Review Summary: The Life of Van Gogh - wasted talent that died too young
I probably shouldn’t be writing my opinion on this album…Kanye doesn’t want me to since I’m half white.
I never really cared about Kanye or his music for the longest time - though it bothered me how much director Todd Phillips loved to put his music in The Hangover movies and their trailers. That was seriously my real introduction to his music; I’m not quick to listen to mainstream rap. Hell, I wasn’t quick to listen to rap for most of my life. But after listening to what Pitchfork calls his masterpieces - that is to say, ALL OF HIS ALBUMS - I was extremely…underwhelmed. By all of it, really. Starting with Dark Twisted Fantasy, I felt like I was just listening to a hypersensitive megalomaniacal airhead rap and cry about himself and his “struggles.” First world problems from the reaper of all of the first world’s benefits. With Yeezus, I felt rapped AT by a “conscious” Death Grips rip-off. While some of Yeezus was very much enjoyable, it felt like a half baked alternative project for Ye. It wasn’t until 808s and Heartbreak and College Dropout when I felt like I was listening to an artist that was playing on his strengths. Kanye is a FAR better producer than he is an MC. He’s certainly talented, and his earlier albums display a talented hip-hop producer that has nothing more to prove than that he’s a fun person to be around and he’s passionate about what he does. And whether I like it or not, he’s influenced hip-hop like no one else in the 21st century.
So yeah, my relationship with Kanye’s music has been both rocky and anachronistic. I will say I’m the guy who says “I like the old Kanye,” but nothing beyond that. This brings us to The Life of Pablo, an album I was excited about for a few reasons: I’m always rooting for Kanye to legitimately maximize on his obvious strengths. And here, he does. Sometimes.
Pablo Picasso is probably the last person I would compare Ye to, but The Life of Pablo? Hmm. Escobar might be closer…? I don’t know. I’m just going to leave the album title alone, since it’s already been thought about way too much (or not) by the album’s own creator. Notwithstanding, there is plenty to enjoy here, and there’s plenty to dislike, and there’s plenty left over after all that that is just sort of…there. After changing the track list so many times, I think I would have preferred a leaner album in order to contain the amount of genre variety in this album. There’s a different incarnation of Ye for any type of Ye fan: there’s gospel in the same vein as College Dropout, strange alternative turns that continue the Yeezus sound, sampling similar to tracks from Dark Twisted Fantasy, you name it.
I think that Pablo is all around a more enjoyable record than anything he’s done since 808s, but there’s still too much filler and incomplete song ideas, and I think that’s just the thing about Kanye that I dislike: his art is not pushed by, through or from ideas. Instead, his art is pushed for the sake of spectacle, attitude or statement. Those things aren’t ideas in and of themselves. In fact, the ideas are half-assed and sacrificed in order to provide spectacle, and attitude, and a statement. Think of his marketing tactic with the album, which was truly genius: he stirred discussion by changing the title over and over, changing the cover, changing the tracklist, changing the songs themselves, changing his mind on where and how the album would be distributed…and don’t you dare tell me that this wasn’t all planned out. It’s really smart of Kanye, and hell, he had me going ever since he announced the album’s existence.
The album starts off pretty well - “Ultralight Beam” has great production: it’s gospel-like, with strange and cool synth swells with the occasional horn appearance. I actually like Kanye’s vocals here - the first time I’ve enjoyed them since anything from 808s. Though I typically hate Kanye’s typical double iteration (i.e. when he repeats the “Runway” mantra on that track), I really like here, since it seems to model after gospels and prayers. Even then, I think Kanye is the least “Christian” Christian man that I’ve observed. The iteration refers to this “God dream” that introduces a theme that he comes back to here and again on the album, whenever it’s convenient for Kanye to appear soulful. “Ultralight Beam” has my favorite feature on the album: Kelly Price’s verse in the middle of the track.
