. Oh and there’s no autotune. *salutes*

Hat tip to a-Tunes.

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Post tags: AAs doing their thang, American pop, Kanye West

Kanye’s fondness for putting people between a rock and a hard place

Amy — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:39:49 +0000

If you haven’t already heard, last night at the MTV VMA’s when Taylor Swift won for Best Female Video, Kanye interrupted her during her speech on stage to proclaim that Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time.

It’s taken me a while to become a full fledge fan of Kanye’s and I can still say that as a musician, Kanye’s great. He’s extremely fresh and I like that he not only dabbles in music but dabbles in other arenas as well — and he’s also pretty good in those other fields too. I didn’t love his beats until his latest 808s but I thought his past hits were influential and extremely creative.

As a celebrity, I think Kanye sucks. I admire his gall for uttering “George Bush does not care about black people” on live national TV, but his ridiculous desire to say absolutely everything and anything out loud when it comes to his mind (and ALWAYS, ALWAYS on live TV) is selfish and stupid, never moreso than last night during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech. It’s fine if he makes himself look like a piece of shit, but it’s just downright mean to have to put other people in a difficult position just because he thinks he deserves, nay, he must have his say.

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Photo of the day

Amy — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 08:15:48 +0000

Img cred: Jak & Jil

This is OMG-worthy.

Let’s just ignore the fact that entourages are soo tacky and look at Kanye. I actually think a dude of his height shouldn’t be so sloppy with the lengths of his layers, but the colors of his outfit are great. Still, all-in-all though, the outfit is nothing compared to the ridiculously beautiful Goyard case he’s carrying.

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Post tags: Kanye West, menswear, Photo of the day

“It’s amazing, I’m the reason everybody’s fired up this evening”

Amy — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:04:22 +0000

A really good article written by Jon Caramanica of the New York Times on Kanye’s new album: Kanye West, Flaunting Pain Instead of Flash. I swear I don’t have a newfound crush on Kanye West or his music but I do really enjoy his latest album, moreso than a lot of people did. I’ll be honest, I don’t like a lot of Kanye’s other music (minus the lead singles) because I don’t find a lot of the beats appealing. But I like how quiet his album is this go around and I definitely chill to quiet music.

My favorite songs off the album are probably, “Love Lockdown,” “Amazing feat. Young Jeezy,” “Street Lights,” “Say You Will,” “Heartless.” There are maybe one or two tracks that I outright dislike, but even the songs I’m not crazy about, I’ll listen to. Seriously, this never happens with me and Kanye’s music.

Just to quote Mr. Caramanica, “For years Mr. West fought the notion that he was a producer trying to rap. Now he’s an underdog once more, a rapper who wants to sing.” I had to chuckle at this because Kanye West is NOT a singer and I only enjoyed his singing in this album because it’s synthesized the hell out of and layered the crap out of. Still, good album. Buying ASAP when there’s extra dollah’z lying around.

Songs of the Day

Kanye West ; Amazing
[See post to listen to audio]

Kanye West ; Street Lights
[See post to listen to audio]

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