New Kanye West: "Love Lockdown"

Or: How I hate to admit that I really like this song

So, amidst the 12 hours worth of football I watched on Sunday, it was during the night game where the Bears visited the new Colts stadium, that I flipped over to the MTV Video Music Awards for a bit here and there. I could easily go on a tirade about how times have chnaged, much different from the piece I wrote on the amazing 1999 VMA's that took place on 9/9/99 for my high school newspaper, but this is not about that. It sort of is in that the grand finale of the evening was Kanye West premiering his new song, "Love Lockdown", to the world. I'll be the first to admit, I've always very publicly denounced him and his primadonna ways, but there are a few of his songs ("Good Morning" being the one that comes to mind), that I actually do like.

So, anyway. 'Ye premieres this new song "Love Lockdown" Sunday night, and I was just floored. The melody instantaneously stuck to my head. My ears, they were shocked to hear him not rapping his words, but rather singing them. A deep groove and a sparse piano finished out the arrangement before tribal meets marching band drums stomped their way in for the chorus. I hated admitting, but I was a fan.

So, yesterday, West takes to his blog to post the finished version that will be included on his upcoming fourth (and might I add awesomely titled) 808's & Heartbreak. The beat and the music are all the same; the vocals sent through a vocoder for effect while the piano carries the rest with the 808 in tow. The chorus is the most interesting part - while Kanye sings the line some what off kilter, as if he couldn't carry a tune, comes in a syncopated handclap that sounds so out of place yet like it belongs at the same time. Very lo-fi hand clap is how I can best describe it, and it's what makes me ever so curious to hear what his Heartbreak has to offer.

808's & Heartbreak is out December 16th(?) on Interscope.

Stream: "Love Lockdown" [here]