Nothing against the greatest album of all time, but Life of Pablo does have its flaws. The most obvious issue any first-time listener will confront is the track listing. Leading up to the final release, Kanye's twitter followers were subjected to version after version of the track listing, not to mention all the changes in album titles. At right was a track listing Kanye tweeted a couple days before the release. Then he added like seven more tracks, and completely fucked up the order that he seemed to have settled on. The result is a set of songs that really don't flow into each other, which, at least for me, created incoherence where there didn't need to be any, and necessitated that I listen a couple more times than I would have otherwise to really get a good grasp of what was going on. It's interesting. Though Kanye has been acting erratic and insane for years, his actual releases have never felt very affected by that. They've always seemed very planned and professional. But with this album, the track listing was constantly in flux, the name changed a couple times, he changed lyrics, swapped features, and the release date kept getting pushed back. With some prodding by Chance the Rapper, he finished and added "Waves" the night before Pablo's release on tidal, and even now, he's messing with "Wolves" or something, I'm not really sure.Maybe Kanye does this with every album and we just haven't seen it until now. But, regardless of the way the album was released, many of the songs themselves also feel half-baked, and that's where the real problem lies. Many of the tracks have little repetition or structure. I love the way he slices up Sister Nancy's "Bam Bam" on "Famous", but the rest of the song is pretty meh. "30 Hours" is fire for 30-45 seconds, and then devolves into an unnecessary ad-lib. "Highlights" has a great verse, and then turns into a weird outro and then just ends entirely.
The production is also good, but not fully developed. We've come to expect a unifying concept in Kanye's production, but I think it can be conclusively said that there isn't one here. There's plenty of soul samples, some trap influence, some spare, heavy electronics. There's a fucking gospel choir on "Ultralight Beam", but while on other Kanye albums the sound of the production can be easily identified and summarized, that's not possible on Pablo. Additionally, on past albums Kanye has shown a knack for leveraging a singer to unique and interesting effect, like Chief Keef and Justin Vernon on "Hold My Liquor", or John Legend on "Blame Game", but on Pablo I think he fails in this regard. He unilaterally washes over all his guest vocals with autotune, and the parade of features all end up blending together. Rhianna sings on this album. Did you know that? Can you tell me which track? Exactly.
But as with all albums that are the best ever, there are some great moments on here. "No More Parties In LA" is great, "Fade", "Real Friends" and "Feedback" some of my other favorites. "Ultralight Beam" seems to be getting a lot of the hype, but I dunno, it's ok. I'm not really sure what the song accomplishes, or is about, entirely. It's about faith and spirituality I guess, but Chance's verse has nothing to do with that, and Kanye doesn't even rap on it. Whatever. It's a good song. The best songs on the album, I think, are ones where Kanye chooses to address actual problems he's been experiencing in his new life as a reality TV ultra-celebrity. Conflict with relatives, alienation from his fans, fear for the welfare of his family under the microscope of the modern media. I guess this isn't a hard-and-fast rule -- "Wolves" sucks and "Feedback" owns, but I think this album could have been a lot more conceptually coherent and interesting if he had concentrated on these themes instead of pinballing between them and his typical uber-ego braddagio. But it's Kanye, after all, and it is the best album of all time, after all. I mean, the man rhymed asshole with asshole.
What I think is one of the most interesting aspects of Pablo is how, finally, Kanye's ego has doubled back on itself. Of course, "I Love Kanye" exists. But beyond that, Kanye has begun commenting on his own ego, whereas on previous records he mostly just established it. He talks about T Swift, Ray J, Kim K, that one model's asshole, it's all here. He gives a strong middle finger to the "Remember the old Kanye?" clickbait fucknuts. The album is very prescient of his current life, so much so that it kind of becomes the main point of the album. Listening to this album feels like Kanye striving for any singular goal, but rather Kanye just doing what he does best over a period of time: living his ridiculous, lavish life, being a cultural icon, and making music, and this is what resulted.
So I guess that's where I'm at with this. A taking a quick trip back through his discography, it's pretty easy to conclude that this is one of his worst albums. Depending on your opinion of 808's and Graduation, it might be the worst. But that sounds overly negative. Because, above all else, Kanye West is very good at what he does. In some ways, his life seems to be getting in the way of being able to do what he does best, but in another way, that's just part of the experience. The Life of Pablo may be the greatest album ever, but its just o.k.
6/10
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