The mainstream attitude approaching the release of Kanye
West’s seventh studio album will almost certainly be perplexing in years to
come and the question of whether or not this attitude is natural or in some way
shaped by West himself is sure to join a catalogue of unanswered questions
regarding the most discussed, most hated and most enamoured artist of the 21st
Century. Looking solely at music it would be impossible to understand how
public perception following album’s My
Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Yeezus
and more recently tracks like Only
One, FourFiveSeconds and All Day could
be anything but wholly positive with almost all music released by West in this
time being hugely critically acclaimed and commercially successful. To look
only at the music surrounding this release however is almost as naïve as not
looking at the music at all. The culture surrounding The Life Of Pablo and its many aliases is fraught with controversy,
some the product of ever excreting new media sensationalism and others the
product of downright stupidity by West and his team. In the months which veered
into over a year of waiting for this album things like album name changes, West’s
insistence on his main focus being the fashion world, weekly private listening
sessions with various famous faces, the release of Kendrick Lamar’s masterpiece
To Pimp A Butterfly all led many to
believe that West had been usurped with the troubled release leading to a collective
expectation that West would drop his first substandard album.
With The Life Of Pablo
now more widely available on Spotify and available for purchase on his
website it can now be seen that the album (in a way mirroring its troubled
release) does not conform to what might have been expected of it. It is by no
means some horrible, unforgivably bad album and it also by no means a troubled
brilliant opus (as some West fans optimistically dreamed of) instead contenting
itself with being yet another excellent Kanye West album that has some of the
best sampling, the worst lyrics and perhaps the most interesting discussion of
his career.
Ultralight Beam with
its strong gospel elements harkens back to The
College Dropout and in it West respectively takes a back seat to allow
Chance the Rapper to continue his exceptional rise with one of the best verses
on the entire album showing in just a few verses an incisive catchy edge than
in many ways West is missing throughout this record
Parts 1 and 2 of Father,
Stretch My Hands show a return to the jagged, eclectic brilliance of Yeezus,
especially the Caroline Shaw bridge which closes this record. This element settles
the range of complexities regarding religion and his parenthood in a way which
allows the listener to contemplate fully the various traumas he reflects on
throughout these two tracks. The Desiigner sample however was a poor choice, is
the worst on the record and with the quality of sampling being so high
throughout I would expect something more interesting from West.
There can be a real argument that Famous is the most frustrating and most typical “Kanye” song of his
entire career. If it was lyrically superior there would be far less reason to feel
the need to asterisk the song’s brilliance with buts and compromises. The Swift
referencing line despite the controversy over the line’s permission or
significance is all in all just not very good. If it were worded with more
intelligence there could be more cause to feel the need to defend West from the
obvious criticism which would come with writing such charged lyrics but they
simply comes off as brutish and lacking the self-awareness that is expected of
West at this point in his career. This leads to frustration in truly
complimenting the absolute delight that is the music and sampling present here.
In particular the sample of Sister Nancy which glides into the song and is an
instant burst of utter bliss that is a testament to sampling as an art form and
is my clear highlight of the entire album.
The next few songs on this album are one of the major
reasons the album does feel bloated. It seems extremely surprising that The Life Of Pablo actually clocks in at
over ten minutes shorter than My
Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy with tracks like Lowlights, Highlights, Freestyle 4 and Facts not impressing greatly. A shorter more direct approach would
have complimented the sound of the album to a greater extent and left the
project feeling far more cohesive.
I Love
Kanye does deserve a mention with its inclusion being an interesting
pastiche of self-reference that we have yet to see explored by Kanye West and
although being no more than what is basically a skit would be interesting to
see in a fully-fledged song.
The four songs following on from
this all share a minimalist feel and feature some of the best features and
rapping from West himself in the entire album. West’s second verse on Waves is
excellent and Chris Brown sounds as good as he has since his early, Jackson-esque
roots. On FML The Weeknd sounds almost unrecognisable to the sound which has
deservedly seen him rise to fame and West’s verses rise in pace, in anger and
in merit. On Real Friends and Wolves West reflects on his struggles in
hopelessness and his relationship with his family and friends. Its openness is
not unusual for West and on Wolves the
Vic Mensa, Sia and Frank Ocean features are all among the best on the album.
The final few tracks on the album
impress in various ways, 30 hours
sampling and the story associated with the song are truly captivating , with
Wests most competitive lyrics coming in No
More Parties in LA facing the almost undisputed best current rapper Kendrick Lamar. He certainly does not trounce
Lamar as some may have suggested but he does firmly hold his own and rather
than focus on competing it is a better idea to sit back and enjoy two of the
greatest creators of our generation at the top of their games.
West concludes the album with a
masterclass in sampling, Fade sonically
sounds excellent however the lyrics all around from Ty Dolla $ign, Post Malone
and West himself don’t hold up in comparison to the sampling something which is
unfortunately is a theme throughout this album.
This album will likely grow on
many as it finally enters the public eye in a bigger way. Once given enough
opportunity the genius which is present all over this album will rise to notoriety.
Unfortunately the genius on this record is not ever present. There is a fair
few times where we can see West at his absolute weakest with chunks of the
album feeling tacked on and many of the lyrics not keeping up with the
standards expected of the best in modern hip-hop. This album leaves West at an
interesting crossroads with West at the most efficient we have seen him in many
years yet also public expectation of his work could be seen to be at its
lowest.
Throughout this album there is
enough material to fit two sides of vinyl that would be easily amongst the best
of his career, however I can only recommend you get a hard copy of this in its
current state (If one is ever released.)
Dominic Allan.
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