The Life of Pablo. A The Life of Pablo review written in the essence and form of The Life of Pablo: the Album (mixtape), and the event.

The Life of Pablo. A The Life of Pablo review written in the essence and form of The Life of Pablo: the Album, and the event.

Here at Sad Moth Music we really take into account hype when we begin writing our album reviews. We like to wait awhile and let things die down a bit so we can review things with a clear head and no outside influence affecting our decisions for scoring. It's totally not because we're lazy, or that some of us don't meet the completely arbitrary deadlines we set for ourselves. It's totally not because we're busy with school, or because we have girlfriends. Let me just reiterate one last time it's totally not because of any of that...

Sorry about the wait. "It was Chance's fault."

The Life of Pablo, Kanye West's highly anticipated and pontifically released mixtape really was just a bit unorganized and unfinished. However that's not to say that it didn't have it's moments and aspects that were faithful and executed well in relation to the mixtape's intended concept: which is the dichotomy between artist and celebrity and the perils of that. 

Picasso? Maybe. Escobar? Maybe.  Backyardigans? Yes.

***

It's not any revelation to say Kanye's a media phenomena. He's a "pompous asshole," a fashionista, a living meme, and he's only a small degree of separation from being a Kardashian. Considering that portrayal, empathizing with Kanye isn't really an accessible connection to make. However he's certainly very misunderstood. How he sees himself and his intentions in contrast to how the media does probably creates a lot of dissonance for him, and Kanye clearly handles that sort of stress, and constant criticism in a very flagrant almost character like way. His reactions are always elicited in this weird public sphere of people who passionately love or hate him in ways that are sometimes quizzically disingenuous. Kanye's "diehard" fans worship him like a god, where as his haters want to beat the shit out of him: both are relationships on the extreme ends of the fandom spectrum, and I can imagine that being really tiresome. Especially since I think that Kanye is at a point in his musical career where he's making art for himself and his own expression rather than for other's entertainment.

The main thing that I got out of The Life of Pablo is that Kanye is clearly lonely and mentally exhausted. Being a artist with a creative image as big as Kanye's is probably really difficult especially when you are considered to be one of the contemporary greats of Hip-hop, he has a lot of internal and external expectations to live up to. Also Kanye doesn't really sell out when it comes to his creative endeavors. With that being said, he definitely is living a lifestyle that is past luxurious--it's to the spending level that's really only comparable to a block buster director or a drug kingpin. It's to the point where he's apparently surmounted 53 Million dollars in debt. I read an interesting Huffington Post list that broke down some of his spending. From 2.2 million dollar music video budgets that hold up the grandeur of his creative image, to 2 Million dollar armored cars to protect his family, the Pablo question is begged: Escobar, Paul (Pablo en Espanol) or Picasso? "Which One?"

And I think at times the album portrays this dichotomy and this identity crisis well...Wait "album?"... To be honest I don't even think this is an album, I think it's a mixtape. Why? Well it isn't charting, it's a Tidal exclusive; it has a ton of mixtape oriented artists on it (Chance, Young Thug, Ty Dolla $ign); and finally it doesn't even have a physical release. If you really want to read into it I think there's an incredibly deeply read analytical argument to be made that Kanye knew that people were going to pirate the shit out of it and not pay for it. So he then distributed like a mixtape: through drop, third party downloads, and word of mouth. And I can't help but feel like Kanye definitely wants you to think that pedantically when listening to TLoP and analyzing the events around its release. It would be interesting if he was that self aware and understanding to the level of how much he affects hip-hop as a whole, and how popular he truly is--I just feel like Kanye is on a different plane right now and that's probably why people don't really get him.