That being said, I’m not really a fan of the spoken-word-esque Chance the Rapper verse: I think the flow just isn’t doing it for me, and though his lyrics are among the strongest in the album, I just can’t really get into the flow of his verse. In the end, I really am feeling the soul in this song since the music, most of the lyrics and features are thoroughly enjoyable. Then “Father Stretch My Hands Pt 1″ really sort of put me off with the dramatic stylistic departure, instead going for a banger vibe. Not a huge fan of these tracks, especially in comparison with the opener. The lyrics here are kind of gross, even for Kanye: perhaps more gross than his Asian remarks on the song “I’m In It” from Yeezus. Not doing it for me. “Pt 2″ maintains the vibe, this time with more of a trap vibe and nice orchestra bow strikes on top of it. At this point, only three songs in, I’m kind of lost in the amount of features that are in this album, and as a matter of fact, the endless number of names on this album make it sound and feel messy.
Pablo is a mess, and not even that entertaining of a mess either, unlike say clipping.’s CLPPNG - an album that changes mood constantly but remains interesting and consistent for its entire duration. In Pablo, we have a myriad of different styles that vary in quality, honestly. The gospel sounds are awesome on the opener, the “Father Stretch My Hands” instrumentals are skeletal in the least interesting way possible and the interludes such as “Low Lights,” “I Love Kanye” (which is his big “*** you” to those like me who like only his older music, an opinion I’m perfectly entitled to), and “Freestyle 44” are all unnecessary detours that completely detract from the pace and overall vibe of the album. However, Kanye’s more introspective tracks here, such as “FML” and “Real Friends,” are the best of the album. “FML” features The Weeknd giving his sparse yet best vocal performance in my opinion. Kanye’s lyrics here are his least rushed of the songs: he talks about how his success gives him added pressure and gets in the way of his responsibilities as a parent and as a husband. How touching. His production is stellar here, and even more so on “Real Friends,” my favorite song on the entire album. Here’s a Kanye that I love: one that is both introspective and relatable, facing problems that we all face throughout life, as a friend, relative or both. Ty Dolla Sign has really good parts throughout the verses here, simply complementing Kanye’s pretty nice rapping in the best way possible.
That’s what makes Pablo so tragic for me. There’s PLENTY of potential here. But objectively speaking, there are songs that are clearly more deliberated over others. “Real Friends,” “No More Parties in LA,” “FML” and “Ultralight Beam” are the real highlights for a reason: the production is interesting and textured, the rapping is serviceable-to-great, and the features are all really awesome and they fit for the song. “No More Parties in LA” features a nice-yet-overlong verse from Kendrick Lamar, and excellent production from Madlib, and this track feels like an outtake from Madlib’s Pinata collaboration with Freddie Gibbs. It’s the level of effort and expertise in these songs that makes the other songs so disappointing in comparison. “Waves” just seems like a Dark Twisted Fantasy outtake that didn’t make the cut, and “Fade” is the worst possible finale for the album; in fact, I think “Ultralight Beam” works as a better finale because of how restrained and quaint it is. “Fade” seems like a good intro, or anything else other than the end. The song “Facts” managed to squeeze its way into the tracklist as the penultimate track no less. It has a different instrumental under Ye’s delusional lyrics and unoriginal flow (straight from Future and Drake’s “Jumpman”). The track is made more interesting with the better production and I almost forgot about Ye’s lyrics. But I remembered them. Unfortunate.
What I think The Life of Pablo could have benefitted from was a little more focus. This album has a serious identity problem, and it could use a concept, like any other of Kanye’s albums. The uniformity of College Dropout is what makes it so great and so distinct, but this one is such a mess and in the future we won’t be able to discern certain songs from Pablo with any other album’s songs. There really isn’t an excuse for it: the lack of focus has become a point for fans to love it and find some sort of big idea with the tracks, but it feels like a b-sides album from all of Ye’s other records. I wish Kanye didn’t do so well under added pressure from the media, because he’s thriving now more than ever and he’s getting away with putting out a mediocre album and posturing it as something more than what it is.
5/10
