In its November 19 issue the Onion replaced its usual assortment of short music reviews with a rare piece of long-form criticism, giving Chuck Klosterman nearly 1,700 words to talk about Guns n’ Roses’—or more truthfully Axl Rose’s—long-awaited Chinese Democracy.
Klosterman delivers this pronouncement almost as an aside, then moves on—as though he realizes he won’t be able to support it or explain it.
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On 808s Kanye is just as likely to sink into banal electro-emo bathos like “Bad News” as he is to pull off a brilliant, genre-shattering hit like “Love Lockdown.” The album’s a sprawling mess, and it’s far from perfect—when he sings, his lyrics are often overserious and almost always less inventive than when he raps, and his robotic crooning isn’t likely to sit well with fans already feeling the hangover from pop’s Auto-Tune binge. But overall it’s a stunning collection, and two things make it a better listen as one piece than in parts.