Anyway, at times I think the mixtape portrays the "Which One?" dichotomy well. You're not supposed to have an understanding of which Pablo Kanye is talking about because the point is that Kanye operates in a middle ground of all three. TLoP is about pushing boundaries, commercially, artistically, and religiously. These contrasted themes about the curse of fame, creative misunderstanding, and emphatic isolation fit very well with each Pablo respectively.  Kanye lies in the middle of it all. He's someone who makes triple platinum albums, pushes his genre musically, and gets his listeners to listen about god in one sitting. That's the self awareness that this album exudes--call it arrogant, but it's true. However the thing that holds true throughout all of these tracks is that they're all in really weird parts of the mixtape except for maybe Ultralight Beam. There's not really a discernibly concrete flow, this review took me a long time to make because I had to basically look at each track individually. It seems like the track list is all over the place. The songs don't transition well to one another thematically nor stylistically. It was changed so many times from it's "final form" that it seems to be this constantly evolving project. Even it's official Tidal release was
altered multiple times before finally coming out on Spotify and Google Play. To me in a way these constant changes are form challenging in the sense that the mixtape isn't concrete, it's almost like it's alive and ever changing, at least that's what I feel like he's trying to do with it. This of course has varying degrees of success, it just comes off as disorganized. But, individually, on a track by track basis, it has some shining moments. This is especially apparent when you see a list of the features.

The opener Ultralight Beam is simply a beautiful track. When Kanye understands and respects the artists that work with him he incredibly highlights their talent. There's no way around it, Ultralight Beam is belongs to Chance. Similarly the majority of No More Parties in L.A. belongs to Madlib and Kendrick. Notice how at the beginning of the track Kanye sets up this amazing little alleyoop-esque intro for Kendrick to just slam dunk his verse into the track. When you have two rappers of Kendrick and Kanye's caliber, ESPECIALLY when Madlib is producing, there needs to be a give and take. There needs to be teamwork or synergy. When Kanye does it right it's amazing--Ultralight Beam and No More Parties in LA are two of my favorite tracks on the mixtape.
But Kanye is definitely good at what he does, and this is clear regardless of the album's flaws. Most tracks on the mixtape are definitely solid even if I didn't particularly care for them. A minute into Highlights there's this amazing backup singer one off before Kanye's main verse that just makes the song feel so bloomed. Kanye can really make his music feel big, or even orchestral. It's scale is just capturing, it has stature--I seriously only like the song for that one part. I would even go as far as saying it's my favorite part of the entire mixtape.

Also how much do you think that Madison Property Management Inc paid to get Kanye to plug Equinox Apartments?

Every bad bitch up at Equinox! Blatant product placement, wake up Sheeple!

Famous is cool because of it's controversial nature, the Rhianna feature, and the classic Kanye West stylized sample that it leads into.

Feedback is great because of it's messy, industrial, Yeezus like production.

Facts is heavily improved. The new production by Charlie Heat makes it a million times better than it's original release. It's more in your face now, it feels like an actual diss track. But the thing about Facts that's weird in general is that everyone is thinking that it was such a bold move to stand up to Nike like that. But really it was inconsequential. If anything I'm sure that Nike just saw a Kanye West Nike diss track to be the best free advertising that they're going to get all year.

FML is really haunting, and evocative. The Weeknd sounds angelic amidst the ethereal and hazy production.

I Love Kanye is just kinda cute. Awww.

Then there's Real Friends. Which to me is the saddest, most relatable moment of the mixtape. It made me wish that the themes brought up specifically in that track were what the Life of Pablo was focused on. I feel like a lot of times Kanye West doesn't really know what to say or talk about, sometimes I even feel that maybe he doesn't have anything to talk about. But Real Friends is clearly a moment in which I genuinely empathized with him. I wish that he would express himself in ways as productive and meaningful as he does in this track. It's so powerful that it contextualized the mixtape for me: Kanye is clearly in a dark place, and he's clearly struggling with his fame, family, and fortune in complex, non-binary or easily describable ways. There's this melancholy nature to the song, you know that Kanye isn't actually alone, but he still feels lonely. I can really relate to that. I can relate to people making you feel even worse than being alone. I think we can all relate to not feeling understood, or feeling like the people around you aren't genuine enough. You often wonder if you're always going to be this bored. You wonder if there's hope for you out there after all, or if this is it. You wonder who your real friends even are, or if you're even theirs...

Like I was saying earlier No More Parties in LA is awesome, it's like some sort of contemporary hip-hop fan's wet dream. Madlib is amazing and consistent as ever, the production is so good Freddie Gibbs even took to rapping over it in his own spin "Cocaine Parties in LA."  The thing I love about tracks produced by Madlib is that they loom behind the vocal parts like a puppeteer. He sets the entire tone and scene of the track remarkably. And then Kendrick's verse leads the track into what are arguably some of Kanye's best lyrical moments of the mixtape, "And as far as real friends tell all my cousins I love 'em, even the one that stole the laptop you dirty motherfucker." Holy shit that's an awesome moment, and it's especially highlighted by that great sample they play right after it. I just keep on lovin' you... That's a moment you really only get when you have this many great musicians on one track.

