Kanye's Latest Is Album of the Year

Kanye West is officially back: "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is the best album of 2010 and the best album of West's career," asserts Jonah Weiner on Slate. The rapper, always unable to keep quiet about things he finds unjust, has "managed to channel his sense of injustice into his music more fully and thrillingly than ever before. It's a seething and sad album, full of tales of transgression, betrayal, repudiation, and bitter vindication. It's also wild fun to listen to."

West, coming off a hard year including feuds with Taylor Swift, George W. Bush, and Matt Lauer, lays bare the way that "words have proven both cash cow and albatross over his turbulent career." The songs tell devastating stories, including one that seems to echo West's recent troubles, finishing with "a general campaign to salvage the life his actions threatened to destroy." Ultimately, Weiner concludes, "as big as [West] fancies himself, his best music is bigger."
(More Kanye West stories.)