Transmission Review: The Life of Pablo by Kanye West
Yeezy Comes Back Rock Star Solid
Kanye.
West.
Two little words that spark riots. Whether it’s the infamous Taylor Swift incident or his countless other examples of braggadocio, Kanye loves causing trouble like Kanye loves Kanye. Is this behavior an attempt to isolate himself from paparazzi and journalists, or is he really that full of himself? The answer is up for debate, and is debated 24/7, but what about his most recent work?
After quite a few name changes and tracklists, The Life of Pablo (TLOP) has officially manifested as an 18 track album with tons of different styles and concepts strewn about the 52 minute listen. While it remains mostly exclusive to the Tidal streaming service, millions have gotten their hands on it (through various different means) and delivered their opinions. Anthony Fantano calls it a compilation of “half-baked song ideas”, giving it a six out of ten.
Here is a different argument.
TLOP‘s opener, “Ultralight Beam” is a slow burner. The first seconds of audio heard seem to be a little girl expressing her love of Jesus, with lines like “We don’t want no devils in the house! We want the Lord!” Her mother approves of her convictions, and the song begins with a high attack, smooth synth. Very sparse drum samples are peppered in, and soon enough, guest vocalist The-Dream harrowingly sings “We on an ultralight beam. We on an ultralight beam; this is a god dream. This is everything…” Shots of ginormous choir vocals echo certain words of the lyrics, and the song simmers onward featuring verses from Kelly Price and Chance The Rapper. While there are some lighter moments on the album, including a 43 second track of West dropping an a cappella verse about his fans missing “the old Kanye”, “Ultralight Beam” does a great job of setting up the atmosphere for the album. Everything is soulful and intense but in different ways.
There’s a very eclectic mix of sounds and lyrics on this LP. Kanye talks about anything from claiming to be the reason Taylor Swift is famous to the dangerous climate of modern Los Angeles. There’s guest features all over the thing, and musically, there’s a mix of a lot of previous sounds from Yeezy’s discography. Some beats are pretty chill and based on soul samples, and some are very modern club sounding with a lot of energy. Some songs like “Father Stretch My Hands Part I” combine both. “Wolves”, a later track, is built around a chilling female vocal sample. It’s a high register female voice, singing every note perfectly (albeit synthetically), drenched in reverb, making it sound akin to a siren calling for you in a sea storm that would end your life. Later in the track is a heavily distorted synth that almost sounds like a living creature screaming. It is so dynamic, rapidly and humanly changing in intensity, but somehow is still a synthetic sound. What really makes this track special is its lyrical topic. The entire thing is a tribute to Kanye’s family. Near the end of the track he says to cover his children in lamb’s wool, both who he mentions by name, because his family is surrounded by “wolves”. “Half-baked” is the opposite of TLOP; everything here is cooked to ominous perfection, seasoned with ego and drenched in fragility.
This is no Yeezus; nothing incredibly out there happens. Some tracks may feel like they are not utterly necessary, but every one of Kanye’s big concepts here succeeds with a golden cape around it’s fair neck, whether it’s club-hopping at 1AM in Skid Row or crying itself to sleep on a king sized, silk sheet bed. The Life of Pablo is an expansive one, with banging parties and searing heartache littered throughout. Should you listen? You’ve got no reason not to.
THE OLD KANYE, CHOP UP THE SOUL KANYE, NEW KANYE, BAD MOOD KANYE, SYNTHS, AUTO-TUNE, SOLID CONSTRUCTION
TOP TRACK: WOLVES
TRACK TO TRY: FATHER STRETCH MY HANDS PART I
LAME TRACK: FREESTYLE 4
9+/10
image credit: NME, Pitchfork
Ben Stern • Mar 6, 2017 at 7:36 PM
I agree with the author that this album was a lot better than what most critics thought about it. I personally feel like where this album succeeds is songs that really push the ceiling in sonic experimentation. Paranoid and tense songs like “FML” and “Wolves” contribute more to this album then songs like “Waves” and “Highlights” which contain subpar performances and guest verses from Young Thug and Chris Brown. I ultimately thought that the effective language in the article when talking about the sonic textures and moods of a song was really done well, although I think you could have elaborated more on songs like “Freestyle 4” that really do have a lot to talk about because of the hit or miss production and features.
Neico Caiani • Feb 9, 2017 at 9:26 AM
I thought that this album was ok and that some of the songs sounded kind of decent. But the rest of the songs were kind of not as hyped up as the rest of them. I think that he could have done some things differently and made the length of the songs longer.
Patrick Wangelin • Feb 29, 2016 at 11:38 AM
I was not a fan of this album.