immessedup17 wrote:
Probably because it is bad.
Yet, literally everyone in the world except you loves it.
Critical reception[edit]
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy received rave reviews from music critics.[139] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 94, which indicates "universal acclaim", based on 45 reviews.[140] Andy Gill of The Independent called it "one of pop's gaudiest, most grandiose efforts of recent years, a no-holds-barred musical extravaganza in which any notion of good taste is abandoned at the door".[141] Entertainment Weekly's Simon Vozick-Levinson commended West's "outrageously hedonistic lyrics" and stated "West has tricked out these tracks with sharper verses and grander instrumental interludes, then lined them up in a sequence that demands to be heard from start to finish [...] essential components of a soundly built structure—easily his most consistently compelling full-length since 2005′s Late Registration".[34] Los Angeles Times writer Ann Powers called its music "Picasso-like, fulfilling the Cubist mandate of rearranging form, texture, color and space to suggest new ways of viewing things".[42] David Browne of Time dubbed it West's "most extravagant work [...] congested, constantly bustling", writing that it "reasserts the fact that few combine disparate elements as smoothly as West".[142] Dan Vidal of URB stated "Kanye (much like Miles Davis) has the ability to bring out the strengths of his collaborators — squeezing out the essence of their artistic persona as highlights for the music that he creates".[137]
Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield cited it as West's best album and "his most maniacally inspired music yet, coasting on heroic levels of dementia, pimping on top of Mount Olympus [...] Nobody else is making music this daring and weird".[138] Sputnikmusic's Channing Freeman noted "a zest for life in these songs that is really quite beautiful" and viewed it as "the first album in which he's truly lived up to his potential in every way - as a rapper, as a lyricist, as a songwriter".[143] Jon Caramanica of The New York Times described it as "a startlingly maximalist take on East Coast rap traditionalism" and called West "a better rapper than he’s ever been".[144] The Village Voice's Sean Fennessey commented that "Kanye is rapping and singing better and with more tenacity than he ever has on Fantasy", and called the album "a staggering, often breathtaking work [...] masterfully engineered and sequenced, each song bleeding over like some long night out into the hazy morning after".[36] Anslem Samuel of XXL praised the "intricately constructed tracks" for "framing [West's] heartfelt outbursts and honest inner reflections".[145] Chris Martins of Spin noted its production as "loud and proud, but also poignant and gripping" and called the album "a sinister, orchestral, hugely grandiose affair that owes as much to the artist's self-aggrandizing ego as to the voracious id that would destroy it publicly".[45]
Kitty Empire of The Guardian criticized its lyrics regarding "women as ruthless money-grabbers" but called the album "herculean [...] a flawed near-masterpiece".[136] Although he found West's rapping inconsistent, Allmusic editor Andy Kellman called it "a deeply fascinating accomplishment" in West's catalogue and stated, "As fatiguing as it is invigorating, as cold-blooded as it is heart-rending, as haphazardly splattered as it is meticulously sculpted, [the album] is an extraordinarily complex 70-minute set of songs. [...] As the ego and ambition swells, so does the appeal, the repulsiveness, and – most importantly – the ingenuity".[33] Chicago Tribune writer Greg Kot complimented its "collision of opulence and emptiness" and West's transparency, noting "his almost pathological allegiance to expressing his emotions, unfiltered [...] a curious mix of bravado and vulnerability".[47] Nitsuh Abebe of New York called the album "adventurous, fierce, and full of vitality" and stated, "Its guiding principle seems to be to go in harder on every front: Be more opulent and arty, be more vicious and aggrieved, be more 'complicated' and self-lacerated".[146] Slant Magazine's Matthew Cole viewed it as a milestone in hip hop music and lauded its themes of "self-aggrandizement and self-effacement", writing that it "allows Kanye a thematic palette broad enough to confront his pride and anguish".[44] Pitchfork Media's Ryan Dombal called it "a hedonistic exploration into a rich and famous American id".[35] David Amidon of PopMatters complimented West's dichotomous themes and noted "there are few more human albums in hip-hop".[43]
Accolades[edit]
Review aggregate site Metacritic dubbed it "the runaway consensus pick of music critics for the best album of 2010".[147]
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy appeared on numerous music critics' and publications' end-of-year albums lists.[148] Chicago Tribune writer Greg Kot included it at number seven on his list of the year's top albums, writing that it "turns contradictions into strengths, a mix of classical opulence, grimy beats, boldness and vulnerability".[149] PopMatters named it the year's fourth best album in its year-end list, calling it "Kanye West’s self-portrait, in Cubism: complex, petulant, somewhat paranoid, but bursting with ideas and never boring".[150] The Guardian included it at number two on its list of 2010's top 40 albums and commented that West "remains, on record, one of the most compelling artists of our time".[151]
Many critics and publications named it the best album of the year,[148] including Billboard,[152] Time,[153] Slant Magazine,[154] Pitchfork Media,[155] Rolling Stone,[156] and Spin. The magazine's Charles Aaron wrote that it "is 2010's album of the year because Kanye dramatizes ... with a budget-averse musical imagination that's ominous, symphonic, heartsick, riff-ravaged, and driven by the most technically legit rapping he's ever managed".[157] The A.V. Club ranked the album at the top of its year-end list and commented on its significance, stating "Fantasy is an idiot-savant smash, an example of a musician overreaching, yet triumphing through dumb bravado and an imagination gloriously unfettered by logic. Kanye actually set out to make the album of the year when nobody listens to albums anymore".[158] My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was voted best album in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 2010,[159] winning by the largest margin in the poll's history.[160] The singles "Power", "Runaway", and "Monster" were voted in the top-10 of the Pazz & Jop's singles list.[160] Metacritic, which collates reviews of music albums, named it the best-reviewed album of 2010.[147]
In 2012, Rolling Stone ranked the album number 353 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time,[161] and Complex included it in their list of "25 Rap Albums From the Past Decade That Deserve Classic Status