Yeezus: Album of the Week (6/20/2013)

Kanye West
Yeezus
Genre: Industrial Hip-Hop

To say that Kanye West is a controversial figure is the same as saying Lady Gaga's fashion choices are only slightly questionable. However, that doesn't mean the man can't produce a mean beat, smooth rhyme, or earwig hook. Yeezus is no different; in fact, it's the best material West has ever produced.

While many critics and other reviewers describe West's lyrics as evidence of his persecution complex and seemingly anti-white political views, I read into them differently. While Twisted Fantasy made many references to Kanye's own faults, the lyrics on Yeezus see him move from self-deprecation to full-on misanthropy. West has an issue with humanity, it's failings and hard truths the subject of nearly every line.  The best examples here are "New Slaves," which obviously points out America's prison system as racist, but also includes sly references to how rap culture feeds the system, creating a vicious, never-ending cycle of poverty and oppression; and "Blood on the Leaves," which uses the classic West sampling technique overlaying his own relationship study on top of Nina Simone's rendition of "Strange Fruit," a song about lynchings in the 30's-era American South.

If Kanye's lyrics are something to marvel at, then the music over which he rhymes is beyond comparison to anything else in Hip-Hop. Here he makes good on his statement from years before where he named Trent Reznor and Thom Yorke as inspirational figures. The instruments and samples are loud and angry, distorted by overblown fuzz and walls of static. "Black Skinhead" is clearly the masterpiece here, warping background vocals to the point where they sound like guitars, drums pounding louder and faster than anything from 808's. The production is stellar, the effects are mind-blowing.

Here's a controversial statement for you: If you thought Kanye was the new Michael Jackson, you're wrong...Kanye's better than Michael Jackson.

Album of the Week (6/05/2013)

Queens of the Stone Age
...Like Clockwork
Genre: Desert Rock

This feels great to say...Queens of the Stone Age are BACK! After a six-year hiatus, Josh Homme and crew have returned to deliver one of the best alt-rock albums in over a decade (probably since their own Songs for the Deaf in 2002). ...Like Clockwork is tightly written and executed, despite a list of guest stars that reads like a fanboy's wet dream: Trent Reznor, Dave Grohl, Alex Turner, Jake Shears, and the self-described "actual queen from the stone age" Elton John. The songs here are dark, heavy, and better than anything the band has done since Songs, apart from maybe "Little Sister" and "Misfit Love" off 2005's Lullabies to Paralyze and 2007's Era Vulgaris respectively, both of which had good tunes, but weren't particularly good albums. Lullabies had hit-makers, but became bogged down by experimental sludge at the end. Vulgaris was faster, but became too obsessed with blasting you at full volume in the hopes it could loud it's way to the top of the charts.

Clockwork however, is perfect; the songs are each great in their own right, but together they form a mesmerizing, beautiful whole. Sure, you can pull favorites, "I Sat by the Ocean" and "My God Is the Sun" are classic QOTSA, along with heart-stopping "I Appear Missing," which washes the album in a bath of noise before the title-track closer.  The absolute highlight, as I'm sure you'll read everywhere, is "If I Had a Tail," a creepy, metal ode to the creatures of the night that Homme so desperately wants to join. I would say this is the best thing Queens has ever done, but only because it's a completely different sound from the one pioneered on Rated R and Songs so long ago. It's like two different bands competing through time: one has the best metal album of the millennium, one has the best stoner rock album of the millennium. It's up to you to decide which one is which.