RIP KANYE'S LAPTOP STEALING COUSIN

???--2016

THE MOST REKT MAN OF 2016 

(so far)

Even Freestyle 4 is good because...well actually like what the fuck is going on in this one? This is just some straight-up Eyes Wide Shut shit. The crazy violin harmonics? Kim and him starting an orgy at a Vogue party? If anything is form challenging or avant-garde about this mixtape it's this track. Jesus. Christ.

Wolves is kind of on par with Freestyle 4 in the weirdness factor, the Mary Joseph analogy is a little much. The thing about it is that I feel like Wolves feels like it thinks that it's more profound and beautiful than it is. It exudes this self-awareness that's just "yeah I'm super mysterious, yeah I'm really pretty oOoOoO..." it's kind of obnoxious if that makes any sense.

I didn't really like Father Stretch My Hands Pt 1 because I feel like it's not that memorable, and it's a little annoying. I don't really get it. Although Pt 2 does go really hard, and the production is really solid. I also like the robot voice towards the end because it's really out and it's an interesting creative decision in my eyes.

Low Lights is really stupid. I'm sorry but what is going on with that? I like the production because I feel like it could be used to make something pretty cool. But I just don't like the lyrical content of the track. It doesn't fit to the rest of the mixtape in any way I can even think of other than possibly some sort of weird narcissism that Kanye has for himself or some vague message about god. Mary J. Blige is just out of place on this one.

Waves is literally meh. It's just kind of boring to me. It feels really flat musically and metaphorically.

And god dammit I guess the main thing I don't like about the mixtape is just the ending. To me it's just so lazy. And you're sitting there wondering why Post Malone? Is it just some sort of hail Mary attempt to scout for some future talent just so you can get them before they're super, super big? Is it to capture some weird relic of 2016? This weird fried kid that's somehow representative of our times? A weird dank vignette for Kanye to meme out? Why? And then the mixtape is just done. That's it.

And that's the mixtape, and apparently the review, I got out all I wanted to get out. I mean this is how it ends: if Kanye can do it why can't I?

Thanks for listening,

Emanuel

The Life of Pablo-Kanye West 8/10

The Life of Pablo. A The Life of Pablo review written in the essence and form of The Life of Pablo: the Album (mixtape), and the event-Emanuel Aviles 6/10

Favorite tracks: No More Parties in LA, Real Friends, Ultralight Beam, Highlights.

Least Favorite tracks: Fade, Low Lights, Father Stretch My Hands Pt.1


Post Publish Edit List:

Least Favorite Track list (4/15) 2:45 PM

Frieza Meme (4/15) 2:45 PM

Random Wording (4/15)

No More Parties in LA Blurb (4/15) 2:50 PM

Title (Tidal?) Fix (4/15) 3:00 PM

Changed certain instances of "album" to "mixtape" (4/15) 3:10 PM

Fixed Wolves part (4/15) 3:17 PM

Made the post publish edit list have a better look. (4/15) 3:18 PM

General edits: grammatically and wording wise. (4/15) 7:38 PM

Review score. (4/15) 7:39 PM

Fleshed out ideas on what the Life of Pablo is about including the "third" Pablo Apostle Paul. This is an album about following a middle path between all three Pablo's, it's not about the question, it's about the action of asking. (12/12) 11:56 AM


Review score. (6/30/2020) 1:33PM

The Life of Pablo Sanchez: A Backyard Baseball Origin Story

What can I say?  It's hard to write a critical piece about the greatest album ever made.  There truly is no better album.  Kanye himself said so, and Kanye knows everything there is to know about music and albums.  It really is convenient.  In the pre-Life of Pablo era, being a music reviewer was tough.  Because rating music is subjective, there wasn't anything you could say for certain, no firm ground to stand on.  But now, finally, we know one thing about all albums, and that is that Life of Pablo is superior.  For that reason alone, Life of Pablo is definitely going to be one of the better albums of 2016.

