Anti-Yeezus album leaves much to be desired

Idolize him or despise him, one cannot deny the success of Kanye West. On February 11th, West, famed rap artist and self-proclaimed genius dropped one of the most anticipated albums of the year. Originally titled “So Help Me God”, then “Swish”, and “Waves”, West finally settled on “The Life of Pablo”, or TLOP for short.

West debuted his newest hits in front of a sold out crowd at Madison Square Garden, then released them the following day, with a spree of tweets soon to follow.

“The Life of Pablo” is not your typical Yeezy album. Rather than focusing on the beats behind the music, West opted for more of a lyrical overload. In the end, this might be the downfall.

Successes in music often come from re-airability. However, this album seems to be more of a Kanye-style gospel that lectures. Upon starting the first track, “Ultra Light Beam”, listeners are welcomed to an unfamiliar style of music. The sound is odd, and the lyrics overpower with their messages. West utilizes references to God and the Bible, and mentions his struggle with maintaining faith.

A few tracks later comes “Famous” featuring Rihanna. Initially, I thought this would be the flagship song of the album; the one people would appreciate for the musical aspect. Yet, this proved not to be the case. The song provides humorous comments in the beginning, but quickly falls off shortly after. The second half brings about a repetitive “Bam” lyric that just gets to be too much. While the beginning certainly has a place in the music world, it just did not finish strongly enough.

The middle track entitled, “I Love Kanye”, we get a brief snippet of the stereotypical views on West. He repeats how much Kanye misses old Kanye for the 45-second duration. It comes as a bit of a poem, as opposed to any sort of song.

Immediately after comes Waves. This more than anything best mimics a Chris Brown pop song, and rightfully so as it features him. In my views, “Waves” is the most song-like of anything on the album. While the majority of the tracks come as a lecture or some sort of slam poetry style, this feels the one that might actually make the radio.

One of the rare highlights of TLOP comes when Kendrick Lamar joins for a cameo in “No More Parties in LA”. The six-minute song features a solid verse from Lamar, yet ends on what feels like a non-stop rap from West that makes you pray for the chorus, which there is not much of. West can rap, and he can rap arguably better than anyone on the planet, but he needed to rest up on this song.

West then proceeds to give a shoutout to Drake in Facts, stating “Yeezy, Yeezy, Yeezy just jumped over jumpman,” a reference to Drake’s hit. This track overall provides a nice piece, in an otherwise disappointing album, with catchy rhymes and far more pop culture references.

The album concludes with the song rightfully named “Faded”, and it is just as obnoxious as most of the others. With a repeated “I feel it” after every single sentence, an end is needed to save yourself from banging your skull against the wall.

All in all, the album is very anti-Kanye, meaning it comes out of nowhere when you compare it to other songs of West’s. I would consider myself a fan, but this just did not hit home. Give him credit for going out there with this album, but this would not be something I would expect most classic-Kanye fans to enjoy.