This is a band

Kanye West - Love Lockdown - SNL - 12/13/2008
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Kanye West was on SNL last night. He performed "Love Lockdown" first. His singing goes from poor to mediocre. His stage is the best SNL has ever seen. It's what Nine Inch Nails has been trying to have for the last ten years. It makes the singing OK. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that West trips on some syllables. The stage is the career. The man is the band. The first minute is every band you've had in high school. The last forty seconds is the release every artist strives to attain. At 2:32 a synth line kicks in that sounds like 100 distorted basses. It's the creative peak of the song. This performance is the summary of every band that has tried to create anything on their own.

The new album is his version of Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" or Martha Gaye's "Martha, My Dear", full of songs about heartbreak and loss. The difference between West and these two legendary performers is that he doesn't know private. He blogs. A lot. And understands why people like his blog. It's full of neat looking stuff that no one needs, not thought out musings about art. He doesn't seem to grasp the idea of a private life and that's perfectly fine. I personally think the lyrics on the album are atrocious. He has more in common with Fall Out Boy than Jay-Z. Once again, that's OK. He's being himself. For better or worse, the man is nothing but honest, something that Dylan and Gaye share with West.

Love him or hate him, you have to admit that stage is amazing in every way. Especially when it goes red. That stage will sweep the awards at the Stageys.