 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

Kanye West Life of Pablo Review

Review

By: Patrick Dillon

Album: The Life Of Pablo (2016)
Artist: Kanye West

*Note: This review was composed before any change Mr. West may have put up on Tidal, I don’t own a Tidal account so I’m reviewing the version and track listing i got upon the records initial release.

  At this time, the majority of you have, in all likeliness, already listened to and re-listened to this record.  It’s pretty obvious that my thoughts aren’t going to sway anyones already established opinion (negative or positive) or encourage the very few of you who haven’t already given this thing a listen to check it out.  That being said I think there are a few virtues in waiting to review this particular album, my being very very lazy just happens to be one of them.  For one; the explosive slow-motion car wreck of Mr. West’s promotional efforts seems to have died down a little, at least to the point where his antics aren’t trending on the daily anymore.  Regardless of what you think of Kanye’s artistic merit, there is no denying that he’s a marketing genius.  There is no such thing as bad press and I'm pretty sure Kanye, like a certain presidential candidate, has an earth shattering orgasm whenever anyone happens to mention his name.  Another virtue in reviewing this album so late, is that this record confounded me at first listen. To be quite honest with a few exceptions, the first time i heard this album i hated it.  That’s not to say i adore it now however, but this is a record that certainly takes a few listens to pin down. Hell one cant be sure if Yeezy himself has this record pinned down.

I’ll tell you what he does have pinned down though, opening tracks.  Kanye’s openers very rarely let me down, and “Ultralight Beam” is no exception.  Needless to say its a huge track in typical modern Kanye form.  Though he’s never shied away from religious songs before (“Jesus Walks” being a prime example), this is may be his most overtly religious sounding song.  Gospel fits in with Kanye’s typical larger than life production better than i could have imagined, I love the way the more traditionally hip hop drum beat works with the pretty chord progression, very nice stuff. All that being said it’s not really Kanye who is the best part of his own song, that honor belongs to none other than Mr. Chance The Rapper.  I mean we already know Chance has a huge Kanye boner (“Good Ass Intro” is an homage to Kanye’s Freshman Adjustment 2 Mixtape Intro) but he really outdoes himself on this track.  His excitement to appear on a Kanye album really comes through and his verse is appropriately poignant and elated.  This track to me shows Kanye’s true talent as a producer and an organizer,  but unfortunately for Mr. West he also has to rap.

Now i don't think the “Oh Father Stretch My Hands” tracks are necessarily all bad, on the contrary i think there is a lot here to like (Can we all agree it’s nice to hear Kid Cudi actually sing something decent again?).  On “Part 1” the production for instance is surprisingly messy and the bass and drums are very muddy sounding.  For a producer whose usual M.O. is huge, almost orchestral, rap tracks these songs sound remarkably unfinished, witch i can dig!  What i can’t dig however is the obnoxious high hats and off kilter auto-tune.  Kanye can use better auto tune, we’ve heard him use better auto tune, he uses better auto-tune on this very record so why it sounds to dull and lifeless here is anyones guess.  Maybe it was to distract from the god awful, and now infamous “Bleached Asshole” lyrics, though thats far from likely.  Even though lyrically “Part 1” is far far worse, at least the beat and chorus are interesting, the same cant be said of “Part 2” witch just settles for tiresome filler (nice vocoder at the end though).  What also makes “FSMH” 1&2 so insufferable is that they’re sandwiched between two of the better tracks on the album.

I didn’t expect to love “Famous”, in fact with all the things i heard about it prior to the album’s release i was going in with very low expectations, needless to say i was very pleasantly surprised.  Bb-B-B-BB-BBB-B-B-AAANNGER ALERT!! With two audacious samples on one track, Nina Simone’s “Do What You Gotta Do” & Sister Nancy’s “Bam Bam”, “Famous” easily could have crumbled under its own weight, fortunately  what we get here is easily the most fun  track on the album.  Nina’s vocal melody is of corse gorgeous, even though Rihanna’s vocals aren’t always my favorite, though the clear winner amongst the two is the excellently implemented “Bam Bam” sample at the beat change.  Even the now infamous Taylor Swift line i thought was funny even if it was thrown in to blatantly appease the click bait horde. The album actually continues a small quality streak with “Feedback”.  I really dig the almost industrial beat and Kanye comes of hilariously cocky if not as full of contradictions as he always is. Despite a few lyrical short comings i really think this is a great track, though i don't really understand or like the whole Ghetto Oprah part at the end.  Though he says he’s been “out of his mind a long time” the only real moment on this or really any Kanye album that even hints at genuine psychosis is “Freestyle 4”.  This may be the rawest we’ve ever heard Kanye (witch Kanye die-hards are sure to appreciate)  as he comes off truly manic and abrasive, he sounds unhinged spouting delusional nonsense.  Its nice (maybe nice isn't the right word, how about interesting) to actually hear a genuinely weird moment  from Kanye considering so much of this album, and his last album, were just shallow attempts to try and sound as weird and challenging as he does here.

