Listyguy wrote:I don't hate the song as much as you guys do. What I don't get is why Kanye isn't, you know, rapping. He wasn't on "Only One" either, so I don't know if he's trying to expand his musical scope or something. I think the acoustic guitar is a nice touch (the synthesizer part was kind of annoying), but this is probably the best thing I've heard from Rihanna.
I think I may actually kinda like this song. Sorry! "Only One" was better, but this was still okay.
I never thought Kanye was that good of a rapper. As in, he can't rhyme with flow. He's great for his production, but short on lyrics. He's better with featured artists.
The only hope we have now is that the version of "FourFiveSeconds" on Kanye's album will be so different from the song that we've heard that it'll actually be good.
I'd say by Rihanna standards (particularly her extremely forgettable recent material), "FourFiveSeconds" is actually pretty solid, but by Kanye's or even Sir Paul's standards, it is certainly lacking... I'll also parrot the sentiment that Kanye should probably leave it off his album.
And since I don't believe I gave my two cents on "Only One" yet, it is pretty fantastic - definitely the highlight of 2015 thus far. I love myself some bittersweet and reflective Kanye, and "Only One" hits the spot better than anything he's done in a long while
Gonna put in my two cents here again. "FourFiveSeconds" is, independent of what anyone thinks or where anyone was when they first listened to it, a cultural touchstone. I think that's pretty obvious: Paul, Kanye, Rihanna, Ty Dolla, Dave Longstreth, etc. But take that all away, and what do you have? A jam that (and I really hope they employ this idea to its fullest extent come this weekend's Grammys) feels like a twangy, coffeehouse ballad, with the choir all singing along. There are a lot of really nice little details that gradually come through as the work builds up too: that all-too-familiar organ, the little ad-libs carefully thrown around, Kanye's very mainstream verse about relationships (or misappropriation, whatever you fancy).
But at its core, I would argue for this song's overall status being Rihanna's career best vocal performance. Part of it is the pure reliance on her center-stage figure rather than her usual overbearing production, but also those scratchy croons, and that Janis Joplin-esque bridge. Oh, that bridge. I don't think the song is particularly brilliant, but I do think it's fairly great. Though, because of the reasons I stated above, I do support the song's placement in Rihanna's album above Kanye's. It's Rihanna's hallmark through and through.
As for the music video: no, not particularly special. But like that cover art I posted about a week ago (which seems to be missing now), there's something knee-weakening charismatic and magnetic about the presence of these musicians on the same alarmingly white stage. I respect the emotion even Paul is showing, rocking out on his guitar, and the video's overall stark simplicity. I'll file it under the "interesting" category. Except for Rihanna's eye-roll around the third time she shows up on screen. That moment strikes my soul for some reason.
And just to bring it up, because no one has seemed to yet, I really hope I don't have to explain to anyone my adoration for Spike Jonze's "Only One" video. It touches me in the infantile portions of my heart, guys.
It's really strange how the perception can vary between hardcore Kanye fans and others (like me). Actually, I do like FourFiveSeconds, and it's probably my favourite Rihanna song in quite some time (as Setherex mentioned, she sounds Janis Joplin-esque in the song and that's good). However, just like for "Only One", I believe it to be retro, not in the same way as "Only One", but retro nonetheless, and I also find that very minimalist approach in the arrangements of both songs to be intriguing (but not enough to qualify as "interesting", not yet). I like both songs, but not enough for them to make an eventual list of favourite songs of the year. Perhaps his album will be the kind which works better as a whole entity.
After the bombastic and experimental Kanye, will the Kanye of the second half of the 2010s be humble and retro? I'm interested to see what he'll pull off, but I won't follow him blindly based on what we got until now.
Interestingly, based on Wikipedia alone, critics just ignored "Only One" but gave rave reviews to "FourFiveSeconds". Quite the opposite to what we saw here.
Pierre wrote:Interestingly, based on Wikipedia alone, critics just ignored "Only One" but gave rave reviews to "FourFiveSeconds". Quite the opposite to what we saw here.
It is kind of weird. Rumor is that Pitchfork writers tweeted about "Only One" that they didn't really like the song, so Pitchfork just didn't review it, like they don't often review any song they don't like. So will be interesting to see how it's gonna do in EOY, of course some other sources did review it and said positive things.
As for "45s", Pitchfork didn't review that either, and half the sources listed in Wikipedia are those commercial non-serious sources, which just praise anything that's doing well on the charts. I'm pretty sure Only One is gonna do better than 45s in EOY, I'd give anyone 4:1 who wants to bet.
