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Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

I read a recent interview with Kanye West in which he expressed delight at the fact that he’s reached the pinnacle of stardom in the music world despite the fact that he “can’t sing, can’t dance and can’t play an instrument.”

Indeed, those would seem like important qualities (the singing and playing instruments, anyway) and 20 years ago it’s hard to imagine a man like West finding a career — as a performer — in the industry. He no doubt would have been a fine producer back then, and he’s one of the finest we have today.

But West is definitely not content to live behind the scenes. He craves the spotlight, despite (or maybe because of) the harsh light in which it paints him. On his messy, brilliant new album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, he spends 70 minutes laying bare his flaws, fears and insecurities and proclaiming himself the greatest artist who ever lived — often at the same time.

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Song of the Day #875: ‘Video’ – Ben Folds Five

Here’s where I have to break my pattern and skip a song because I’ve featured it already. I wish I’d known back in early 2009 that I’d be featuring this album in full nearly two years later, but alas, I don’t plan that far ahead.

And I’m not going to break my most important rule, that I feature a different song every single day, by posting my first repeat. So instead I encourage you to visit my long-ago post on the song ‘Best Imitation of Myself‘ and then return here to read about ‘Video.’

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Song of the Day #874: ‘Uncle Walter’ – Ben Folds Five

‘Uncle Walter’ is the second half of the one-two punch I mentioned yesterday and it’s a fitting partner to ‘Sports and Wine,’ especially musically.

If Robert Sledge’s bass line on ‘Sports and Wine‘ is sick, his work on ‘Uncle Walter’ is downright bubonic. You could strip every other instrument out of this record and still have an incredible song based solely on Sledge’s work. Just listen to that solo at the end!

I love how Folds finds such interesting topics for his songs. In this case, it’s a situation where you’re left in the room with a boorish relative of a friend who is late coming home. Exactly the sort of thing that should have a song written about it.

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Rihanna – Loud

Rihanna’s new album, Loud, has received a lot of positive reviews, and invariably each of them mentions that it’s a “return to form” or “welcome homecoming” as compared to last year’s very dark Rated R. This is a common pattern in music reviews that has always bugged me… the need to diminish an artist’s previous album in order to celebrate a new one.

Those same reviewers fell all over themselves last year praising Rated R as a gritty, emotional powerhouse of a pop album (Entertainment Weekly even named it the best album of 2009). But it’s always tempting to paint every success as rebound or redemption.

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Song of the Day #873: ‘Sports & Wine’ – Ben Folds Five

Following ‘Underground,’ Ben Folds Five moves to what I consider the most underrated one-two punch on an album full of excellent songs.

First up is ‘Sports and Wine,’ a song I rarely see mentioned on lists of the bands’ finest achievements but one I rank up there with their best work. Perhaps more than any other song on this album, ‘Sports & Wine’ showcases how insanely good each of these guys is on his instrument.

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