Album Review: Kanye West - The Life of Pablo
The Life of Pablo
Kanye West
February 14, 2016
GOOD, Def Jam
8.5/10
By bucking album cohesiveness, Kanye crafts an effectively gorgeous mess of an album on TLOP. Tumblr meet Kanye, Kanye meet Tumblr.
"I miss the old Kanye, straight from the 'Go Kanye Chop up the soul Kanye, set on his goals Kanye I hate the new Kanye, the bad mood Kanye The always rude Kanye, spaz in the news Kanye"
Oh. He gets it. In the track "I Love Kanye", Kanye West let's you know he completely understands how the masses feel about him. And he's not afraid to show you he's a mess and completely human despite consistently suggesting he has divine rule over Hip Hop. The Life of Pablo follows a string of three albums that have a fully cohesive sense of style, lyricism, production, and mood. On 808s & Heartbreak Yeezy goes full brood, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy showcased Kanye's excessiveness and bombasticism, and Yeezus put his self centered divinity on display. The lack of a theme doesn't hinder TLOP but gives it an earnest and determined feel. Kanye has never sounded less sure of himself in a record and that plays to his strengths. The album is a melting pot of genre, sound, and feel.
Despite the album not being perfect there are certainly some diamonds in the glistening rough. TLOP is book ended by maybe the best start and finish to an album in years. "Ultralight Beam" kicks things off with gospel spectacle and soulful spirit. Add into that the best feature in a year by Chance the Rapper and you've got a welcoming unlike any other we may see this year. And to wrap the record up we get "Fade", a song sounding so unfinished it perfectly summarizes the album's history at it's core, a work in progress. Also that droning bass riff just get's inside you.
Digging into the meat of the album you'll find some other stand-out tracks. "Waves" may be the prettiest track Kanye has crafted up to this point effectively utilizing Chris Brown and a bevy of gorgeous samples. Kanye effortlessly reminds us he has a sardonic wit on tracks "Feedback" and "I Love Kanye" giving us reason to have flashes of the "old Kanye" and remember one of the reasons why we love him and keep listen, he's a jester in a grander sense. West makes his most honest and saddest sounding track on "Real Friends", with hint's of 808's West let's you know that he's as awful as people might believe.
TLOP isn't the next new epic masterpiece from Kanye West, it isn't a sign of him being the hottest MC in the game (still Kendrick), and it's not the album that will inspire the next wave of Kanye's in hip-hop. It's not to say that TLOP misses the mark, it's just that Kanye doesn't even know what the mark is, there's no target in sight on this record. It's a collection of tracks that seem as unfinished as Wests epic mission in music. Unfinished, frenetic, strange, witty, inspired, messy, and mostly beautiful. The Life of Pablo is Kanye's Tumblr.