Kanye receives plaudits

Full score for Kanye's latest opus at Pop Matters, P'fork and Rolling Stone. The P'fork write-up spends too much space delving into the backstories that may or may not have had an impact on the creative process, and way too little on the album itself. The other two work better: the PopMatters review, among other things, discusses the filmatic aspect of the record, while Rob Sheffield in Rolling Stone inevitably -- but perhaps fittingly -- calls it a "rock-star manifesto". But I take issue with this excerpt:

"Nobody else is making music this daring and weird"

If I were nice, I'd call it hyperbole. In reality, though, it's just plain wrong, and doesn't serve the review well. A truer statement, if one really needs to include it, would be "Nobody this popular is making popular sounding music this daring and weird."

Sometimes, no matter how excited you may be, holding back a bit just makes more sense.

Recents updates

I've just added the five most recent articles that I've contributed to FAN Fanzine on the Norwegian section of the blog. These are fairly short pieces on Mike Reed, Nels Cline, Bill Dixon, Mike Watt and Minutemen, and David S. Ware. No versions in English, I'm afraid.

Quick Notes

Updated the "best of" 2010 list this weekend. Nothing much, but some tweaks and a couple of new records added. Here are the (tentative) grades of the new additions (no write-ups this time around. I'm sorry):

• No Age: Everything In Between (Sub Pop) 8
  
• Eskmo: Eskmo (Ninja Tune) 7
  
• Steve Reich: Double Sextet/2x5 (Nonesuch) 7
  
• Of Montreal: False Priest (Polyvinyl) 7
  
• Taylor Swift: Speak Now (Big Machine) 7

Also, I want to remind any visitor to have a look on the "Subject to Change" links section on the sidebar, which I update regularly even if there may not be any new posts on the blog. Most recently, William Parker guests Jason Crane's The Jazz Session. And an interview with David S. Ware to come on Thursday. Looking like a very good week, Mr. Crane.