Freestyle 4 rests in-between probably the weakest tracks on the album, not including the supposedly endearing “I Love Kanye” (Major digression but i really liked “I Love Kanye” at first listen as it was supposed to be a cute clever freestyle but a lot of the magic was really taken away when i watched Saturday Night Live stench posted a week before and in his supposed impromptu freestyle battle with Kyle Moony he just says the same thing even before the record was released! so its not a freestyle? Thats fine Kanye has never been good at freestyles but then why bill it as a freestyle? Thats what makes the whole track charming, now it just seems a little too calculated for me..whew sorry back to the review) , “Highlights”, “Lowlights”, and “Waves”.  Full disclosure “Lowlights” may just be my least favorite track on this record, this faux artsy pretentious go nowhere no substance bullshit goes on for like a minute and half to long and for some reason just pisses me off to an unbelievable degree. It’s Uninteresting even at the beginning, pointless even as a segue, and really doesn't say much of anything.  “Highlights” doesn’t fare much better as it’s really just heinous filler, the beat is nothing really special or noteworthy, and it’s not like Kanye has much of anything to say anyways.  I like the orchestral synths, and at leaf the auto-tune sounds good again but they're really not enough to save the track from just being meh, even if Kanye’s verse isn’t horrible.

Which brings us to “Waves”, why anyone (let alone Kanye) is still giving Chris Brown work is beyond me.  Even putting aside his being a horrible human being, he’s just really not interesting as a singer anymore, hell he’s not even on key the majority of the song!  If Kanye really had to fight to prove he had the right to use Waves as a title (even if it didn't even end up being the albums title) then this track is all the evidence you need to the contrary, despite the unnecessary “Silver Surfer Interlude” later on.  And does this mean at one time this song, this bland lifeless song, was the albums title track?!  But I digress, after all two of the best tracks on the album appear immediately afterwords.  “FML”, and “Real Friends” are in all honesty my favorite tracks here, and at least provide a sort of safe haven for lyrical quality, or at least competency.  “FML” is gorgeous, and here is where Kanye’s auto-tune balladry really shines in the opening, only of course to tag in the The Weeknd halfway into the track.  Tesfye’s feature fits perfectly with the really spacious production, this is an almost minimal stark track and the synths toward the end really surprised me, they almost sound like they belong on an art rock record Hudson Mowhawke really killed it here.  Kanye shouts his verse and really brings a palpable sense of urgency.

The melancholy vibes really continue with “Real Friends”, while its unfortunate that probably my favorite song on this whole record was released months before as part of Kanye’s G.O.O.D. Fridays, but whatever its still a great track.  I really like the watery and ethereal production here, he keeps the beat spacious and simple here and it sounds just great.  The track itself is almost reminiscent of the same “Old Kanye” Mr. West joked about earlier in the record.  I can definitely appreciate this more introspective side of Kanye as opposed to a lot of the nonsense he seems to be saying on the rest of this record.  I even like Ty Dollar $ign’s singing here i really cant say enough nice things about this track.  “Wolves” on the other hand has me torn, i don’t dislike this track, in fact i like a lot of the biblical themes and the beat is ok, i like descending synth lines, i just think for all the potential this track has it comes off as just boring.

