Since the Internets are abuzz with Kanye news and "Love Lockdown" is all over YouTube and music blogs, I figured it's not too early for this. "Love Lockdown" is supposedly the first single and is going to be available on iTunes shortly, followed by an album in December. I'm pretty sure he's finally abandoning the school theme. I really don't want to own an album entitled A Good Ass Job and Graduation School sounds like another mixtape. On his blog, Kanye says he wrote "Love Lockdown" a week and a half ago and followed it by saying "go where your heart takes you...". Obviously, people are going to read into the new songs as being "personal" and somehow being about his late mother and/or his now ex-fiancee. Also obvious: Rolling Stone will call it "Kanye's Blood on the Tracks".

i think this one is going to be his first real disappointment, but also rewarding in its messiness and willingness to explore different directions.

i am also talking out of my ass.

odds that t-pain will guest, invalidating any possible 'blood on the tracks' type claims?

haven't heard love lockdown yet but i did hear swagger like us and go hard (w/ dj khaled and and t-pain) on the radio last night which were both awesome.

there is little to indicate that this record will be anything less than excellent. i think a good ass job is a great album title.

kayne's blood on the tracks = , but also two really great things

http://www.target.com/Release-2008-CLEAN-K...t/dp/B001FBIPFK

O.M. (oh my)

it's a great album title. maybe this is gonna be a hip hop b.o.t.t.

its up on wikipedia too. great title, but man, fairly dark for a hip hop record. excited to say the least

There's starting to be a bit of a Kanye backlash lately(heard so many people say "I'm really sick of Kanye" lately), but until I hear an album of his that I'm not entertained by, I'll still be a fan.

I just don't see him writing an album without lots of catchy tunes. In fact, I'd be shocked if he put out a stinker of an album.

Love the title of this album too.

those same people have been saying this since the first album.

Well, probably. He hasn't exactly done anything that would change minds about him from College Dropout- but the people I'm talking about were fans the last few years.

After seeing him at Lolla, I'm ready for some new stuff. I'm kind of glad he's breaking out of the TCD/LR/G era. I feel like he was a bit confined by that theme, and the new direction as indicated by "Love Lockdown" is really promising.

that's a T.I. track.

EDIT: Oh, lol, it's also on Blueprint 3, but not on Kanye's.

I hate December street dates. I hope this leaks in time for my 08 best of list.

I thought they were saying it was just a TI song? Jockin Jay-z is the only new Blueprint 3 track I've really heard.

Studio version of "Love Lockdown."

http://www.kanyeuniversecity.com/blog/?em3...61=&em3281=

This..kinda sucks.

Fuck vocoders/autotune at this point, really. I was listening to 92.3's countdown the other night, and I think half the countdown must have had songs that sounded just like this(except with a more standard beat).

Hopefully not a sign of things to come.

Yeah, T-Payne's "I'm O Buy U That Drank" was too good for it's own good. I blame that song for the vocoder fad.


but I gotta say I like it. The piano riff and the percussion is catchy, and if anyone is going to use a vocoder it might as well be Kanye. it's not like he can sing. if he's going to try a track where he's not rapping he better alter his voice somehow. and the degree of the effect isn't obnoxious or overdone. tasteful vocoderage. good track.

Awesome, my wife liked this at the VMA's. I think I'll put this on a cd for her.

is it me or is this sounding really tinny? i'm coming around on the song and i think it'll be a grower, i just wish it sounded, um, stronger. the sonics at the end are nice and all. can't he get tim goldsworthy or whatever that dude's name is to be this albums brion?

It sounds like a demo to me.

lord i hope so. the song's got potential. it really sounds like kanye's discovered depeche mode.

personal jesus walks? who wants to mash it up?

haha. yeah it's a streaming rip; the quality is low in general. he needs some sort of Brion/collaborator on this album. if he wants to make something as good as Late Registration, that is.

Is there another link? It's taking forever to load from Kanye's blog.

Never mind, I didn't see the streaming bar thingie underneath, I thought I had to download the MP3

you have to press the little red play button next to the words "LOVE LOCKDOWN"

i'm going to stop listening to this now cause i'm sure i'll be hearing it all over the radio soon.

Yes.


I am liking "Love Lockdown" a lot more than I was on Sunday night at the VMAs. Sure, the autotune stuff is what everyone is doing right now, but this still finds a way to sound different. I am very exciting for the new album and whatever it might bring.

