Albums Of The Year 2010 #1: Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Call me cliche. Call me a bandwagon jumper. Call me a p4k lover. But Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is easily the most influential album (to me) of the year, simply because in twenty years, I will look back and remember that this is the album that got me into hip-hop. "All Of The Lights" features some of the most creative orchestration heard this year, with horns and the customary electro beats working together in unison. The list of guest lists is endless, with Bon Iver, Rihanna, and Alicia Keys as some of the more notable ones. "Blame Game" is one of the most serious and intense songs on the album, until Chris Rock's two minute spoken word "bit" that both seems out of place with the song and perfect for Kanye's image of the album. "Lost In The World" is probably the first Kanye song ever to be featured on the extremely indie Sirius XM U station, sampling and turning into an upbeat, hip-hop version of Bon Iver's "Woods", before going into an intense spoken word outro about the downfalls of America. "Monster" is the darkest song on the album, with a crazy beat and nasty verses by Rick Ross, Jay-Z, and the surprisingly amazing Nicki Minaj. "Runaway" is Kanye growing and perfecting the emotional, singing based style of 808's and Heartbreaks. Which brings us to the centerpiece of the album, the most epic and in my opinion, the best song of the year, the incredible, King Crimson sampling "Power", whose beat could easily be mistaken for a cult ballad and where Kanye shows us what he really thinks of himself. But seriously, how could one man have all this power? Because Kanye thinks he should rule the world. We all better watch out, because based on this album, he can do anything he damn wants to do. Just buy this album, because there is parts of this album that can appeal to music lovers in general, and everyone should give it a chance. Amazon link is here.