Kanye West & the Best Songs from "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy."

Kanye West, love him or hate him, takes over the headlines when he makes new music. I've never been a part of the scene that praises him, but I decided to give his album "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" a listen after hearing the single "Monster" and thinking it was cool in a weird sort of way.

The best songs on the Kanye West album "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" are: "Monster," "Power," and "Blame Game."

The following notes are my thoughts on a song by song basis for the album.

"Dark Fantasy": "Too many Urkels on your team, that's why you're Winslow" - lyrics like this tap into the pop culture obsession that fuels shows such as "Family Guy" and makes them a hit. This is a nice album opener, fun.

"Gorgeous": This song also features Kid Cudi and Raekwon. The same pop culture winks that made the first song fun to me, can also backfire feeling more random and trying too hard to be witty ala "got caught with 30 rocks, the cop look like Alec Baldwin." Sometimes you pull it off, sometimes you don't and it goes corny. Even with some of the lyrics being a positive message and solid, sometimes the ego plays out wrong and the song isn't strong enough for boasting. I'm not exactly sure how the title fits to the song.

"Power": As a big movie fan I immediately perk up to this song due to its usage in the movie trailer for the flick "Limitless." As of this writing I have not seen the movie, but the trailer itself was crafted well and this song is a perfect atmosphere setter. The way Kanye says power is the pronounced magic of the song.

"All Of The Lights": A star studded compilation of artists appear on this track, with chip ins from John Legend, The-Dream, Rihanna, Fergie, Elly Jackson, Alicia Keyes, Kid Cudi, and even Elton John. In general I am not a fan of Kanye's rap delivery or his attempts at actual singing. His rapping in this I do not care for and then he goes on talking about different kinds of lights and, well, that's weak and silly. Rihanna's voice does add nice production value to most anything though. And if you seek out the music video (be warned of strobe effects) Rihanna's boobs really add production value.

"Monster": This song also features the artists Rick Ross, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, and Bon Iver. The line between entertaining cool and just plain stupid is balanced here and chalk this one up as a win for Kanye and crew, even Nicki Minaj and her odd rap verse is stellar. A deep thump of a song to bump with Nicki being the true highlight.

"So Appalled": This song also features Jay-Z and a list of other rappers, but quite frankly I found the line of verses boring, perhaps it is just weakened having to follow up the show that is the track "Monster."

"Devil In A New Dress": This is a track that relies on the strength of Kanye's voice and even when he has a clever lyric or two I cannot go with his flow, not a fan, and this one did not draw me in; drawing in a fan is easy, drawing in a critic is a feat.

"Runaway": This track also features Pusha T and a short film was actually shot to go along with it. The song starts with some simple piano keys and then escalates into Kanye trying to sing/rap with a chorus giving out toasts to jerks and other naughty names that describe jerks. This song is okay, but has been over praised by the likes of Rolling Stone. If someone who was a less annoying singer than Kanye had made this, MAYBE it would have carried more weight with me.

"Hell Of A Life": A nice kaleidoscope of sounds, but Kanye's sex filled lyrics are not interesting to me. I think the ultimate chorus of the song is cool, but doesn't make it worth the price of admission, which is time wasted and ear drums strained.

"Blame Game": Slooow opening with John legend setting the table with rhyming blame with game and name line after line. The song does end up being interesting in the way it is constructed, even slipping Chris Rock in with some lines, with voices coming into the song as if they are phone conversations. Chris Rock is funny. This ultimately ends up being something I could play over my speakers on a boring ride.

"Lost In The World": A dance beat and lots of auto-tune make this song a wild mess that I could imagine contemporary or African style dancers flailing around on a stage to. The fun robot voice added into the mix in the third act of the song doesn't save my opinion from being harsh on this one. Thumbs down from me, but it's okay if you like it.

"Who Will Survive In America": Good question I guess, but not much more than that, not really a song, just a little outro.