A God-awful Small Affair

It's been less than a year since the release of the phenomenal My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy but the anticipation and wait behind this has felt already like a lifetime. For Watch the Throne , West teams up with fellow mega-star Jay-Z and a host of equally massive guests and samples. With guest credits featuring Otis Redding, Nina Simone, James Brown and Beyoncé, as well as up-and-coming Frank Ocean, this is very much an extravagant affair. Gone are the melodramatic self-flagellations seen on MBDTF but one shouldn't be fooled into believing this is a who-you-know piece of slap-dash indulgence: money and egos are discussed at short-hand whilst race, politics and depression take centre stage. There have been some too who believe this to be a return to classic Kanye/Jay. The single 'Otis' seemed irreverent in its heavy sampling and thriving off of nostalgic throwbacks with its looped horns and organs, and bouncing almost nonsensical tongue-twisters around such as...