Watch The Throne

Monday marked the release of one of the most anticipated albums of the year - the collaborative effort between Kanye West and Jay-Z titled "Watch the Throne." As something that Kanye had been talking about for almost 10 months, it has been on almost everyone's radar for quite some time.

The end result? I'm not entirely sold. It feels like Kanye just wanted to make some wild beats and was begging Jay to lay it down with him. The tracks all sound like something you've never heard before, which is refreshing, but that doesn't necessarily make them good.

It's been a long year for Kanye, who has been putting out free tracks every Friday for the second half of 2010. Some of the tracks were awful. Some were amazing - some of my favorite songs he's ever made. It feels like Kanye just went overboard a bit and carried those overboard tracks onto WTT.

There isn't that one song where I go "damn that's awesome" and listen to it repeatedly for the next 24-108 hours. There are songs that sound good. Not great. For example though, when I listened to "All of the Lights" I think I told everyone how good it was back in November - before it was released in January. And I couldn't stop listening to it. I still can't. I can't stand that the radio version got rid of the bridge - why do radio stations always do that? Are they afraid of the 15 second lull that might have listeners change stations?

The problem is that the expectations were just too high. Both were coming off great albums - Kanye's best, another great one for Jay - and people expect more the same when the biggest guys come together.

Part of what made their last albums great were the guest spots. Kanye's had someone on almost every song. The album just had a flow and this feeling of epic greatness to it. Like we were listening to an experience. WTT didn't do that. It was just Kanye and Jay talking about how much money/success/fame they have. There are a lot of racial overtones, anti-white/government establishments. Typical, but it feels like the suggestions are getting worse with every album. As if Kanye really doesn't understand. Or maybe I'm just offended as the people he's picking on.

Overall, fun album. Not my favorite. I'd rather listen to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy than WTT. But that also speaks to how good MBDTF was. This is also coming from a guy who doesn't like much hip hop/rap, just the mainstream stuff that everyone likes. Keep that in mind when taking me seriously (or not). Otherwise, I want music with guitars and rock n roll.