They can go for the surprise approach and suddenly plonk it online without fanfare. They can do it in time-honoured style: working the interview circuit, touring hard, keeping their fingers crossed for good reviews. However, I’d still recommend giving it a listen because, although sounding rushed, it does have many redeeming traits and is still a very high quality and interesting work.The 21st century offers a panoply of options for the pop star wishing to launch their new album. It’s quite a polarising album and I don’t expect everyone, or even a lot of people, will like it. Just like how I feel towards Kanye himself. I feel weird and quite reserved about my love towards The Life Of Pablo. I love this album, but not in the way that I love any other album. Yet I feel like it comes across as a little less organised than it is meant to be. The album cover is a relevant representation of the album itself – organised mess. Online music reviewer Anthony Fantano perhaps best describes Kanye’s efforts in TLOP as more like a Jackson Pollock painting because of its chaotic manner, rather than the well thought out abstract nature of Picasso’s works. There’s been a lot of discussion online about who exactly “Pablo” is, with most assuming it is in reference to Pablo Picasso (especially since at Kanye’s 2015 lecture at Oxford University he talked about wanting to “ become Picasso or greater”).
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Also, All Day is sampling a song written by Paul McCartney that was inspired by a Pablo Picasso painting! I do understand that this song is quite different to the overall style of TLOP, but initially this song was what got me eager to hear the rest of the album. The last thing I’d like to add in reference to the songs on TLOP is: what happened to All Day? This was apparently going to be on the album back when it was titled Swish and when upon first hearing this song, and seeing the incredible performance at the BRIT Awards, I was so excited to hear the rest of the album. It’s sad because Kendrick is one of the best rappers alive and we’ve seen just how good of a feature artist he can be on tracks like Collard Greens by Schoolboy Q and Never Catch Me by Flying Lotus. It just goes for too long with essentially the same beat the whole time.
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And when you have two of the biggest names in hip-hop today on a song together you want it to be great. One track that lies somewhere in-between the good and the bad is No More Parties In LA.
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I would’ve really liked to see Kanye do more with this track because it starts off with so much potential, only to become stale and continues to do the same thing for another minute-and-a-half. The sixth song, Low Lights, is a bit of a frustration because a really interesting beat comes in 20 seconds through but goes nowhere. In the words of M.I.A., “ what’s up with that?”. And speaking of used in the wrong way, André 3000’s feature in 30 Hours is literally just singing “ thirty hours” over and over again in the outro. He’s such a great artist, yet he is used in the completely wrong way here. Also, it’s a disappointing use of Frank Ocean. Waves, one of the previous album names, has some nice sounds but is really quite boring and contains too much Chris Brown for me (actually any Chris Brown is too much Chris Brown for me). Now in terms of bad…well not exactly bad, but rather disappointing. It’s something different and it makes it that much funnier. Subjectively this makes it a much better song, but for me I love the fact that he’s just thrown it on there acapella. If you’re not the biggest fan of this song how it is, check out the original version that actually has music underneath. It’s only forty-four seconds long and pretty much every line ends with the word “Kanye” but it’s got such a great rhythm that it’s hard not to bop your head. This “tune” is actually quite a clever moment on the album because he plays on the public’s view of his egotism and takes the piss out of himself. Surprisingly, my favourite track is the acapella I Love Kanye. This is one of my favourite songs off TLOP, maybe because it’s a song that wouldn’t go amiss on Yeezus which is my favourite ‘Ye album. Also Feedback comes through as one of the hardest songs on the record with Kanye spitting with attitude. These include some decent features by Kid Cudi on Father Stretch My Hands Pt.1 and Rihanna on Famous.
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The following four tracks uphold the standard set at the beginning.