I can’t remember if this is a single or not, but hi ho…
[Website]
[6.30]
Jonathan Bogart: King Crimson sample. King Crimson sample. I’m in the camp that says his early stuff was fine but 808s and Heartbreak was a visionary masterpiece — and he’s still managed to get me excited about his return to rap. I mean, KING CRIMSON SAMPLE.
[10]
Matt Cibula: A lot of people just wet themselves.
[8]
Chuck Eddy: Okay, I admit, the King Crimson sample took me by surprise — amazed it took so long for somebody to do that. Otherwise, neat backup chanting. And the rapping? Who cares. All I know is this really outwears its welcome.
[6]
Pete Baran: There doesn’t seem to be much to Kanye’s actual rap here, until he drops the somewhat unexpected King Crimson sample and suddenly the track demands listening to again. And it is a beautifully put together track, a stompalong which will grace many a stadium show even with its overblown ending. Prog-hop has taken its time to develop real anthems, but it was always going to come. What with the Black Eyed Peas doing nine minute tracks, the Pop-Prog-Hip-Hop triangle finally has a track worthy of its genre. Decode that how you wish.
[8]
Martin Skidmore: I’m not sure about any of this. It’s a brag and a response to hataz, but the lyrics seem overly defensive and thin-skinned from such a megastar, and the disses are mostly shockingly lame. The production has plenty of bass and some energy, and I quite like the backing chanting, but I can live without King Crimson samples in my hip hop. There’s also an odd bit where it stops and more or less builds up again. I’ve never been persuaded by his flow, either, which seems awkward and rather lifeless.
[4]
Alfred Soto: Stronger than average rhymes, compelling as ever beats, no cockier than usual frontman. Too bad flow is lamer than ever; the chasm between music and his voice is wide and deep enough to bury six hundred vocoders in. He has the power to make our lives so exciting – once in a while.
[6]
Alex Macpherson: Oddly underwhelming. Kanye’s brittle ego and the self-loathing that fuels it aren’t even boring any more; they’re just Kanye doing what Kanye always does these days. Just like Lil’ Kim mentioning Biggie in every song, or Lady Gaga doing that claw move to cover for her inability to dance. Anyway, Kanye mutters into his beer with the usual mixed results — making me grin, “You short-minded niggas’ thoughts is Napoleon/My furs is Mongolian”; making me wince, wittering about “the abomination of Obama’s nation,” a line possibly lifted from a Tea Partier’s placard. It’s all a bit subservient to the beat, which consists of one terrific idea in that untethered choral loop driven relentlessly into the ground and losing most of its impact by midway through. For all its flaws, though, the knowledge that “Power” could be so much worse means that it gets tentative, politely nervous approval.
[6]
Al Shipley: Kanye has been making chest-thumping attempts at buzz singles like this for his entire career, and this one even sounds a bit like the first, “Two Words”. And that parallel just drives home that despite all his claims to the contrary, he hasn’t actually improved as an MC much at all in the past 6 years, and sure hasn’t come up with many actual new ideas since then either.
[2]
Hillary Brown: The thing about Kanye is that, unlike most other artists, you can easily feel that you have a personal relationship with him, which inspires loyalty. It makes it difficult when he behaves like an ass, which he undeniably does from time to time, but there is palpably a real person in there behind those eyes, and whether it’s a misstep or a triumph he’s behind at any given point, there is a kind of thrill in knowing it could well be either. This song is a bit like the non-comedic version of Michael Scott’s decision, recently on The Office, not only not to break up with his married girlfriend, but to do and take whatever he wants. It says, “y’all think I’m an asshole? Okay. I am. But I’m good at that and a lot of other stuff besides.” Only Michael wasn’t successful at it, and I’m pretty sure Kanye is, as well as continually surprising, even this far into his career.
[8]
John Seroff: Everyone’s favorite gay fish took a brief, self-imposed media break to get his priorities together and emerges with a song in which he invites Kenan Thompson to kiss his asshole… so that worked out well. Whatever else you could say about Kanye’s heartbreaking 808 album, it was at least uniquely his. ‘”Power”’s ill-considered punchline raps (“I don’t need your pussy, bitch/I’m on my own dick”?), fatalistic head-up-your-ass-ism and ridiculously overinflated sense of self are just so much rap coals to radio Newcastle; if you squint, you could easily mistake this for an Em Recovery single or a bit of Wayne’s mixtape flotsam. The flatly offensive suicide coda, wherein West considers relieving himself of his heavy responsibilities and leaping to his death would likely be a lot more moving if dude wasn’t still bitching about being shown up in the press after upstaging a teenager. Reality show bullshit aside, “Power”’s backing track is pretty solid on paper; lots of Ratatat-y guitars, the trademark soul sample and soul clap and a King Crimson sample of all things? It’s an interesting array of influences but the final product is so flush with sneering pomp and manufactured grandeur that it stumbles under its own weight. I wonder how that could’ve happened?
[5]