Imma Let You Finish, but...

WE'RE BACK! Thats right, Dean and Javid return from the depths of Woodford, covered in dust, moistness and fond memories to boot. Three days of absolute brilliance, with wonderful music, people and times. I'll go on in later entries. I literally just got home half an hour ago. Over the next few days and weeks we'll be hitting you with random reviews and opinions in both written and visual form but before it gets old (and it may well already have), we all need to sit down and have a good chat about Kanye.

I'll leave most of the nitty-gritty to the video stuff but some things need to be said. His production was spectacular, quite easily on a par with the likes of Rammstein (and I NEVER say that lightly). The dancers were haunting and breathtaking (for the most part. Assembling them the week before showed.. a little bit), the setlist was pretty much a winner from start to finish, and being the most packed I think that amphitheater has ever been, the atmosphere was truly incredible. I can put on 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' now and get chills, its freaking awesome and ultimately, the show was amazing. There were certainly alot of talking points but no one can really deny that the man did put on a great show, a show that could easily sell out a national tour........... BUT

There were three things about the show that kind of annoyed me. I will detail them for you shortly but first, to understand my point, you MUST watch this footage I took, regardless of video quality, and LISTEN to the VOCALS. Thats all you need to do. You can even close your eyes if you want, I was pretty far away.


OK so here we go.
1. THE AUTOTUNE - if you really DID watch the video you'll already get the gist of what I'm saying. When he opened with 'Dark Fantasy' he sang as badly as he does on the record - and I honestly didnt care. I think most people were too busy being stunned by the immaculate stage, the dancers, and the fact that Kanye came up on a tower in the middle of the fucking crowd. By the time he played 'Monster' he was doing autotune vocal solos. That clip there of 'Lost In The World' is not even a QUARTER of the solo that he went on. It was confusing for a number of reasons - if he had the autotune why wasnt he using it from the start? if he cut out the wanky vocal solos would he really need it given that he cant sing anyway? was anyone really there to hear a vocal solo from a rapper? Its a very strange situation and was definitely the biggest talking point back at the campsite. Did it diminish the performance? Not very much, no. But to be honest I wouldve been quite happy to put up with bad singing as well, at least then its sincere and raw. If I wanted to hear someone sound like a computer I'd go listen to a Stephen Hawking audiobook.
2. THE VOLUME - if you've had the pleasure of going to Splendour at the Woodfordia site, you'll be aware of the vast chasm that is the Amphitheater. It holds thousands upon thousands of people and you can see from anywhere. When it was packed that night it was truly an insane feeling. The mix however was inconsistent and, for the most part, absolutely brutal to the ears. There were moments where it suddenly seemed to be alright ('Golddigger went OFF and I think alot of that had to do with the fact you could hear it clearly) and it was never that you couldnt hear what was going on so much as it was your ears were fucking bleeding. Our neighbours in the campsite said they stood right at the back (which is a LONG way) and they were deaf. Being toward the back for Kanye was like being up the front at a metal gig. A little less volume would have been fine. If anything Kanye had the worst sound of the festival. It was still audible, but painful.
3. THE 'FLOW' - Kanyes set was divided into three 'acts' - why? What story did each act tell? What did it mean? I've got no freaking idea. If you ask me the set could have been better off without it as it added absolutely nothing to it. Oh, except at the start of act 2 he stood on a box for a while. The other problem I had with the flow was that, when many of the songs ended, you'd get a second of the next track before it was cut, giving away what song it was but then spoiling the momentum. That was probably the most unprofessional aspect of the show and quite annoying. Makes you wonder if all they really needed was the autotune guy and someone to press stop and play.

So there we go. I'm not a hater. I was wonderfully impressed by the production and it'll stay with me for a long time. I was there, and theres a good chance that you weren't. This is how it went down. The rest of the festival was great too, but we'll get to that later.