Writing about pop music is generally kind of exciting; it’s as exciting as painting a room and not waiting around for it to dry, at least. One of the best things is, either because of how the mind works (a la the transcendental aesthetic, shout out Kant), or because that’s just how reality is, if you’re a Platonist, say, pop tends to present you with these neat little antipodes.

Between last night and today, we’ve been given another binary—Thom Yorke dancing to “Single Ladies”, and Kanye West’s visual typographic manual. They kind of go together, but not really. Like Odd Future and Lady Gaga.¹

The first thing I noticed about the “All Of The Lights” video is that it looks a lot like it’s set in Queens. Which is kind of depressing. Let me tell you, walking around the neighborhood, you get a very distinct “Ghetto University” feelings. My neighborhood is rimmed by projects and the East River, and in the days before the great thaw, it was pretty damn dirty outside.

There’s definitely the suggestion of an entelechy in the “All Of The Lights” video, but like most, it’s been accreted and buried under a layer of fantastic gloss.

Nb, Kid Cudi’s scene is like some high-production B roll from How To Make It In America, which is to say, he should stick to acting rather than rapping.

No, the video is not very good. You can sort of see what they’re going for, I think, if you consider just the “Interlude”-part and the bedroom scene. It’s kind of fitting that the video’s been released on NBA All-Star weekend, and probably intentional. “All Of The Lights” is Kanye’s all-star team, and the video is like the roster announcement.

Sure, I wish it had focused on the daughter storyline, rather than setting the stage its suggestion and then dropping it. It’s pretty manipulative, actually. At first I was like, ‘what’s going to happen to the daughter?’ But later I was just wondering if Nike paid for a product placement.

It’s funny. I was over the moon for the “Runaway” video—and rightly so, I think. Whereas “Runaway” seemed like a vacuous aesthetic exercise, “All Of The Lights” is one. (You notice Kanye’s been hitting the gym lately.)

Not real sure why I’m writing about “All Of The Lights” this morning, except that it is entertaining to watch. It shouldn’t be, but it is.

I’m starting to get how people are tired of Kanye—or never liked him at all. This video’s all posing and displaying being upset without really seeming like he’s upset (let alone actually being being upset, if you know what I mean). I guess that’s about 90% of his whole appeal—being supremely entertaining. This artistry stuff aside, since who after all really wants to talk about that, even Kanye’s boring shitty videos are pretty good.²