And on Saturday, Beyonce unveiled "Formation," a deeply hooky and politically epochal new single that, in terms of shock-and-awesomeoness, trumped pretty much everything else over the weekend-including the very same Super Bowl in which she performed the song live. Late last month, Rihanna's long-gestating Anti album was finally semi-surprise released, after being leaked by the streaming service Tidal, resulting in a thinkwave of essays, Facebook chatter, and podcast discussions. Pablo will also mark the third major culture-conquering pop-star moment in just the last few weeks. (Though you can livestream the proceedings on Tidal.) Today, he's scheduled to debut the record, along with his fashion line Yeezy Season 3, at Madison Square Garden like everything West does, the whole event will likely be a mix of rococo and just plan cuckoo, full of dramatic digressions and cagey humor and lux sneakers neither you nor I will be able to afford. No one knows quite what to expect of Pablo: For the last few years, it's been the very model of malleability, with West sporadically changing its tracklist and title (from Swish to Waves to TLOP), and adding last-minute guests (Andre 3000 and Kirk Franklin, among others, were in the studio less than two weeks ago). Mix all of the above up, however, and I have to begrudgingly admit: I enjoy it in the majority, I’ll be returning to it.In just a few hours, Kanye West will debut The Life of Pablo, his first album of new music in three years, and perhaps the most speculated-about and anticipated pop record since West's last release, the ecstatically abrasive 2013 hit Yeezus. In between though, Kanye has injected a genuine humour into a lot of tracks-whether or not that was intentional remains to be seen though.įinally, managing to be the sore thumb, the highlight and the surprise of the album, “No More Parties In LA”, produced with Madlib feels like a track from the ‘ Old Kanye’ to quote mid-album skit “I Love Kanye”. Guest appearances from Rhianna and Kendrick Lamar sticking out as high points, while shock factor lines involving bleach and Taylor Swift are needless and “Facts”, which revolves entirely around West’s shoe line, feels entirely vapid. Vocals are, as with the rest of the album, uneven. While there wasn’t a beat that especially caught my attention, there was experimentation and variety. Instrumentation is generally the high point for me, with melodies that range from cinematic in “Freestyle 4” to electro-gospel in the opener, “Ultralight Beam”, while in between, solid EDM and noise timbres prevail. Genuinely catchy, thought-out tracks sit beside tracks that - I can only hope - are fully invested in Kanye’s own irony and lunacy, which in turn sit beside tracks that feel like draft copies (and based on the rumours, they may well be). TLoP is an uneven frankenstein of a tracklist. Kanye West’s latest release, The Life of Pablo, leaves subtly at the door, so it seems fitting to review the album in the same way. Despite its enjoyable moments, of which there is a sizable amount, TLoP stands as Kanye’s most disappointing, laziest effort yet. It probably succeeds as entertainment - I’m just yet to be convinced that it’s genuinely a good record. Perhaps I’m missing the point, and maybe I’m taking it too seriously, but in my mind TLoP is just a heap of hype that leisurely rides the persona of Kanye West to the very maximum. For every “Real Friends”, there’s a “Waves” for every “Feedback”, there’s a “30 Hours” for every short piece of sweet spontaneity, there’s an unnecessary skit of insufferable nonsense. It’s unfortunately the other side of his unpredictable narcissism that prevents TLoP from being a complete and satisfying album. The best tracks are those that actually offer self-examinations of his humanity, such as “Real Friends” and “No More Parties in LA”, and those that display Kanye’s lunacy just enough to sound delightfully eccentric. Though they’re not necessarily the finest cuts here, the great thing about “Feedback”, “Freestyle 4”, and “Facts” is that they allow you to simply listen to and enjoy Kanye’s excellent delivery without needing to pay much attention to the lesser lyrical lines. Tracks are often compelling at first, only to then erratically detour onto something else. Kanye West has essentially attempted to sell his undeveloped ideas as substantial concepts, resulting in a complete lack of cohesion. The lyrical content ranges from witty and delightfully brash, to cheap and wholly abhorrent, while some of the instrumentals simply don’t seem finished. At its worst, TLoP is one of the most obnoxious records I’ve ever listened to. There’s heaps of enjoyment to be had with its outlandish humour and unpredictable instrumental turns, but it comes with an equal amount of frustration. The Life of Pablo is uneven, sporadic, and totally erratic an unfinished version of a potentially great album.
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