Looks like there's a very, very low quality version of what is apparently the opening track to Kanye's new album out now. It's called "Wolves", and it was first played today at an unveiling of Kanye's new Adidas shoe.
I know it's super low quality, but already it sounds a ton better than the pretty much awful "45 seconds". A very promising opener. I can't wait to hear the high quality version.
PlasticRam wrote:
The latest rumors are that 45s won't be on the album, so Kanye would be 2/2 now.
How quickly these tings change...
I like the song, but it's barely a Kanye song, so for that alone I really don't think it should be on his album.
Any word on when this album is coming out? Or a title?
PlasticRam wrote:
The latest rumors are that 45s won't be on the album, so Kanye would be 2/2 now.
How quickly these tings change...
I like the song, but it's barely a Kanye song, so for that alone I really don't think it should be on his album.
Any word on when this album is coming out? Or a title?
It seems that it's coming very soon. Kanye is doing Roc City Classic today, and he's gonna be on SNL this week. No clue about the title though.
notbrianeno wrote:Still furious at him for the Grammys amongst other reasons...but Wolves is one of his best album openers, can't wait to hear official audio of it
My goodness get over the Grammys. Getting pissed off over some awards show when there are so many other things going on in this world every day. So many things to be pissed off at and this is definitely not one of them. Never seen so many people getting so worked up about what one man had to say about a topic that in the grand scheme isn't important.
notbrianeno wrote:Still furious at him for the Grammys amongst other reasons...but Wolves is one of his best album openers, can't wait to hear official audio of it
My goodness get over the Grammys. Getting pissed off over some awards show when there are so many other things going on in this world every day. So many things to be pissed off at and this is definitely not one of them. Never seen so many people getting so worked up about what one man had to say about a topic that in the grand scheme isn't important.
An artist whose music I enjoy did something I personally disagree with, which I decided to mention as a relevant comment with my positive thoughts on his new song, and I'm not losing any sleep over it.
So apparently Ryan McDermott (artist signed to GOOD Music who worked on Kanye's new album) confirmed that that album is titled Wolves as well. If this song is any indication of the direction of the album, I'm at full obsessed wait mode.
notbrianeno wrote:So apparently Ryan McDermott (artist signed to GOOD Music who worked on Kanye's new album) confirmed that that album is titled Wolves as well. If this song is any indication of the direction of the album, I'm at full obsessed wait mode.
I have my doubts about that. Might be just poorly worded, as in he's referring just to the song.
notbrianeno wrote:So apparently Ryan McDermott (artist signed to GOOD Music who worked on Kanye's new album) confirmed that that album is titled Wolves as well. If this song is any indication of the direction of the album, I'm at full obsessed wait mode.
Definitely not a true confirmation of the title. I think we're all at full-obsessed wait mode at the moment, but let's not get carried away with ourselves in the process. This board seems to do an extravagant job at avoiding early judgments most of the time
EDIT: Plastic beat me to the punch once more, haha.
notbrianeno wrote:So apparently Ryan McDermott (artist signed to GOOD Music who worked on Kanye's new album) confirmed that that album is titled Wolves as well. If this song is any indication of the direction of the album, I'm at full obsessed wait mode.
I have my doubts about that. Might be just poorly worded, as in he's referring just to the song.
So Kanye just performed on SNL with a medley of Jesus Walks, Only One, and Wolves (with Sia and Vic Mensa). The hype grows stronger. Actually, I can say that this is the very first album that I've been hyped for (unless Grimes somehow beats him to it).
Sweepstakes Ron wrote:So Kanye just performed on SNL with a medley of Jesus Walks, Only One, and Wolves (with Sia and Vic Mensa). The hype grows stronger. Actually, I can say that this is the very first album that I've been hyped for (unless Grimes somehow beats him to it).
And a striking, arresting performance it was (note: the performance took place on Sunday night's massive SNL 40th anniversary special). The medley was performed amidst a minimalist, monochromatic backdrop, and Kanye delivered most of it either lying on his back ("Jesus Walks") or crawling on the stage (that's how he, Mensa, and Sia - the latter's face completely obscured, as usual, by an enormous white wig - performed "Wolves"). I'm sure a lot of people watching, and likely a lot of the older showbiz veterans in the show's celeb-heavy audience as well, had no idea what to make of all this, but it was fascinating, and certainly the most interesting of the night's four musical segments (the others were Paul McCartney doing "Maybe I'm Amazed" the exact same way for the billionth time, Miley Cyrus - no, I don't know why either - doing a creditable job on Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover," and Simon himself - of course - ending the show with - of course - "Still Crazy After All These Years").
