The Loneliest Man in the World

Have you ever found yourself alone at about 3:00 in the morning sitting in the dark, the party is over, no cigarettes or booze left, and you begin questioning your life? That’s what Kanye West’s new record sounds like to me. While the music on most tracks is cold and electronic, the lyrics are pure emotion, with Kanye singing more than rapping on most songs. I think this lyric from Welcome to Heartbreak explains where Kanye’s head is at:

Chased the good life my whole life long
Look back on my life and my life gone
Where did I go wrong?

It doesn’t come off as “poor me”, maybe because of the production of the songs. What a shock to hear a hip hop record where someone is reeling off brand names but only in order to say that they aren’t making him happy. Hip hop in general is not my thing, but after seeing Kanye open for U2 in St. Louis a few years ago I have always been interested to see what he is doing. His performance was not what I expected and I think this record proves he is willing to continue going in unexpected directions. --J

Kanye West BonnaBoo'd at Bonnaroo

Picture from E!Online.
I cannot wait to ask my coworker who went to this year's festival about this. Check out this link to read what happened. -K

50th Grammys- K's POV

It was the 50th anniversary, so the show was all about celebrating the classic with the contemporary; thus, you had a duet with Alicia Keys and Frank Sinatra to open the show. Cher introduced Tina Turner and Beyonce (who just needs to stop- I'm sorry I'm just not into her jerky movements) performing Proud Mary. Kid Rock and Keely Smith performed That Old Black Magic. They were very playful and somehow it worked.

Jason Bateman referred to a cello as a violin with thyroid trouble, LOL. He also mentioned John Paul Jones playing with Foo and said "as in Led Zeppelin, for all the morons out there". I really miss Arrested Development.

Dave Grohl dedicated the record of the year award to his daughter- he got slightly choked up.

Cirque du Soleil performed a bit of their beatles themed show with song A Day in the Life, which is one of my favorites.

Kanye gave an emotional performance clearly dedicated to his mother after "Stronger". It was moving.

Amy, my god- I don't know what to say. She looked and sounded terrific. That girl sang her heart out last night.

The big surprise was that Herbie Hancock won album of the year. Even Quincy Jones, who gave away the award, was shocked.

All in all, it was not boring, which is all we can ask for! -K

Separating the Artist from their Music

Ugh, sounds like the Grammy broadcast might have been worth watching this year. Everything I have read says that Amy did a fine job at 4 a.m. from London, but maybe that’s the UK press playing favorites. I’m looking online for a clip of the performance so I can judge for myself. Looking at the list of winners, I had some thoughts, and a lot of them relate to my ability (or inability) to separate the artist from their work.

1. Amy Winehouse – If the focus was back on her music, then bravo. I am glad to see her record be honored this year. The UK press here has made it difficult to remember that it should be about the music.

2. Foo Fighters – In spite of being smitten with all things Dave Grohl, I’m not crazy about this album. There, I said it, trying desperately to separate the artist from the work. I do, however, think The Pretender is a great single.

3. Kanye West – The man has had an extremely difficult year, so I am going to go gently, but usually when I see him win or not win an award, all I can think about is what a sore loser he is. Is it just me or is it also difficult for us rock fans to tell how really talented a hip hop star is? I mean so much is production, isn’t it?

4. Alicia Keys – I dig the instrumentation on No One, but her voice on that song. The word “caterwaul” comes to mind. Since it seems like she is always photographed with the powerful Clive Davis, I always wonder if she would dominate the airwaves in true payola fashion even if people didn’t like her.

As Dennis Miller would say, “of course that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong”. --J

He's Mad at MTV

I was shirking off responsibility today. Instead of grabbing a paintbrush and helping out on my last full day in the States, I got rather obsessed with Kanye West’s appearance on the Ellen Degeneres show today. So obsessed, that I actually used my handy TiVo to transcribe as best as I could his explanation of his tantrum about MTV. This is what Mr. West had to say:

Let me do the politically correct disclaimer and say that MTV has a lot for me over the years and it’s been thank you, you’re welcome moments back to back. Now last year uh Golddigger didn’t get nominated for video of the year nor Touch the Sky and also lost in the hip hop category to My Humps, which I like My Humps and everything but I think Golddigger was a bigger song and video. This year it got nominated for video of the year. Umbrella won video of the year and other things but it didn’t win for best collaboration to Beautiful Liar where Beyonce was in the audience to win that award, so Beyonce okay you’re not a performer but come to our awards show here’s your award. I just figured you must be spreading the wealth, I guarantee they’re going to give me one of these five nominations. They had me doing this suite which I didn’t really want to do, I wanted to perform Stronger and open the show with Stronger, but okay I’ll do the suite if that’s what you want me to do. I won't bring up the fact Golddigger wasn’t even nominated and then I didn’t win anything and Umbrella won best video because it was the bigger song. Well, if that’s the case, then Golddigger should’ve won because it was the bigger song the previous year so I figure like the rules just kept changing. And then Justin, I love Justin and he’s I feel like he’s my biggest competition, they gave Justin a suite and I begged to perform in the theatre, but they also let Justin close the show performing in the theatre, and I felt at that point oh it’s unfair you’re not giving me the opportunity, my main thing I was mad about is you didn’t give me the opportunity to rock the way I wanted to rock. They didn’t let me perform Stronger the way I knew I could and make this moment in history the way I wanted along with the slap in the face with the five nominations…

On one hand, he sounds like a total baby, but on the other hand, he’s just being honest. All of the performers probably think in the same way but don’t say it. Also, is it all so fixed that they would just give Beyonce an award to get her to come?

When asked about Britney’s performance he said the following:

That performance if it had been pulled off perfectly still wouldn’t have been up to par to start of an MTV awards. There are only a couple of important things in music this year, Umbrella, Amy Winehouse. Britney Spears is not important in music.

I totally agree with him on the last point. --J