New Music Tuesday is a slight misnomer this week, as 'Watch The Throne' technically dropped last week. But it was a very odd sequence. It came out in iTunes only last Tuesday - then only Best Buy last Friday. I'm still not sure if you can buy this at a Target for example, because I think the exclusivity extends for another couple weeks. Regardless of all that, just look at the two names listed in the header - this is a pretty highly anticipated record. And yes, I bought it the day it came out. They started talking about doing an album like this back in early 2010. And immediately people got excited. 'H-A-M' dropped quite a while back and then 'Otis' dropped a couple weeks back. The next single 'Lift Off' is due to hit radio sometime next week as well. Now if you've heard 'HAM', then I think you'd have a certain sound in mind for what you expect this to be. Well friends, it isn't that. It isn't a 12 track go hard kind of record. It's so up and down in terms of style and pace - I'm not really sure how to ingest this. What I love about it - the guys do a pretty great job jotting down lyrics and going hard spitting them on the mic. What I find odd is the way the album plays. It seems so not coordinated in places which makes it kind of odd to listen to. But I think with that, comes the fact there were probably so many different ideas and thoughts they wanted to convey on one record. And that made this mash-up too strange. Now don't get me wrong - I still like this, but maybe I expected more? Is that the way to put it? I'm going to listen to this another 100 times or so, which will help me decide my opinion. But right now, it's well worth a listen, but I'm too confused to what the overall message is. What do they want me to hear and take away from it? Right now, it's a bunch of mix and match tracks that form a really cool packaged cd.
TRACK LISTING:
1. No Church in the Wild
2. Lift Off
3. Ni**as in Paris
4. Otis
5. Gotta Have It
6. New Day
7. That's My Bitch
8. Welcome to the Jungle
9. Who Gon Stop Me
10. Murder to Excellence
11. Made in America
12. Why I Love You
13. Illest Motherfucker Alive
14. HAM
15. Primetime
16. The Joy
Listen To Samples
Top 3 Tracks:
1. HAM
2. Otis
3. Lift Off
FINAL RATING:
3.75 out of 5 stars
I follow another blog titled "The Lup E.N.D. Blog" (Lupe Fiasco) and the creator behind it, Sean The ROBOT, sent me the link to a stream of the album a little over a week back. So I've heard the entire album already. With that said, I feel the same way, in way. I think they're looking to establish themselves as the "best" as with any artists. It feels monotone in the content however. Like there speaking about the same thing over and over again.
ReplyDeleteYou should check this out when you get the chance:
http://k1ngeljay.com/2011/08/15/is-watch-the-throne-a-classic/#comment-2075
That's another blog I like. They discussed whether Watch The Throne should be considered a classic so soon. I dropped a comment there too :)
Well with the exception of "Made In America" and maybe one other.
ReplyDeleteI read through the other blog and your comments. It's a very interesting perspective.
ReplyDeletePeople want to essentially crown this a classic right away not because of what it is, but because of who it is. That's just ridiculous.
If anything, 'My Dark Twisted Fantasy' was an instant classic because of how outstanding it was, not this. When I have to sit back and wonder if I even really enjoy it THAT much, let alone decide if it's going to be one of the greatest ever.
I listened to it again twice since yesterday's post, and I still do enjoy it. And I think I'm getting more used to the flow of tracks. I think some tracks they both KILL it, but others leave me wanting more.
Bottom line for now, this isn't a classic. There are too many question marks and awkward things for me to crown it anything. Well, it's still the coolest packaged cd I've gotten in a while, it can have that title.
Great to see the collaboration between Jay Z and Kanye. A lot of good songs in an avant-garde style, where some work and some are less catchy. In all, I would recommend.
ReplyDeleteIt's really grown on me over the months. I like that this isn't getting too much radio hype - makes it all that much for fun to put the CD in.
ReplyDeleteI definitely would recommend it to rap fans - but it's probably not something the general music fan would enjoy. There just isn't enough pop for the average music person. But that's part of the appeal to me, and probably most other rap fans.