West also did a brief bit during a "Wayne's World" sketch, pretending to need to be restrained from charging the stage when Wayne and Garth, discussing the great musicians who have appeared on SNL over the years, declared that Beck was better than Beyonce. He blew his cue but laughed it off.
Harold wrote:Paul McCartney doing "Maybe I'm Amazed" the exact same way for the billionth time
Yeah I always thought it was wise of him to avoid doing that song cos it goes so high. He could've just lowered it and it would've been fine.
Ironically it finally paid off that Paul Simon wrote Still Crazy After All These Years to be as underwhelming as possible. He pulled off a great performance.
So, as we're talking about video games there on the general discussion board, Kanye West announces his own. Funny coincidence.
If I understood correctly, it's about helping his mother reaching heaven, and is based on "Only One" (though in which way is anyone's guess). As it stands, it sounds awkward, I hardly feel like playing as Yeezus' mom. But no one will argue that it's an original way of building up the hype.
Pierre wrote:So, as we're talking about video games there on the general discussion board, Kanye West announces his own. Funny coincidence.
If I understood correctly, it's about helping his mother reaching heaven, and is based on "Only One" (though in which way is anyone's guess). As it stands, it sounds awkward, I hardly feel like playing as Yeezus' mom. But no one will argue that it's an original way of building up the hype.
Pierre wrote:So, as we're talking about video games there on the general discussion board, Kanye West announces his own. Funny coincidence.
If I understood correctly, it's about helping his mother reaching heaven, and is based on "Only One" (though in which way is anyone's guess). As it stands, it sounds awkward, I hardly feel like playing as Yeezus' mom. But no one will argue that it's an original way of building up the hype.
Sounds extremely uncommercial.
And rather weird too. I'm wondering who's the target demographics in Ye's mind.
Of course the link I posted already doesn't work. It was better than I expected. Still like Only One and Wolves better, but this adds to the hype of the album certainly.
My personal prediction is that Wolves isn't a single but All Day is.
Edit: He did Zane Lowe again. Good interview.
Last edited by PlasticRam on Fri Feb 27, 2015 11:53 am, edited 5 times in total.
I wonder when Kanye will actually put out CD quality releases of "Wolves" and "All Day".
Good question that. The version of the song I was listening to is terribly annoying and I couldn't listen to it for more than a minute, because the audio was muted every ten seconds or so. That's not worth it, I'll wait for the proper version.
The outro was good, but the song itself was largely unimaginative. Found the "All Day" repetitions annoying and the riff straight out of Kanye's own Monster. In my opinion, this has been the least exciting string of releases of his career.
HRS wrote:The outro was good, but the song itself was largely unimaginative. Found the "All Day" repetitions annoying and the riff straight out of Kanye's own Monster. In my opinion, this has been the least exciting string of releases of his career.
I have to wholesomely disagree with you there, friend. That riff and beat are both fire. What the live performance had in ferocious energy, this studio version has in complete production overload - that outro is something so insane that only Kanye could come up with. Between this and the other two/three songs, I'm extremely pleased (and/or hyped), and I hope there are a lot of others who will join me. I will quite literally be listening to this on repeat all day
Side note - I'm fully convinced that the outro's whistling is Paul, but now I think my mind is playing tricks on me into thinking the distorted voice is also Paul's. Maybe, maybe not. Opinions?
HRS wrote:The outro was good, but the song itself was largely unimaginative. Found the "All Day" repetitions annoying and the riff straight out of Kanye's own Monster. In my opinion, this has been the least exciting string of releases of his career.
I have to wholesomely disagree with you there, friend. That riff and beat are both fire. What the live performance had in ferocious energy, this studio version has in complete production overload - that outro is something so insane that only Kanye could come up with. Between this and the other two/three songs, I'm extremely pleased (and/or hyped), and I hope there are a lot of others who will join me. I will quite literally be listening to this on repeat all day
Side note - I'm fully convinced that the outro's whistling is Paul, but now I think my mind is playing tricks on me into thinking the distorted voice is also Paul's. Maybe, maybe not. Opinions?
I'm going to have to side with HRS here. Outside of the outro, "All Day" didn't really do anything for me. With the exception of "Only One", I haven't really been impressed by this string of Kanye releases either. (Though, to be fair, I haven't listened to "Wolves" or "All Day" enough to really judge. At the moment this is my opinion though)
For the record, the whistle at the end of "All Day" has been confirmed as McCartney's. It's a sample of an unreleased song (circa 1970) that uses only two-fingered chords. The tune also provides the melody for the song's chorus.
