Our serialized examination of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West continues with fan favorite “Devil in a New Dress.”
“Devil in a New Dress” is an impressionistic glimpse into Kanye’s failed relationship with a woman he names his “sin-sation.” The song is built on dichotomy: love and lust, heaven and hell, authenticity and deception. We’ll hear this thematically in the song’s lyrics, but also tonally in the song’s unresolved, contrasting chord structure.
At the conclusion of our episode, we’ll display how the song’s abrupt ending sets up the album’s next track “Runaway.” Things take an unexpected turn we realize how inexorably linked the two tracks are both thematically and tonally.