Lock him up

Kanye West is back! You've missed him, right? He's one of those artists that keeps things pretty low-key, tries to stay out of the limelight and who can blame him? The man's got a very delicate ego. But, here he is, braving the music world with the first single from his imminent new album, which is pretty good going seeing as he only released his last one about a year ago.

The single is called 'Love Lockdown' and it was premiered at this month's MTV Video Awards, where American Sweetheart Britney Spears returned to the scene of the crime for a large helping of redemption and three awards. Mr West closed the show with this new song and perhaps it was just the glitz and the glamour but I liked it a whole lot more live then I do this studio version. Take a listen...



For one, there is such a thing as a little too much vocoder, ask Cher...or Victoria Beckham. The chorus sounds odd, like Kanye fell asleep on the mixing desk and didn't realise. Plus, for someone with a track record for producing crystal clear beats this sounds strangely unfinished or just badly produced. Full marks for trying something a bit different (no rapping, no obvious sample, no bragging), but minus points for the vocoder overdose.