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Boggles the mind that we've had My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy for a decade. Kanye's crowning achievement, a titanic album that tied together so many strands from his career, from music, from the broader culture
I often think of @ryandombal's characterization of MBDTF as 'an instant greatest hits,' in the perfect 10 Pitchfork review. Hard to exaggerate just how much these songs *immediately* felt like classics. The take holds up
Like Kanye's best work, MBDTF is undeniably of the time when it was created and stands apart from it. The sheer 2010 energy of it – Borders, Matt Leinart, 30 Rock, etc, SO MUCH CUDI – works because everything else, from the songwriting to production, is unparalleled, peerless
Yes, MBDTF is long and overindulgent. Kanye really put Elton and several other iconic singers on 'All of the Lights' as nearly indistinguishable backing vocalists! It's literally one of the most *excessive* albums ever, but that's the point – and few have done excess better
We didn't know it at the time, but it foretold a lot, about how we process ego, conflict, anger, grief, information itself in the 21st century. The back half of the '10s – debates over "cancel culture," snowflakes and getting triggered, Kanye's MAGA turn – bore that out
I always sensed a certain prescience to MBDTF, but told myself I was imagining things – that the lizard-brained id Kanye dips into throughout the record was anomalistic, that our culture wasn't as corroded as the one MBDTF depicts. Seems quaint now!
It's interesting comparing MBDTF to two other '10s titans, To Pimp A Butterfly and Blonde, two deeply empathetic, humanistic records, ultimately optimistic even if they look at society's flaws unflinchingly. We want to think this isn't an MBDTF world, though we know it often is
But setting aside MBDTF's bleak worldview & who Kanye became: It remains staggering. The classic-rock swagger of 'Gorgeous' and 'Power,' the Dionysianian wooziness of 'Devil In A New Dress' and 'Hell of a Life,' the closing tandem's finish line sprint, all of it. A total moonshot
When Kanye says he's 'at the top of Mount Olympus' on 'Gorgeous'? It doesn't feel *that* hyperbolic. Even living through Frank, Kendrick, and Bey's 2010s hot streaks, none of them felt like Kanye in fall 2010. To paraphrase Ye, dude was definitely in his zone
Anyway, maybe someday Kanye will get back to that zone. Until then, we've got MBDTF. A decade on, there's still nothing like it