But you don’t even know the meaning of boring until you hear the last half of the next track “30 Hours”.  The real tragic thing about this song for me is that i really enjoyed the first half, i really did.  I like Kanye’s flow here and even what he’s saying (that ex-girlfriend line was funny)  and i can even dig the beat but come on people this goes on for way, waaaaaayyyy too long.  Did you know Andre 3000 is on this track?  Neither did I at first cause Kanye just has him do fucking BACKUP VOCALS.  Are you serious? you're going to spend a good two minutes jerking yourself off (we all know you cant free style or ad-lib well) when you could have actually utilized Andre FUCKING 3000??  God dammit if that isn’t the most quintessentially Kanye thing he does on this album.  This song is an unfinished mess, he’s not being real, he’s not being “off the cuff”, he just being uninteresting and wasting my time.

Luckily on “No More Parties in L.A.” he actually does utilize the people he's working with and with those people being Madlib and Kendrick Lamar he certainly should be.  I like the way Kanye comes in for a second and then Kendrick just snatches the first verse, and its not bad although surprisingly I think Kanye actually has the better verse here even if its a little similar in tone to “Real Friends”.  The beat of course is fantastic, though Madlib rarely disappoints, the soul samples are great and i love the guitar and keyboard riffs.  It’s a great track but its not as mind-blowing as one might assume looking at the individuals involved.  I really wish the album ended here though, I think it would have been a much better ending than what we ending up getting with “Fade” which barely features Kanye on it at all, (and what the fuck is Post Malone doing on here? ) its probably not a horrible song but as a closer its horrendous.  Its just poorly written even if the house samples that make up the beat are at times interesting. I guess the only track I failed to mention is “Facts” and this too came out before the record, though this version is a million times better than the initial release.  At least the beat is great, it actually makes listening to Kanye rap about a beef no one cares about bearable and his flow isn’t terrible either.

I hear a lot of people asking: “What Pablo do you think Kanye is?”, “What do you think the album means?”, “How do you think it all relates, whats the point?”.  And thats exactly it, i don't think there is a point, I'm sure Kanye wants his fans to endlessly theorize and really dissect something thats not even there.  He may be an asshole but anyone who really thinks this record is some grandly planned out statement may even look like a bigger asshole.  It takes more than a few passing references to the name Pablo on a few tracks to actually put together a concept piece and this sure as shit isn’t a concept piece.  I find it hard to believe theres even a concept in its sloppiness and eclecticism, but hey if you really want to put the work in to try and “Figure this album out” by all means go for it.  Manny and i were talking last night about how Roger Ebert once said “If you have to ask what it symbolizes, it didn’t.” and i really think that fits this album nicely.  As a collection of tracks though i cant help but enjoy this record despite what it may seem like after reading this review.  I think the major problem i have is that at first i wanted to “get it” until i realized theres really nothing to “Get”.  While i don’t think this album is necessarily great, i do think its a worthwhile listen, it contains some absolutely fantastic songs as well as some very forgettable songs but i think ultimately there more to like here than hate and whats good here really is very good.  I don’t even think Kanye himself knows exactly what to make of this record, hence its existence in a state of eternal flux, Its not the return to form i think a lot of people were hoping for but hey maybe we’ll get that in four years as presidential thank you present, i sure hope so.

Favorite Tracks: “Real Friends”, “FML”, “Famous”, “Freestyle 4”, “Feedback”, “Ultralight Beam”, “No More Parties In L.A.”

Least Favorite Tracks: “Lowlights”, “Waves”, “Fade”

6.5/10

MOTH Ratings Crowdsourcing: Sad Moth Music NEEDS YOUR HELP!

Recently, Sad Moth Music Editor In Chief Emanuel "Sad Moth Manny" Aviles asked me to meet him in his luxurious corporate office for a work evaluation.  He was not happy.

""Sad Moth" Noah," he said, adjusting one of the five rings on his left hand, "you're just not cutting it.  The site is losing its edge.  Sad Moth Music is supposed to be about a dedication to reviewing albums -- new and old -- in a dynamic way."

"I think I've been doing alright," I replied, "I've been writing more than anyone else."

"Irrelavent!" he roared.  He removed his fat stogie from his lips and jabbed it at me while he talked.  "You're all washed up Stafford.  I just got off a conference call with the Sad Moth Mutimedia CFO, and our projected quarterly numbers are through the floor.  No one is reading the damn blog.  I don't care if you write five-thousand words a day if we're not getting the clicks.  You're writing the articles, but they just aren't connecting with people.  And you want to know why?  You're not dynamic enough.  It says it right there in our mission statement.  I need more dynamism from you Stafford, because right now, you've got about as much edge as a plate of chopped liver!"  He reclined and took a long draw from his cigar, blowing the smoke into my face, fully aware of my severe asthma.

