In Love With the Joystick and the Robot Voice

SNL does it again! Once more they have completely changed my mind about a particular artists and made me a hardcore devotee where before I couldn't have cared less. Did you see Kanye West this past weekend on the show? I had heard that he was singing not rapping on his latest album and I was intrigued but not much. I've heard a little of his stuff before and it was fine but his ego and arrogance turned me off completely and that was that. But when I read about his auto tuned experiment of an album, my interest was piqued, and then I saw the performance of "Love Lockdown" and was sold.

Looking somewhat reminiscent of Jermaine Jackson on the Victory tour, Kanye performed solo in front of a bright screen sounding both futuristic and backwards looking at the same time. His voice was terrible and obviously not altered in any way. I was embarrassed at first but then the robot effects took hold and made it more palatable. My skepticism gave way to jaw dropping astonishment as the drums on the chorus kicked in and he began flapping about all over the stage. I tip my hat to Kanye for making such a unique, personal and bizarre choice to record an album like this and the passion which with he rocked this song was amazing. It's in my head night and day and I don't mind at all. So far, it's the greatest song of 2009 and the year hasn't even started yet.

Love Lockdown - Kanye West