The Cold Cut

Kanye West- Love Lockdown (Link 2)

I feel relieved. I feel happy. I feel exhausted. Many emotions. First, the good news. I am now able to get back into the swing of things. I have internet. I have lots of stuff to catch up with. I need to burst the bubble around me. The Cold Cut needs to become relevant again. Most of all, I have a blog to run. And run-it I will.

So how does one burst the bubble that's been enclosing you? With difficulty... I must admit, my lack of contact with the internet, TV and news has been a bit of an eye opener. As in, what the hell would we do without it? Now I appreciate it even more- I feel lucky to be connected again.

Anyway, back to the music. I've missed it ever so much, looking through my emails longingly on my phone. Able to see, but not to listen. Out of all the music that has flooded my inbox (about 250 emails and counting from the last few weeks- keep 'em coming), one track stands out. It's so 'now'. Kanye West's new track 'Love Lockdown', from the upcoming album release, '808's And Heartbreak'. A live debut at the VMA's was incredibly promising (watch it), and yet the recorded version falls annoyingly flat.

Disregarding an over-generous bass track that I could listen to all day long, it's hard to like this song, let alone love it. 'Love Lockdown' starts, peaks, starts, troughs, restarts... and finishes. It goes nowhere... Instead, we are treated to 270 seconds of Kanye living out a T-Pain fantasy. Jittery pianos and a vocoder dominate proceedings. There is no Chris Martin this time, though. And no intelligent sampling.

The VMA's were the perfect platform from which to launch the new album. Kanye performed well, his voice fragile, but hidden away behind Autotune. He sings better than you might expect, but will struggle with the live demands of this song. Still, it was a great performance, with strong images through lighting and his performance. Unfortunately, these fixtures cannot be translated onto the studio version.

This song hurts. Where has the genius of 'The College Dropout' gone? The concept is all wrong- Kanye isn't a singer by nature. It's brave, but a whole song of slow vocals is really pushing it. And in using a vocoder, you immediately take the emotion out of a song. I mean, who would attempt to prove that 'Lollipop' is an emotionally affecting song?

'808's And Heartbreak' drops on December 16th. Pre-order it on Amazon. The chips seem stacked against Kanye at this point in time. I'm not even going to mention the whole arrest fiasco. Still, I would never bet against him. Oh, and good luck Kanye. May you shock us all.

Britney Spears- Toy Soldier
Britney Spears- Gimme More
Britney Spears (ft. Pharrell)- Why Should I Be Sad?

When you spend a lot of time on the Hype Machine it's hard not to notice who's popular, and who isn't. One name I didn't ever expect to see on their front-page was Britney Spears, a woman who has been to hell and back. As the last bastion of consistently great music, I found myself laughing when I saw Gimme More on the Hype Machine popular page. Imagine my surprise, then, when I reluctantly opened my ears on the first listen and found myself thinking: "Hey, this isn't too bad!".

You would struggle to find someone who has been more persecuted over the last year or so, and not without fault on Spears' part. First she was too thin, then she divorced, then she shaved her head, then she was too fat, then she couldn't sing, then she couldn't dance, finally she was a bad mother etc etc...

Given this, Blackout (her latest album), comes as a bit of a kick in the teeth. Not only can she actually sing, but this album suggests that there may be a person under that newly bloated skin. She comes out with her fists raised, and amiably talks about her problems, ultimately winning some sort of victory. Blackout is a triumph, both for her in order to reclaim her place in the music industry and to talk about her own issues (K-Fed, child custody, body-weight and more). Admittedly, I've never been a real fan of hers: in her 'Hit Me' days, Britney was a bit more of an object than a musician, a distinction which she is obviously unhappy with, and one that is destroyed with this album. Guilty-pleasures abound, Blackout is a solid-pop album if nothing more, but I see it as Britney proudly flicking off the world and proving that she's famous for a reason. Check the tracks out (by following the links), and please tell me what you think: are you a fan of the hip-hop tilted songs? Do you like 'Gimme More'? What did you think of her (IMO Terrible) VMA's performance? Finally, 'Toy Soldier': potentially a brilliant single? You decide...

I wonder how Mr. Curtis Jackson (aka 50 Cent) must be feeling at the moment. My bet is hysterical: how else would you be feeling when the most stupid promise of your life was looming over you? Let me elaborate: At the VMA's and on SOHH.com last week 50 Cent stated that he would retire if Kanye West's new album Graduation outsold 50's latest offering Curtis. And guess what? Well, Graduation outsold Curtis, and not by any small amount- in the week since both were released Graduation has sold 250,000 more copies than Curtis, and thus 50 is presented with a bit of a problem.

I don't have anything against Fiddy- I've listened to Get Rich Or Die Tryin' and The Massacre a great deal (haven't we all?) and lets just say I'm not averse to it. And even though Kanye has a tendency to act like a prick at times (VMA's anyone?), I love his music, and also the fact that he's a unique spin on the word rapper. For proof, how many other 'rappers' write songs like Family Business and Mama- both odes to the family life and all thats great about it-? Not many is the answer: most other rappers- 50 included- write about the textbook stuff, you know, guns, sex etc and so on.

My standing (after hearing most of both albums) is that Kanye comes out of this all as the superior rapper: Graduation is a brilliant album, full of life and raps about it (See Good Life in particular), and the production is solid, with a good selection of guest artists -barring Chris Martin on Homecoming, my least favourite song and the Mos Def featuring Drunk And Hot Girls)- to back West. 50 Cent, on the other hand, comes off much worse, with Curtis sounding completely flat and dead throughout. The raps are mediocre, and horrendous songs like AYO Technology shouldn't really be committed to record, at least not at this stage in his career.

But lets take 'me' out of the equation: 50 Cent made a promise, and I hope he keeps it, and in the process becomes one of the first rappers to actually retire, rather than just hanging around in the background like Jay-Z and Eminem. Either way it will be interesting to see how he responds to the fact that he has lost.

My advice is to pick a side- once the internet gets sorted out at school I'll post a few tracks to help you decide...