by Gareth Matson
Musically and characteristically Kanye West is the most interesting artist this decade. Those who become emotionally scarred by him referring to himself as “The greatest living rock star on the planet!” will burst an artery before they admit that, character aside, Kanye is one of the greatest living artists and as The Life of Pablo demonstrates he has the artillery to back up his bravado.
The album feels rushed and sloppy, but ultimately brilliant. With multiple name changes and the track list being cut and pasted just days before the release, with Kanye apparently mastering the tracks hours before, it’s hard to believe it took him 3 years. The piece opens with Ultralight Beam, a track entwined with gospel and organ: “This is a God dream” the choir sings. The album is littered with songs which could easily be the next huge single, however the first three tracks are not among them, they lack the mainstream appeal of hits such as Black Skinhead, POWER, Gold Digger et al. Yet they add a lot to the album as an art form, in addition to Father Stretch My Hands Pt.1 hosting some of his best (ridiculous) lyrics to date: “If I f*ck this model/ And she just bleached her as*hole/ And I get bleach on my T-shirt/ I’mma feel like an as*hole”. Put it on a plaque because that is poetry.
In true Kanye fashion, his track Famous caused controversy soon as he debuted it live at his album launch. Stemming from the line: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / why I made that bitch famous” according to yeezy she gave him permission to include this anyway. Furthermore this is one of the highlights of the album, entertaining lyrics in addition to sampling Nina Simone’s “Do What You Gotta Do” with Rihanna, who sings the song’s hook.
The next impressionable tack is I Love Kanye, offering up huge bait for those without the capacity to see humour. “And I love you like Kanye loves Kanye” he laughs and jeers at the end. What other artist would have a 50 second freestyle in the middle of their album of this nature? No one.
Waves has single written all over it, with its summer vibes and contemporary sound it would slide into the mainstream radio stations easier than Amber Rose’s finger. The track is the start of a solid run of tracks. Followed by FML, which could also be contender for a huge single, though not in the accessible vein of Waves it has a wide reaching appeal with the first class production the trademarks Kanye’s work and is arguably his strongest trait. Real Friends and Wolves complete the solid run, each respectively a highlight of the album.
The album ends on another great run starting with the Kendrick Lamar collaboration No More Parties in LA which is 6 minutes of pure unfiltered rawness, succeeded by the Street Fighter sampling Facts which witnesses Kanye taking shots at Nike and his self-prophesising success in the 2020 presidential elections. The album is closed by a very Yeezus sounding Fade in terms of production and pushes through an aggressive bassline which wouldn’t look out of place on a Nine Inch Nails record.
Overall the album is a conquering success. Definitely rough around the edges, a lot of the fat should be trimmed, tracks that otherwise would be perfect suffer from needless additions, such as 30 hours which starts brilliantly but drags on with repetitiveness while tracks such as Low Lights would be better off cut. But the staples of this album are huge and some of his best work, while it doesn’t reach the dizzy heights of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy it certainly strengthens his discography.With Kanye melting twitter every day with his audacious rants, he’s his own promo machine, for worse of better and you’ll be hearing a lot more from him and this album throughout the year. As he proclaims on Feedback “Name one genius that ain’t crazy”.
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