Kanye West really must be bi-polar. Unlike his previous album roll-out, which was saturated with title changes, tracklist revisions, and aggravating delays, which all amounted to an equally chaotic and frustrating body of work, ye caused minimal fanfare as it was released. Two announcements were made - one 6 weeks ago for the release date, and one the night before the release detailing a Wyoming listening party for May 31st - and both were met on time, the internet only exploding into commotion once the music was finally in our hands. Behind the scenes, though, things have been far less calm, with Kanye claiming he re-did the entire album after his infamous TMZ interview (which we have to remember was only one month prior to his album's release date) that turned the world against him for the third time in his career, and reportedly snapped the album cover from his phone on the way to the listening party. While still feeling like a last-minute assignment done overnight the day before it's due, it feels this much less so than The Life Of Pablo did, at least, and that's a good thing.
Again, a short 7 tracks and 24 minutes (continuing the theme begun with Pusha T's DAYTONA) Kanye manages to fit a surprisingly cohesive album experience into this tight space. It's reminiscent of the Kanye of yesteryear; soulful, oldschool, heavy on singing samples, while still maintaining the priority of pushing forward new ideas, and extensive collaboration with contemporaries. Although none are listed, the feature list is substantial, especially considering the runtime - Valee, Ty Dolla $ign, Kid Cudi, Nicki Minaj, and G.O.O.D. Music newcomer 070 Shake are just some of the guests to be found on ye, and their contributions are not unnoticed. Be it Valee's hypnotic (if not crass) hook on 'All Mine' or PartyNextDoor's crooning on 'Wouldn't Leave', the guests combined with the samples make for a melodic and singing-heavy affair, and the instrumentation is similarly sweet to match. Kanye combines his guest singing, his soft, pleasant production, and emotionally vulnerable lyricism to great effect on various tracks. 'Wouldn't Leave' touches on his aforementioned TMZ incident, and the strain it put on his marriage - "My wife callin', screamin', say, "We 'bout to lose it all!" / Had to calm her down 'cause she couldn't breathe" and later opens the second verse with "Oh, don't bring that up, that's gon' get me sentimental / You know I'm sensitive, I got a gentle mental". He doesn't dive headfirst into detail because he doesn't have the time - he lets the music fill in for him, and the minimal, beautiful instrumentation of the track, made of just drums, light piano and a bit of keyboard carries the emotional weight of the track fantastically. Meanwhile, 'Yikes' the second track on the album, has a much racier instrumental, kicking the album into motion with a fast synth beat and a large, in-your-face presence that keeps the song exciting and hyped. Much of the material that ye offers is great - Kanye finally sounds focused, which is a complete 180 from how he was last time around. Even so, he doesn't dodge all of his unfortunate habits - Kanye opens the album by devoting almost 10% of it's runtime (over 2 minutes) to a pretentious monologue, claiming he loves himself more than anyone else, and so by having thought about killing himself, he has also thought about killing "you". At this point, we're all aware that Kanye loves himself - he's even made a song about it, after all - and his reputation should have told anybody else who wasn't already aware, so it's automatically redundant. At least there's some nice music to listen to while he goes on, and the pitch-shifting does keep it slightly interesting. He also fails to avoid more lyrical eye-rollers, dropping back-to-back duds "I love your titties, 'cause they prove I can focus on two things at once" and "Let me hit it raw, like fuck the outcome / Ayy, none of us'd be here without cum" on the track 'All Mine'. I mean, the last bar is true, but does it make for a good lyric? It's not as bad as the worst lyrical bombshells he's landed (see 'Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1' - or don't), but they're still ugly blemishes on a decent track. The beat is good - again minimal, using only snappy snares and thumping bass to great effect - but perhaps the song could have benefited from a slight topical or lyrical re-write. But, for the remainder of the album from this point, the only true flaw I can see is Kid Cudi's singing on 'Ghost Town'. It's not terrible, but he's certainly sung better on Kanye's albums in the past. Besides this, it's a smooth ride to the end - the Slick Rick-sampling 'No Mistakes' seems to offer both a rebuttal to Drake's recent fued with Pusha T and a peace offering at the same time, as Cudi and Charlie Wilson sing wonderfully together "make no mistake, girl, I still love you" and closer 'Violent Crimes' rides the album out gorgeously with a soft organ line and quiet background piano, while touchingly reflecting on what his daughters have taught him - "N****s is savage, n****s is monsters / N****s is pimps, n****s is players / 'Til n****s have daughters". Kanye's recent agenda of spreading love seems most prominent here, and handing the final 15 seconds of his album to a voicemail from Nicki Minaj, where she gives him her blessing to use lyrics that name-drop her on the track ("I hope she like Nicki, I'll make her a monster / Not havin' ménages, I'm just bein' silly") seems to prove this further, perhaps using this to demonstrate that no love was lost in the writing of this song. It's a gentle come-down from the earlier energetic instrumentals of the album, and when it finishes the 24 minutes feels like it has both passed quickly, but also lasted much longer than that. Does ye stand up to Kanye's best work? No, but it doesn't attempt to. It's its own small asterisk in his discography - as ambitious as always, but intentionally executed to stand by itself beside his bigger and better albums. But it's for sure an improvement on TLOP - infinitely less infuriating, less bloated, and much more rewarding. 79/100 |
201820162015Scores0-30 = Bad
31-49 = Sub-par 50-60 = Average 61-70 = Decent 71-80 = Good 81-89 = Great 90-99 = Incredible 100 = Perfect Archives
September 2018
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