My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Critic Score
Based on 45 reviews
2010 Ratings: #2 / 924
Year End Rank: #1
User Score
2010 Rank: #1All Time: #78
Liked by 3,586 people
Sign In to rate and review

CRITIC REVIEWS

100
Consequence of Sound

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is hands-down the most ambitious mainstream rap album ever made.

100
The Line of Best Fit

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fanstasy is Kanye’s long-awaited opus, a work of art that sees him finally reach the potential that was clear for all to see in College Dropout

100
Rolling Stone

It’s his best album, but it’s more than that — it’s also a rock-star manifesto for a downsizing world.

100
Slant Magazine

No rap album I've heard can boast better production than this one. The music is exhilarating, often abrasive, never predictable, at times stunningly gorgeous. These are the finest tracks that any group of rappers has yet to rhyme over.

100
AllHipHop

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a true testament to Kanye’s magnificent ability to craft and create music.

100
Entertainment Weekly
West may be obnoxious, but at least he's interested in confronting those aspects of his identity through his music. Few stars of comparable wattage would dare do the same.
100
Mojo

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is genuinely a great record.

100
Beats Per Minute

A frequently astonishing, no-holds-barred tour de force that not only eclipses his previous four albums in scope and creativity (no small feat), but also makes everything else on the radio sound positively amateurish by comparison.

100
NOW Magazine

An ornately orchestrated pop epic built on a classic hip-hop foundation, Twisted Fantasy is his best since his debut.

100
The Independent

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is one of pop's gaudiest, most grandiose efforts of recent years, a no-holds-barred musical extravaganza in which any notion of good taste is abandoned at the door.

100
PopMatters

But it is the heart, soul, and humanity of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy that ultimately marks it as the defining pop moment of 2010.

100
Gigwise

Kanye’s genius extends way past just constructing a track. The order in which each song is listed is perfect.

100
The Irish Times

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a magnificent, headspinning, audacious work.

100
Pitchfork

As a result, the record comes off like a culmination and an instant greatest hits, the ultimate realization of his strongest talents and divisive public persona.

96
Spectrum Culture

Never before has a hip-hop album been so decadent, yet so beatific and inspiringly adventurous – an explosive synthesis of everything Kanye has learned after four albums.

95
Prefix

With My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West has lurched to the vanguard of modern mainstream music.

95
Billboard
Needless to say, West has proved once again that he is most on point in the face of adversity.
95
Pretty Much Amazing

This album is a benchmark, a high water point for mainstream conceptual rap. It’s Kanye’s most complex and complete release and one of the most consistently impressive hip hop albums in recent years.

94
Paste

In its many contradictions, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy—perhaps this century’s definitive portrait of torment, vanity, self-delusion, and pathos—has given way to stirring new possibilities.

91
A.V. Club

Kanye’s best album since The College Dropout, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy finds its creator in complete control of the chaos swirling inside his vivid imagination.

90
Drowned in Sound

For rap fans it's both a testament to the versatility of the genre and Kanye's own brilliance that he can make something so refreshingly different which still fits comfortably in the rap canon.

90
Clash

This is not just West's best album, it's a keen contender for the most ambitious LP in hip-hop history.

90
American Songwriter

Fantasy will stand as an album that dared to push the entire medium of recorded music forward, for better or worse.

90
Sputnikmusic

Fantasy is Kanye West's best album yet, and if that wasn't enough, it's also a shining example of what mainstream hip-hop can and should be: dynamic, focused, revealing, personable, and most important - the passion!

90
DIY

There is no weak link; there is not a single misstep (and this is a 68-minute-long album). This may very well be his masterpiece.

90
HipHopDX

From nine-minute douchebag manifestos, to enlisting an A-list Grammy ensemble to piece-mealing his album out to the masses every Friday, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy defies logic and it ignores convention. 

90
FACT Magazine

It’s one of the grandest hip-hop records of all time ... full of vocoder, guitar, narration and overheard betrayals, and it’s frequently torn between whether it wants to be a rugged, raw rap record or a grandiose pop opera. 

90
Tiny Mix Tapes

Fantasy is hardly as difficult or artsy as it wants to think it is, but its emotional complexity more than compensates for bulging song lengths and near-constant pomposity.

90
Coke Machine Glow

It’s a sprawling monument to wholeness towering over an artistically and emotionally fragmented landscape. It’s Kanye, like we said, doing him: a circuit at last complete.

90
SPIN

It's a sinister, orchestral, hugely grandiose affair that owes as much to the artist's self-aggrandizing ego as to the voracious id that would destroy it publicly. 

