this year has had a lot of good rap albums--Curren$y's Pilot Talk, Black Milk's Album of the Year--but man Kanye's new album is pretty incredible after the first few times I've heard it, and this is coming from someone who has never liked ANY of his previous albums. I actually always said his biggest mistake was thinking he could rap. this album isn't perfect, and I don't want to make such a bold statement, but I feel like this is *could* be one of those "landmark" rap albums; the last rap album I was really, truly, blown away by like this was Madvillainy 6-7 years ago.
one of the best things that I think he did was get all the help he did...Kanye can write a good song/verse by himself sometimes, but I think he's a lot better when he surrounds himself with people who can provide what he lacks--namely the ability to sing at least on-key (Rihanna, John Legend, Bon Iver), and mafioso rappers to counterpoint Kanye's tendency to whine for attention (Jay-Z, Raekwon, Rick Ross, that dude from The Clipse). what's better is that Kanye's raps are actually pretty good, so the combination of his above-average rapping with all the good help leads to a good showing.
also, the actual music. I was really impressed by the beats on Curren$y's album and even moreso by Black Milk's live-band setup, but the music on this album is so varied, and I usually don't gush like this, but the music is so varied and Kanye just slays damn near everything. the soul-rap beat alone for "Devil in a New Dress" bowled me over. "Blame Game"'s melancholy jazz-inflected R&B? the straightforward guitar line of "Gorgeous"? the foreboding bass and filters-on-filters-on-Autotuned wailing coda of "Runaway"? even when he does the pop numbers ("All of the Lights" with Rihanna and Fergie), the beat progresses and morphs and it's all just so...big. it's just really big and epic.
as much as I gushed here, it's not a perfect album. I completely left out "Monster" which honestly I don't like much at all, and my jury is still out on "Lost in the World/Who Will Survive in America." Same for the Chris Rock skit at the end of "Blame Game"--it's crass and maybe could have been done better, but honestly I think it's a necessary part of the song, as that crassness seems to really drive the point home...I know if I heard someone say that stuff to my ex-girlfriend I would want to go and honestly beat the everliving shit out of him.
as for the "critic's award"....I mean, yeah, Kanye's nuts, and music critics love this "exposing vulnerabilities" stuff; I tend to think of it more as Kanye West just being really bitter about all the stuff that's happened to him the past few years. it's impossible to ignore the dark mood of this album, either through the raps or the music. I really don't care what mood Kanye West is in, or what his issues are, or how much money he has, or how big of a d-bag he is, as long as he can make a good rap about them. I think he was able to pull his weight for the most part in that department, and that married with a ridiculous bunch of beats and some good guest help (especially John Legend, Raekwon, and Rick Ross) makes for a pretty damn great album. it's a shame that "Monster" is such a piece of deadweight in the middle of the album--kind of ruins the momentum and wastes an amusing verse by Nicki Minaj.
EDIT: reinforcing the notion that you can't always trust "critics;" as a sort of parallel, The Clipse's album Hell Hath No Fury maintained a score on Metacritic of 89, and it's no where -near- that good; it was acclaimed simply because it took forever to come out, and I think that Dark Twisted Fantasy will definitely stand the test of time better than that. also, iirc Pitchfork said that Daft Punk's album Discovery was the #5 best album of the DECADE, and yet it's only rated a 6.4 on the same website. ????