Kanye's fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy," reveals a different side of the Kanye that we're all used to. Although he still establishes his beats on rare samples, he now appeals to genres of liking besides hip-hop. Heavily influenced by alternative, classical and electronic music, he opens the floor to a larger audience and a wider range. Many listeners say that his music changed after his mother passed away in November of 2007, which was quite obvious with the "808s and Heartbreaks" release a year later. His personality also changed as his cockiness was never to go unnoticed. He lost many of his supporters with the "Taylor Swift" incident, in which he was extremely rude and publicly humiliated her on stage! As his music has become more abstract, dramatic and as some would put it, quite strange, we have a front row seat to the emotional changes in his personal life. The long time Kanye fans might not appreciate, "the fantasy," as much as the newly converted, as they might feel that he lost his classic sound that we all loved on "College Dropout, "Late Registration" and even "Graduation." 
On his latest album, He takes us on a ride through his dark twisted fantasies, starting the track list off with "Dark Fantasy," which features a creepy toned, story-telling session by rapper, Nicki Minaj and a backing synchronized chorus repeating, "Can we get much higher? So High!" "Gorgeous," the second track features a hook by Kid Cudi and verses by classic MC, Raekwon and Kanye over a repetitive electric guitar followed by the smash thematic single, "Power.""All of the Lights" is preceded with a string and piano duet "Interlude", that flows into a majestic horn procession and incorporates a hook by Rihanna. "Monster," many leak listeners' favorite, lets us have a short remembrance of the pre "808s" Kanye, with verses by everyone known to man, including Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, her many animated voices, and a contrasted breakdown by Bon Iver, an alternative band. "So Appalled" a dramatic rap track, with another slew of rappers over a hard beat, truly channels Kanye's dark side. On a lighter note, "Devil In A New Dress," using a romantic sample from Smokey Robinson's "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" puts us in the mood to slow dance. Finally, we're shoved into another realm inside Kanye's twisted mind, with "Runaway," where he attempts to sing the hook himself. "Hell of a Life" puts us back on the path to the dark side, complete with a riveting, synthed beat and multiple chorused breakdowns. A peacefully, painful portion of the fantasy is finally explored, with "Blame Game," featuring John Legend and a sample from dance pioneer and UK artist, Aphex Twin's "Avril 14." The album ends with an Imogen Heap'd, "Lost In the World" and "See Me Now" (bonus track), where he attempts to capture the spirit of her classically synthesized, "Hide and Seek." He tries to make it slightly different by incorporating a beat, but listener's still caught on to the obvious copycat gesture. Most of the songs on the album were included in his 35 minute short film, "Runaway," released a month before the album, in which the weird gets weirder, with a naked, human bird, deer, another world, and other catastrophically confusing visions. The album is ultimately a spiral of mixed feelings and resembles a strange roller coaster of emotion and one must definitely be caught in a mentally different world when listening to it all the way through. "The Fantasy" begins November 23.