"I'll try and do better sir."

"Better?!?" he screamed, simultaneously standing and pounding his fists onto his solid maple desk.  "I don't want "better", I want a readership! I want content consumption!  I want greater uniques!  I want double our current time-on-page rate!  I want an expanded marketshare! I WANT DYNAMIC REVIEWS OF ALBUMS -- NEW AND OLD!"  He sat back down, his face red from screaming, a dangerously large vein pulsing in his neck.

"Yes sir," I replied, discreetly wiping his spittle out of my right eye.

"You'll have twenty ideas about how to make Sad Moth more dynamic on my desk by tomorrow."

"Ok."

"Not get the hell out of my office."

So here we are, and I'm still at a loss for good ideas.  So I'm putting out a call to loyal Sad Moth readership to help me out.  Currently, my best idea is about 85% formulated, but I need some added ideas to really flesh it out.

My idea is the MOTH Score -- a new and unique (and dynamic) way for Sad Moth writers to evaluate albums.  It consists of a list of the tracks in an album, and an evaluation of each track based on different yes/no type categories, which are then averaged to create one MOTH score.  An example:

So right now I only have four categories: "Bangerz Factor" (wud u bang this shit out ur trunk?), "Bone-ability", (wud u toats bone ur gf to this song?), "Dankess", (wud u get 420 turnt 2 dis track?), and "Feels Index", (do u get doze feels when u listen to dis?).   So looking at the spreadsheet above, "With You Without You" is dank, as well as bone-able, but isn't a banger, nor does it give me the feels.  These are the important opinions.

What I'm looking for is more categories, but I can't think of any.  So I'm looking for suggestions.  Very good suggestions are preferable to shitty ones, but I'll take what I can get.  Leave your suggestions in the comments on this page, or in the facebook comments for this post.  Please.  Bossman "Sad Moth" Manny's really on my ass about this one.

Don't Just Look At The Ratings: A Closer Look At Pitchfork's Numbers -- Part 3: Leaderboards! Fun Fun Fun!

Hi. So here's this.  This is a table I made in the making of my last post, that I didn't really get to, and I think it might be the most interesting one I've made out of the data I collected.  It doesn't really lend itself to a ton of analysis or anything, it's just fun to look at.  For the fans of sports out there, you already understand the infinite beauty of something like this.  So I don't really need to sell you on what I've presented above.  For those who don't, here's what's up.

In this table, I've aggregated all the data by artist.  So pitchfork.mean is the average score that artist received from Pitchfork, and pitchfork.sum is the total score that artist has received amongst all its albums.  Think about it like batting average vs. total hits in baseball.  For most artists, there's very few data points.  This leads to means with very high uncertainty.  But for other artists that Pitchfork has given a lot of attention, pretty definitive things can be said about their scores.  For example, it seems Pitchfork has pretty much decided over its 16 reviews that of Montreal is almost exactly a 7/10 band, and that Animal Collective is pretty much precisely an 8/10 band.  Great.

Kanye West just after being told the Mountain Goats
dropped a new album and it's loaded with bangers.

The aoty scores, I think, are more interesting.  There are many more artists and albums included in these data, so the aotyscore.mean can be considered with much more confidence, as these scores are the means of the means of scores given by a large and diverse set of critics.  Aotyscore.albumsum is the sum of each of the artist's album scores, while aotyscore.reviewsum, the metric that the table is sorted by, is the sum of each album's score, multiplied by its number of reviews.  This is my favorite column to look at, as it's a really good measure of to total mass of both attention and praise the online music press has afforded different artists.  Of course, Kanye is at the top by a wide margin.  And, obviously, the Mountain Goats are in second.  Relatedly, it's a little known fact that "Watch The Throne" is actually a concept album about Kanye's longtime battle with the Mountain Goats for greatest musician of all time.

Anyway, if you want to, give this a quick download and sort.  It's a half-decent way, (and certainly a very easy way) to find new artists that you might not have known got so much press, or were so critically acclaimed.