West and Brion are a good, if unlikely, match. Brion's string arrangements and brass flecks add a new dimension to West's beats without overshadowing them, and the results are neither too adventurous nor too conservative.
In the end, it’s West’s dogged vision that makes it a success. He never acts before he deliberates, and never leaves a detail unpolished.
With the help of co-producer Jon Brion, West has taken his jumbled personae, buoyant enthusiasm, and vision for the grandiose, and transformed his chattering, seemingly unrealistic ideas into an expansive, imperfect masterpiece.
For all Kanye's meditation on the wrongs of his upbringing and surroundings, you can't help but find that his statements ring a little hollow. Maybe it's the clinical production masking his rapping, but more likely it's that it just sounds forced.
|# 26 -||Consequence of Sound (2000s)|
|# 18 -||Pitchfork (2000s)|
|# 58 -||Pitchfork: The People's List|
|# 40 -||Rolling Stone (2000s)|
|# 118 -||Rolling Stone (All Time)|
|# 100 -||Spin (1985-2009)|
|# 104 -||SPIN (1985-2014)|