Production Breakdown: Every Beat From Kanye’s “Dark Twisted Fantasy” Album (Updated!)

"All of the Lights"

From the fascinating-to-break-down sample blowout of “Power,” then, we proceed to a very sample-light section of the album – not to mention, a major tonal shift.

While, to be fair, following a blistering, balls-to-the-wall banger with a melodramatic instrumental interlude is about the progressive-rockiest thing imaginable, here it signals that the “rock” section of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is over.

So, what is is there to be said about this one minute interlude? It’s pretty, it’s one minute long and, of course, we also have the great Sir Elton John on the keys. It’s also, according to a wide variety of commenters across the ‘net,  strikingly similar to “Listen to Your Heart,” a 1988 single by Swedish pop duo Roxette.

I’m mostly embedding this in case anyone else had burning desire to see what a barefoot, female Billy Idol would look like. Seriously, it’s uncanny. These guys must have been pretty big back in the day, since people went all the way to some fortress in the middle of nowhere to see them perform.

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Sh*t, what was I supposed to be talking about? Oh, right, “All of the Lights” proper.

 

Despite being the collaborative hip-hop equivalent of a phone booth-stuffing stunt (11 guest artists appear in the record’s five-odd minutes, not counting the many live instrumentalsts), there’s still a whole lot going on in Kanye and Jeff Bhasker‘s instrumental. You’ve got your b*tchin’ brass fanfare, some extremely subtle background vocals, strings carried over from the interlude and more jittery, overdriven percussion.

And, since it wouldn’t be a Production Breakdown if I didn’t obsess over minute details, what the hell is that repeated “woop” in the percussion loop? It kind of reminds me of a cuíca (you know, that awesome Portugese drum that makes, like, animal noises)

 

but it could also be a sample of a guy going “woop.” I guess the world may never know.

Nitpicks aside, this cut just offers listeners another chance to appreciate Kanye’s mastery of arrangement and aural texture. Especially the texture – dude does the best shifting layers of distortion this side of Radiohead. That’s right, I said “Radiohead.”

I guess that little bombshell is as good a place as any to call it a week. Until next time, RefinedHypesters!