Kanye West-Ye Album Review
When Kanye West debuted The Life of Pablo via livestream in 2016, the extravagant Madison Square Garden venue was scattered with industry mainstays, eager fans, and a gigantic stage coversd with hundreds of YEEZY Season 3-adorned models. Just over two years later, the recent ye unveiling was vastly more frantic and mysterious, fronted by a breathtaking Jackson Hole backdrop, a raging bonfire , and a dotted collection of safety orange and green “Wyoming” merch. The social aura surrounding West’s eighth studio album feels dramatically different as well, now a battlefield rather than a celebration after his recent remarks on slavery and Trump support. The conflict between Kanye’s luxurious family life and self-perceived humbleness seems more apparent than ever on the 23 minute album, exemplified by the synthesis of top shelf production and erratic lyricism.
“I Thought About Killing You” ushers ye in under dark pretenses, with Kanye speaking solemnly as phantasmic vocals flesh out the shimmering production. He states, “The most beautiful thoughts are always behind the darkest” among melodic humming and pitching, discussing grappling with his recently-discovered bipolar disorder. This fragmented commentary on premeditated murder, unknowingly directed at either his main persona or wife, Kim Kardashian, is quickly besieged by escalating static and tinny kicks. Kanye’s closing verse is bathed in his standard braggadocio (“It’s a different type of rules that we obey”/” Drop a pimp of the fade and I’m on my way ASAP”) among trap flavorings, howls, and an abrupt ending.
“Yikes”, the hardest track on the project, sounds like a repurposed distortion of Pablo’s “Wolves” accompanied by a reverberating Black Savage sample. Scattered among the intro verse are swift mentions of psychotic drugs, the #MeToo movement, and his recent TMZ appearance (massively important due to its leading to the scrapping of the original eighth album). Ye’s closing lines are an affirmation of the “superpower” that mental conflict can provide, a self-inflicted rewiring of the brain more positive than last month’s “mental slavery comments”. The following track, “All Mine” is the only major blemish on ye, similar to the position of“Highlights” and“Guilt Trip” on his last two albums. The organ opener invites a sense of grandeur, which is immediately deflected by recent G.O.O.D. Music signee Valee’s irritating hook (edit: singer Ant Clemons, not Valee), the cousin to Future on Jay Rock’s “King’s Dead” if you sucked all of the enjoyment out of the room. A series of questionable lyrics, however quotable they may be, also degrade the quality of the track (“Let’s have a threesome with you and the blunt”), while Ty Dolla $ign’s brief contribution makes the effort slightly more tolerable.
An apparent side effect of Chance the Rapper’s role in the original version of the album, the fourth track “Wouldn’t Leave” sounds like a Coloring Book compatriot. PARTYNEXTDOOR channels his inner Young Thug for the vibrant hook (“Butterfly in my wrist, you make me run out of my skin”), alongside a solid contribution from Jeremih. The sunny instrumental and vocals remain deceptively lofty throughout the track as Kanye squeezes in an expressive love letter to Kim, commentary on his slavery remarks, and an admission of guilt towards recent selfishness. “No Mistakes” does a solid job following the cheeriness of it’s predecessor, with a fantastic hook from Charlie Wilson and Kid Cudi accompanying positive energy from Kanye (“Take the top off, let the sun come in!/Woah, for all my dogs that stayed down, we up again!”) for a total earworm of a result. With some sly Drake disses (“Aint no love lost, but the gloves off”) acting as the cherry on top, the track is an easy high point of the record.
“Ghost Town” acts as the album’s dramatic peak, filled with powerful testaments towards personal freedom and wishful thinking. The combination of the sample of Shirley Ann Lee’s “Someday” with PARTYNEXTDOOR’s energetic slurring is an impressive entrance, piled onto further by Kid Cudi’s cover of Vanilla Fudge’s “Take Me For A Little While” (a hopeful indication of the quality of the forthcoming Kids See Ghost collab album). Kanye takes the backseat on the track to G.O.O.D. Music’s 070 Shake, cited by many publications as Kanye’s newest breakout protege (sorry, Desiigner). Shake’s carefree singing is infectious, victorious, and a great addition to the best track on the album (“We’re still the kids we used to be/I put my hand on a stove, to see if I still bleed”).
The closing track, “Violent Crimes” enlists a more subdued Shake feature (“Thank you for all of the glory, you will be remembered/Thank you to all of the heroes of the night”) in addition to a dreamy synth line. Kanye’s final verse is heartfelt and personal, discussing his family-invoked shift in his perspective towards women and regression from machismo culture. The low-key Nicki Minaj phonecall closing the project out is a far cry from her verse on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’s “Monster”, but fits snugly with Kanye’s prior admiration of her on the track.
Despite the victory-lap nature of ye, the project’s trim length and rushed personality may disappoint for fans and critics alike. In comparison with the rest of Kanye’s near-flawless discography, the record is on the lower end of the list, flaked with some unrealized ideas and a reeled-back sense of ambition that prevent it from reaching the instant classic status of recents like Yeezus and Pablo (think of ye as a grower you’ll be going back to intermittently). However, seeing as Kanye genuinely happy as he was during the Wyoming listening party is a rare pleasure in itself, an artist adored and argued over throughout the last two decades apparently coming to terms with his personal shortcomings, relationship qualms, and the need for forgiveness. If you can consider Pablo as Kanye going back to church, ye feels like the awkward public apology directed at his family and friends (albeit scrawled out on the back of a napkin rather than thought over for weeks). Kanye and controversy will continue to be inseparable, regardless of the existence of individual outrage, and we can only do our best to continue encouraging the development of great artwork as the end result.
