FYI: This is the part where it got extremely hard for me to rank the remaining albums. So, I'm pretty much finishing this list as I post.
15. Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Standouts: 'Runaway', 'Hell Of A Life', 'Monster', 'All Of The Lights', 'Blame Game', 'Power'
The critics unanimously agree, this album is the ****. The last thing Kanye needs is people praising his work, we know how inflated his ego is already, but you just can't help it when he keeps delivering amazing albums one after another. 'Dark Fantasy' is the perfect beginning to this album, it has Kanye spitting rhymes over anonymous voices wondering: "Can we get much higher?". 'Runaway', the second single, is a true testimony that Kanye is one of the best lyricist in the hip-hop game, and that piano intro is so unique and disturbingly provocative. 'All Of The Lights', one of the highlights from the record, has Kanye sharing the spotlight with a bunch of artists as he raps about the pros and cons of fame. Pop royalty Rihanna and Fergie shine here as well, Rihanna adds an extremely addictive hook, while Fergie kills the bridge. The growing buzz around 'Monster' was all due to new princess of rap music Nicki Minaj's verse, and while she is the star on this track and makes Kanye sound like a feature, the track remains a masterpiece, I will not forget to mention the video looks epic and should be hitting the web soon. 'Blame Game' and 'Hell Of A Life' are very innovative just like Kanye likes his music to be, the latter one draws characteristic from '808s & Heartbreak', which was a work of art just like this record. Kanye is an innovator, he doesn't care about sales or fame, all he wants is recognition, and how can he not get it when his music is simply mindblowing, such a fantastic record.
14. Ke$ha, Cannibal
Standouts: 'Sleazy', 'Blow', 'Cannibal', 'We R Who We R', 'Cannibal', 'Crazy Beautiful Life'
People seem to think hating on Ke$ha is cool, but they just forget that she is here to party and have fun, not to be taken seriously and prove how great of a vocalist she is. In this EP, she pretty much follows the same formula used in her debut album, and it works, I can't get enough of it, and I wouldn't mind if she doesn't change her sound for the next record. 'Cannibal', the title track, has to be one of her best, if not the best up-tempo of her short career, it's weirdly creepy and genius at the same time, and only Ke$ha can get away with making a Jeffrey Dahmer reference in such a clever way, yet very strange. 'Sleazy' has her experiment with her rapping skills over a tribal beat about how she is not here for material things, such a fantastic track. Club banger 'Blow' comes next, and it's so damn catchy, has number one hit written all over it. The coming out anthem, 'We R Who We R', is as addictive as the rest of the album, perfect lead single and it addresses the recent suicides in a way, so it makes her look good too, not bad at all. 'The Harold Song' is the only slow song in the album, and it gets lost in the middle of all the great up-tempos.
"I'm in love alright, with my crazy beautiful life, with the parties, the disasters, with my friends all pretty and plastered" she intones on the next track, 'Crazy Beautiful Life', and whines about dating a guy with a vadge in 'Grow A Pear'. 'C U Next Tuesday' lacks something musically for me, but the hidden message in the track is hilarious. Ke$ha is one of pop music's latest discovery and whether some like it or not, she is here to stay.