90
AllMusic

Whether loved or loathed, fully enjoyed or merely admired, this album should be regarded as a deeply fascinating accomplishment.

90
NME

It’s the best thing he’s done since his game-changing debut, and heartening evidence to suggest the self-professed Louis Vuitton don is in a good place right now.

80
Evening Standard

Massive in every sense, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is the work of a man who feels compelled to be bigger, better and braver.

80
Q Magazine

After the comparative disappointment of 2008's 808s & Heartbreak, West returned with this restlessly inventive 70-minute set.

80
The Sydney Morning Herald

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is eclectic but never offhand; it's hip-hop where every deviation serves the song's texture, every boast contrasts with slyly lacerating self-appraisal.

80
musicOMH

After a goofy intro on Dark Fantasy, ‘Ye takes it all back to his fantasies in Chicago, when he was producing beats and managing artists with a dream of making it big.

80
The Observer

My Dark Twisted Fantasy – a flawed near-masterpiece – doesn't impress just by dint of numbers.

80
The Telegraph

It’s certainly good to have West’s unique talent back in music, but this ambitious behemoth may be easier to admire than to listen to.

80
No Ripcord

Kanye West’s Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a sprawling, ambitious, orchestral fuck-you of an album, and he wants you to know it.

80
The 405

This album, then, shows West pushing out from basic formulae, experimenting and not just trying new things but carrying ideas right through until they are fully formed and flourishing.

80
Uncut
A fascinating record, a sumptuous musical banquet at which Bon Iver and Aphex Twin rub shoulders with Jay-Z, Smokey Robinson and a whole Broadway chorus.
80
The Skinny

Here he balances pastiche and drama with such glorious levity that to stick a fork in any part of his rich palette would be a cruelty of Dickensian proportions.

60
The Needle Drop

Kanye's fifth studio album is easily his most ambitious effort yet. The production is extremely stunning. To be honest, this album sounds like a really huge undertaking with all of it's extra instrumentation, studio tricks, and samples.

40
The Guardian
This album offers beats that retread past glories, and an emotional palette narrowed to a range roughly as wide as West's navel.
BradTasteMusic
100

So as a kid, I used to go to the library, pick out albums, and download them to my iPod if I liked them. It was... immature... but that is besides the point. I picked up tons of albums across many artists, but MBDTF I specifically remember listening to consistently throughout my entire life past 2010. However as I got older, my musical taste was set on a weird path. I almost had no appreciation for lyrics, even up until recently.

I had this album at an 8/10 for a while, maybe due to myself ... read more

Craigold
60

Hey everyone, Cumthony Sluttano, Internets busiest bodily fluid nerd. And today, I will review My newest creation, Semen. Now, semen, for the past few millions of years has been incredibly influential to the human race, even being mentioned in Kanye's album "Ye", but it hasn't really been reinventing itself lately. That is, until Blowjobs became popular among the new generation. Typically, people wouldn't get a single drop of semen near their mouths, but the creation of blowjobs has ... read more

ThrowBackG
70

Top ten anime plot twists, amiright? I guess I have an ego of 100 now. So I have more to say than usual and I'd like to clear some things first as I feel they're necessary to share my opinions.

For starters I don't consider myself a critic, at least not in the typical sense. I merely go into music with an empty conscious (most of the time) and I simply like what I like. I don't judge a record for what it's "missing" but for what it IS. Sometimes I might have something to say. I don't ... read more

ClassicWhiteBoy
96

After distancing himself from social media and drama Kanye was involded in back then.. He decides to comeback and releases this life-changing album with a phenomenal production, near-flawless tracklist and a list of amazing perfectly picked artists for each tracks/verse/chorus/vocals etc.. Easily being considered one of his best album by most, this masterpiece is simply enjoyable for everyone, only Kanye could come out with this kind of sound and succeed to make a total masterpiece of an album. ... read more

mnartriam
90

I AM SHAKESPEARE. IN THE FLESH.

WALT DISNEY? NIKE? GOOGLE?

MY SEMEN IS IN THAT RIVER. THOSE FISH ARE MY CHILDREN.

WHO IS GOING TO BE MY MEDICI FAMILY

Toasttee
98

Hell of a Life and Blame Game exists so this is unfortunately flawed. Other than that, this is an incredible album.

Fav Track: Devil In A New Dress
Least Fav Track: Blame Game

Purchasing My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy from Amazon helps support Album of the Year. Or consider a donation?
Become a Donor
Donor badge, no ads + more benefits.
Advertisement
Sign in to comment
1d
1d
1d
3d
3d