I don’t think Kanye does frivolous well. His best music, to my ears, either comes from a place of unbridled joy, a place of righteous anger, or a place of reflection. I posted “So Appalled” at the beginning of the week, and I was a bit disappointed with how soulless it sounded. Once artists achieve a certain level of commercial and financial success, I believe their work suffers (most of the time, anyway) because, let’s face it, once the hunger for understanding or the need to be heard has been satiated, your viewpoint changes. However, the new track, “Lost in the World”, sort of restores my faith in Kanye’s upcoming album being something of potential value. He goes back to Auto-Tune for part of the track, and while I’ve used this space to rail on that technology many times, in Kanye’s case I don’t mind it so much because he’s using the effect to help portray a mood. With that said, this song is mostly worth listening to because of the ending passage, which samples Gil Scott-Heron’s “Comment #1”. Actually, the only reason I’m posting this is because I WAS going to put the video for Gil’s “New York is Killing Me” in here, but it seems like it’s been taken down from everywhere and isn’t even available on Gil’s main website. Ah well, I’m sure it’ll pop up at a later date. Till then, check out “Lost in the World” and you should also do yourself a favor and pick up Gil Scott-Heron’s “I’m New Here”, easily one of, if not the best album of 2010.