Video: Kanye West - "Love Lockdown" (Live at the VMAs)

Download: Kanye West - "Love Lockdown" (via)

Although there's been new Kanye West material from his forthcoming fourth album, which may see release as early as December, floating around the internet, the first official taste of record numero quatro came last night at the VMAs. Breaking with his boycott of the show, Yeezy closed the 25th edition of the show by performing "Love Lockdown", a song which also sees release to iTunes today.

As for the song itself, 'Ye is going for a darker, slower, less self-assured vibe here which stands out immediately compared to the likes of "Stronger". "I'm in love with you/but the vibe is wrong/and it hauntin' me/all the way home" goes one lyric, and it aptly sums up the vibe here. "Love Lockdown" is heavy on drums, vocoder, and piano, and all those touches add to the fact that this is Kanye's most R&B-flavored single. I don't think there's any rapping on it at all, and the vocal hook could have come straight from a Daft Punk song. All in all, "Love Lockdown" shows that West is expanding his horizons creatively, but as far as the actual song quality is concerned...

Kanye West MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)

This post was cross-published on Chicago is Mildly Interesting.