Thickened with atmospheric horns and group vocals, it’s a timeless hip-hop classic. ‘All of the Lights’ can still claim to be one of his finest career moment of production. There was his powerhouse comeback single ‘POWER’ with its instantly memorable choral chanting. The opener ‘Dark Fantasy’ offered immediate impact. The critics lapped it up ( Pitchfork gave it a perfect 10 score, the last album to achieve this until Fiona Apple a decade later).
For all its overwrought auto-tune issues, 808s & Heartbreak still sold well. Here was the megalomaniac of music acknowledging his reputation and reckoning with it. It was a personal rather than a musical comeback though.
The album was a mea culpa, a necessitated apology after all that 2009 brought. It was hip-hop capable of being treasured by both the mainstream and the underground, a tremendously difficult feat that few have truly managed (perhaps Kendrick Lamar is the only other example in the last decade). The days were long and the breaks were few, West frequently sleeping for mere 90-minute intervals. The result, though, was a hugely ambitious and powerful work. The album encapsulated – as close as it possibly could – the complexities of West the person: fragile and fractious, maddening and ingenious. What followed was a time of inspired creativity. West relocated to Hawaii, inviting along several noteworthy producers and artists as varied as Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Rihanna, Drake, and Elton John. His fifth album, then, offered solace. He underwent a much-required self-imposed exile from the fame and infamy.
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