This is pretty sweet. Everything just fits; the vocoder is there and yet it doesn't stand out because that bass line is so powerful. Then the piano starts... I really like this. Catchy, simple and yet it carries some depth. As a Pumpkin's fan I can't help but think 808... will be Kanye's Adore.

more likely to be his Blood on the Tracks

I thought the same thing. It's almost always hip-hop releases too. Last year, it was Lupe and Ghostface. Year before that, it was Nas.

Apart from the typo (there's no apostrophe in 808s, where I'm from, what with it just being the plural of 808), I think that it's a pretty baller title for the album, but I have been looking forward to an album called Good-Ass Job for literally 3 years, now, and it's not going to be easy for me to let it go. I've gotta say that while things don't look like they'll turn out too badly, I'm, all the same, kinda disappointed. I mean, come on! Good-Ass Job! Damn it, what a wasted opportunity this could turn out to be...

Well, this is interesting. Love the song but sure hope it's a demo.. sounds like he just put Autotune on max without doing anything manual.. like when me and my friends used to mess around with it. Pretty brave single though. It has no rapping. wtf.

This album is going to be great.

Heard it like 5 times today. I don't think it's a great song. Lyrically and vocally it's almost a nothing song. But, it's really ballsy that this is the song he's putting out, and I think it's going to fit great into an album context.

While the single isn't flawless, the overall impression I'm getting is that this bodes very well for the album. I love any artist that is willing to be so bold and take these sort of risks. Kanye's Blood On the Tracks actually seems plausible based on this brief sample.

The hook sucks ass, but I actually like this song overall in a strange way. I can just imagine this coming at a killer point in the album with its minimal atmosphere and all. It's like the idea for a good composition that didn't get all the way finished. The only part I'm connecting with is the with just the vocals and the drum machine. It's enough for me to give it a marginal thumbs up.

I'm not crazy about this version of "Love Lockdown", but yeah I think it will work well within the context of the album/theme. At least he's not repeating himself. And as some people have pointed out, BOTT jokes aside, this song hints more at the album being Kanye's Violator.

fantastic song

808's and heartbreak, as a title, sounds like the logical next step in the kanye album chronology, incorrect apostrophe and all (he is a dropout, after all!).

it's called work (808's) and life (heartbreak). fucking great title.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAAH2u_4Pvs

Some of those comments from people.... "I used to respect Kanye!" I love peoples' retarded "it comes with the territory" defense of paparazzis. Okay. If having some guy take your picture whenever he feels like it comes with the territory of being famous, then a celebrity getting pissed about it, punching you in the face or smashing your camera "comes with the territory" of YOUR job, dipshit.

I question the integrity of people that can't get into Love Lockdown after like 5 listens, even in this poorly mastered demo version.

I love this song.

exactly!

I don't see how it's going to work in the clubs though. It's the least danceable single he's released. Someone's going to lay down some thumpin remixes.

Love it.

Kanye sucks but damned if he doesn't make great records.

It's the auto-tune that makes this song great. Kanye's singing voice sucks by itself. Listen to how many notes it hits, how emotive it becomes via the auto-tune. Kanye's career has been most marked by an ear for delicious melody (check his signature sample style, almost all of his singles/best songs), and on "Love Lockdown" he applies that talent to his own voice, carving out a classic melody.

This is a ballsy move by him; arguably the world's most popular rapper releasing a lead single in which there's no rapping by anyone. I'm very interested to see how experimental the rest of the album is in light of this track.

I'm really baffled at the auto-tune backlash. The whole premise of the technique is that it takes missed notes (which sound bad) and replaces them with a really cool set of sounds. Definitely a very great development in popular music.

I was also noting how wrought and emotive his vocals are, even in this fetus-like stage for the song. The histrionics on the final version should be legendary.

Auto-tune is still a gimmick and a crutch for people who can't sing. Also, it's been overused already. Thank you, T-Pain. Maybe SNL's Digital Short will put a nail in its coffin.



However, like anything else, it can be used for good as well as evil. Kanye's use of the auto-tune for LL is a little like Neil Young's vocoder on Trans. Because of the lyrics and the context of the song, it has sort of a strange emotional weight to it since he's not using his "normal" human voice.

WAIT, REALLY? AUTO-TUNE IS GIMMICKY AND FOR PEOPLE THAT CAN'T SING?

A rerecorded version? INDEED. http://www.kanyeuniversecity.com/blog/?em3...61=&em3281=

Well-trodden upon ground. See also: Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne.

Not in love with auto-tune, and it's becoming cliche, but this sounds like it might be cool. I'll have to check the new version tonight.