Billboard: #31 (and charting)
UK: #46
Released January 18, 2011.
‘Lights’. This word reminds me of a lot of other fairly recent releases – of course, Jay Sean’s Hit the Lights and Lights Off, Ellie Goulding’s Bright Lights, Katy B’s Lights On, which was a pretty decent but nothing-special dance affair for me, Coldplay’s Christmas Lights, and (older) West has done Flashing Lights too…
The music video is terrible, in my opinion. The black and white intro, probably of the daughter mentioned in Kanye’s verses looks vaguely compelling, and then we are treated… or tortured… with an explosive light-show of Rihanna singing some lyrics rendered in bright lights. (The visual above is also from the song. The CD cover isn’t out yet.) We have a few scenes that some have commented are reminiscent of Enter the Void, Kanye standing on a few police cars during the chorus, an overexposed Rihanna and Kid Cudi singing away from the camera.
It’s an all-star cast, supposedly, so long that I can’t even remember who exactly features on it, but basically only Rihanna, Kid Cudi, and Fergie get noticeable parts (and Elton John has the piano playing bridge). I don’t really like Fergie (Big Girls Don’t Cry = decent, but some stuff was terrible… My Humps and The Time with the BEP, for two), but I do like Kanye, Rihanna, and Cudi so this looks like a strong combination on paper.
The chorus is very addictive for some reason. The drums follow a non-standard but interesting rhythm, and it’s actually quite uplifting, I must say. We have a set of several kinds of lights – cop lights, flash lights, spotlights, strobe lights, street lights and several kinds of lives which are frequent stereotypes taken on by popstars.
It’s rather creepy that Rihanna is supplying the hook, and the verses of the song discuss domestic violence. That infamous incident happened in the past, and we shouldn’t be dwelling on it, I think, but unfortunately and perhaps even inevitably such associations are difficult to banish. Not to mention Love the Way You Lie. Interpretations of Kanye’s daughter as music do exist and are somewhat justifiable, but I find that pushing it a little far, mainly because of the lines about the ghetto university in the second verse.
(Verse 1): To my surprise, a nigga replacing me
I had to take him to that ghetto university
Bump him off, basically. In terms of music, to outperform the others that might have replaced him after a hiatus (especially in the case of rap – 808s & Heartbreak while in my opinion an excellent album doesn’t count). Verse 1 goes well with this interpretation – almost too well, in fact. However, I can’t quite grasp the following pair of lines with the interpretation of the daughter as music.
(Verse 2): She need a daddy, baby please
Can’t let her grow up in that ghetto university
Kanye’s character has been somewhat precocious at times, but still. Seriously, is it reasonable to believe that the music industry depends on one individual, and furthermore will not advance without that one individual? True, it may not have advanced in a certain way without an individual, but to say that it would continue to grow up in that ghetto university is a very, very daring statement. So I’ll take the more literal interpretation, that he’s taking on the character of a (celebrity) child abuser.
From verse 1 to verse 2, there’s a break. The way I see how going up the stairs suddenly led to the restraining order, and the line Her mother, brother, grandmother hate me in that order may have been a second case of domestic violence? The daughter doesn’t seem to have a daddy now as suggested by the ending lines of verse 2, so what exactly happened then? But anyway, his intentions are good now; he wants to make life better for his daughter. That’s nice to know.
It’s more straightforward and simple this way, but the overall message is still uplifting. With regard to the hook, there’s a certain tinge of anger with which he lists cop lights etc. which could suggest that he isn’t a fan of his past and what he saw. Perhaps he was a popstar indeed, but lost control of his family life – the fact that he raps Fast life, drug life, thug life, rock life, every night (no family quality time!) could be an explanation for this. Despite the lights and lives looking appealing, he may want to escape from them.
Considered on another level, he may be highlighting some of the lights that people seek – cop lights, flash lights, spotlights, strobe lights, street lights. Some of these (spotlights, strobe lights, flash lights from paparazzi) are commonly associated with pop stardom, perhaps even a part of it. But are these lights really what we should be going for? Consider he had Flashing Lights, which was a comment about a lady going too far with a flamboyant, partying lifestyle while he picked something quieter (order the hors d’oeuvres, view of the water/Straight from a page of your favourite author). Not to mention Lost in the World where he goes Run from the lights, run from the night, run for your life. Furthermore when featured on Forever, he had They pull their cameras out, and god damn they snap. It seems lights are a negative image – or even motif – in West’s lyrics for the drawbacks of stardom.
Kid Cudi comes on…
Getting mine, baby, got to let these niggas know
Getting right, eh, you should go and get your own (x2)
What is he trying to get? Clearly, it’s something with a sense of right – a frame of mind for right living, perhaps? Not the lights, in any case, and he’s trying to express perhaps that people should go and get their own forms of lights or lives that are right, and not just chase after the popular lights and lives because they have drawbacks that may not be immediately apparent.
I don’t really like the timbre of Fergie’s rapping voice. The repetition of mind, line and time got very annoying quickly. It’s clearly about a drug issue, yes, and repetition may be used to place emphasis on the number of times, but I think it sounds terrible. She’s probably better off singing songs where she doesn’t belt (or worse, scream as in Boom Boom Pow) too much, as far as I’m concerned.
Anyway, I think from the verses we’ve pieced together more than enough to unravel the hook in the song. It’s important to see all of the lights, not just the lights that may be more apparent to us, and it’s up to us to chase for the right lights (which would be different for different people) as we live our lives. Go after the right lights, push hard, and do your best. Bring others up with you if you can.
I would actually compare this song with Lupe Fiasco’s The Show Goes On and Tinie Tempah’s Invincible (review). All three recently-released songs are uplifting pieces about pushing through difficult circumstances for success. Invincible in my opinion is the weakest of the three; while it’s certainly technically competent, I think all of the 3 songs are technically good and thus its (seemingly, hopefully) largely straightforward and even saccharine approach limits its effectiveness. The Show Goes On also takes a more straightforward approach, though I think it has a good hook and I find it flows together very well – it’d be an example of getting most of the basics nailed down well for a pop-rap song. All of the Lights in my opinion doesn’t flow as smoothly as The Show Goes On, but the lyrics are well constructed and it’s intellectually solid. The Show Goes On is more appealing in a simple way, Invincible is a very comfortable song, but All of the Lights has greater depth to it. Nevertheless, I think all three are actually quite good songs (at least for the most part), but All of the Lights is the winner.
(Invincible: 6, actually 6.5, after listening a few more times since the review – it’s lyrically plain but definitely more than technically competent and the breakdown is good stuff. The Show Goes On is around a 7 to 7.5, it’s a solid song that I find very catchy and uplifting, with good use of sampling, but not too much more. For this:)
MUSIC VIDEO SCORE = 1.0 / 10, but
OVERALL SCORE = 8.0 / 10
I am more than satisfied. The cold Runaway went down very well with me, as he was able to convey convincingly the supposed depth of pain that his character was supposed to carry. All of the Lights seems to be somewhat on the other side. Kanye expresses the stresses of celebrity life, but also conveys a desire to improve oneself and break through said stresses, for oneself and for others. It’s a slightly more subtle yet uplifting, positive and powerful song. I’m not so much of a fan of Fergie’s part, though, and while the lyrics are insightful I find the instrumentation and melody merely ‘eh’ to decent, which keeps the song at around an 8 for me. Still, apart from Through the Wire and Heartless I think this is one of the best among his releases.
Posted by jk 
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