I'm really enjoying "All Day". That whistle/guitar break is like some Ennio Morricone cowboy riding off into the sunset stuff. And the chaos in the end is great too. The beginning doesn't do all too much new, it's a banger in the style of "Monster" meets "Niggas in Paris", but it's fun nonetheless. The high pitched synths sound like something out of the middle ages. That made no sense, but trust me here, it made sense at the time, you know?
My opinion is that Only One and especially Wolves are very artful and calm, so Kanye needed to do this kind of commercial song to please all his fans. For a song that maybe sacrifices a little of that artistry, I think this is executed extremely well. I still think 45s is mediocre though and I'm happy that it prolly won't be on the album.
Edit: Yeah and just now I heard the outro so the latest songs Kanye has released exluding 45s are my all-time #1, #24 and this one is prolly my #49
And I don't think that's recentism, I think that's just my favorite artist of all time being at his peak.
Edit: So Paul whistling is a sample, but is Paul doing the vocals too?
Last edited by PlasticRam on Tue Mar 03, 2015 3:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I'm not sure what to think. To me as well, the outro is the best part of the song, and the beat is interesting, but overall I don't feel like Kanye is going places he has not visited before. I have not yet listened to Wolves (I'm waiting for an official studio version), but so far I don't feel the same immediate genius that the singles from MBDTF and Yeezus shown. Only One, FourFiveSeconds and All Day are all good songs to me, but something's missing.
I figured this was as good a thread as any to pose this question in, as I've been thinking a lot about it lately: What are your favorite Kanye songs. I can figure out my top 5 fairly easily, but deciding between the top four which is my favorite is proving to be a challenge. The four songs are "New Slaves", "No Church in the Wild", "Power" and "Jesus Walks". I think "New Slaves" has the slightest of edges over the other three, but it's a lot closer of a call than I expected.
Listyguy wrote:I figured this was as good a thread as any to pose this question in, as I've been thinking a lot about it lately: What are your favorite Kanye songs. I can figure out my top 5 fairly easily, but deciding between the top four which is my favorite is proving to be a challenge. The four songs are "New Slaves", "No Church in the Wild", "Power" and "Jesus Walks". I think "New Slaves" has the slightest of edges over the other three, but it's a lot closer of a call than I expected.
Runaway is definitely my favorite, as it's my favorite of the current decade. That vocoder and string solo is jaw dropping.
After Runaway my top five would probably consist of some combination of Gold Digger, Power, Stronger, Jesus Walks (and I'm not even religious), Black Skinhead, Flashing Lights, and Gone.
I'd put my top 5 as: Power, Black Skinhead, All Of The Lights, Monster, and Jesus Walks. Though this may change because I need to re-listen to some of his older stuff, and I still haven't heard WTT.
PlasticRam wrote:Here are the Kanye songs in my all-time top 50:
Only One
Coldest Winter
Wolves
I'm in It
Say You Will
All Day
With 3 songs in your all time top 50, do you think "So Help Me God" will dethrone your current favorite album (which if I recall right is either Yeezus or MBDTF)?
Even though I've already listened to it a few times, I ended up crying during my most recent listen to "Only One." There are so few songs that have made me cry and Kanye West isn't supposed to make me feel this way.
Listyguy wrote:I figured this was as good a thread as any to pose this question in, as I've been thinking a lot about it lately: What are your favorite Kanye songs. I can figure out my top 5 fairly easily, but deciding between the top four which is my favorite is proving to be a challenge. The four songs are "New Slaves", "No Church in the Wild", "Power" and "Jesus Walks". I think "New Slaves" has the slightest of edges over the other three, but it's a lot closer of a call than I expected.
This is strictly off the top of my head, so I'm sure I'm missing a few of my absolute favorites:
1. So Appalled
2. My Way Home
3. Diamonds From Sierra Leone (I'm actually in the minority that prefers the non-Jay-Z version)
4. Love Lockdown
5. Coldest Winter
6. Runaway
7. Hold My Liquor
Honorable mention: Forever - Drake F/ Kanye, Lil Wayne & Eminem (I only included songs where Kanye is the main artist, but if I'd included others, this would be #2.)
In the 2012 all-time songs poll, Kanye got 4 songs in (Runaway, Gone, Monster, Gold Digger). I feel a feeling that he'll have a better performance this time around.