Kanye West's new 2018 album

I agree!

an album of music would have to be very very bad to be worse than even the best twitter take

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DenvuMuUcAENQFS.jpg

God I bet the Genius explanations for this bullshit is next level

Kanye has had groaners since day one, but man he is busy going to town RICHARD SCARRY on this one

this is a long twenty minutes

lol whiney

Spottie quote is goldbug

it's like a poor meme

if anyone tried to tell me a decade ago that in 2018 kanye would be sucking up to a republican president and eminem would be dissing the nra in his radio singles i'd really wonder what the hell happened in the years between

someone would hand you a copy of twitter

Mental illness as an excuse for someone’s crap behaviour is the oldest trick in the book. It shouldn’t let anyone off the hook

That rhymes unintentionally. Fuck

it's the first line of your kanye diss track

Lol

His mental illness or state of mind has nothing to do with how utterly bad this album is. It is bad on it own merits.

Saying the album "has some moments" is being charitable when none is due. His rapping sucks, the lyrics are horrible, and the few decent arrangement/production ideas he puts forth are either retreads or half assed.

This thing deserves about a day of scorn on Twitter and then needs to be ignored forever. It's not a grower. There are literally dozens of albums released today and every week that have earned more minutes of your life than this album.

AOTY

haven't listened to it yet

hell yeah

Mental illness as an excuse for someone’s crap behaviour is the oldest trick in the book. It shouldn’t let anyone off the hook

― synonym toast crunch (Ross), Friday, June 1, 2018 1:36 PM (twenty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this isn't what i said at all but ok

Rossa-T went in imo

Eric I wasn’t speaking to anyone directly

Sorry

oh sorry ross, just wasn't sure what else it'd be apropos of itt, s'all good

I was on a tangent I think <3

Carry on

checks out

Kanye shot the album cover on his iPhone on the way to the album listening party 😂🔥❤️🔥🙏🏼🔥

— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) June 1, 2018

xp the left channel clipping on violent crimes is very annoying

― Tapes 'n Tapes of Osho (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, June 1, 2018 10:46 AM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah jesus how amateurish

― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), 1. juni 2018 17:26 (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Seeing as Mike Dean is heavily involved in this I don't think "amateurish" will cut it.

Mental illness as an excuse for someone’s crap behaviour is the oldest trick in the book. It shouldn’t let anyone off the hook

― synonym toast crunch (Ross), Friday, June 1, 2018 1:36 PM (twenty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

thanks, homie

Yeah I’m tired of seeing that xpost too.

well it sounds like shit or was mastered poorly on purpose

So I came into this record wondering if there'd be any totally left-field samples, as kanye usually includes, and apparently he sampled a song off of Mono No Aware without permission

https://pitchfork.com/news/berlin-label-pan-claims-kanye-sampled-their-song-without-permission/

classic free thinking

that is such a great track, annoyingly good taste from ye there

Overall sounds kinda meh and sloppy. Enjoyed a couple tracks, primarily Wouldn't Leave and Ghost Town.

His vocal pitch shifting on Yikes seems to be a cop from Kendrick. Just feels creatively empty, and try-too-hard. Not a fan of how he frames his mental illness on this. Apt song title.

Am I the only one for whom this is hitting pretty damn hard? At least parts of it. I've dealt with bi-polar issues with both friends and family, and 'I Thought About Killing You' kinda nails that moment where everything comes out in the open. I'm not sure I really want to hear it that much, but I was shocked how much it hits a mood I know.

I really wish Kanye wouldn't confuse hard drugs and prescription medication for mental health diseases and then claim to be some kind of superhero.

I agree, and it really really reminds me of how my uncle used to talk. I used to wish he would stop as well. He kinda has.

His vocal pitch shifting on Yikes seems to be a cop from Kendrick.

To be fair, Kanye vocal pitch shifted like crazy on Blame Game before anyone even really cared about Kendrick.

I really like this record. Can't help but feel like people had their negative takes ready to go before even hearing this thing due to how stupid Kanye has been lately. But I feel like this is album is an honest reflection of his life and mind state at the moment, and it sounds good. It's better than I expected, anyway.

I've seen some discussion about how this feels rushed and like it was put together in a month, and I agree with that. I don't think it's a bad thing though. I do get the feeling that music in 2018 (especially rap tbh) is put together and released with a lot less effort than it once was, but occasionally it can lead to something that feels pure and sincere rather than calculated. His recent mode seems to be acting and creating on impulse and feeling and I actually think that's more interesting at the moment than someone obviously sitting down and being like "okay, so now I'm going to create a concept album about _______", or "I wonder how _____ will be perceived by people and impact my image" or whatever.

Also, this 7 track, 20ish minutes long album thing seems a good creative response to the way people actually listen to and absorb music now. Like, there's no real reason for an album to have 24 tracks in the streaming era except to bolster an artists streaming numbers (looking at Migos). I hope more artists use this format going forward. Most Kanye albums/album cycles have left a legacy, I think this will be the legacy of ye/all the stuff he's helping release this year.

Oh yeah, as someone who doesn’t think much of this release, I welcome the 25 minutes albums trend.

But I feel like this is album is an honest reflection of his life and mind state at the moment,

oh come ON NOW! You can say this about every record written at any point in any country on earth. I'm not trying to pick on you, but it means nothing.

Um. That's not true at all. For instance, I wouldn't say that about The Life of Pablo. That sounded fake and manufactured.

that's PR palaver and you know it

how on earth do you judge the honesty/dishonesty of any work of art? It doesn't matter. Who cares?

i was baffled by someone calling the natalie prass album "calculated" earlier today so glad we're getting this out of the way here as well

Everyone cares! It's hard as fuck, but it's one of the most important jobs of a critic!

There is no simple way to do it, it takes arguments, perhaps personal explanations as to why it rings true, honestly it often just has to be carried through the word-smithery at the most basic level. But if you're a critic and you don't want to talk about honesty, then just give it up. You're wasting everyones time.

Glad to know, thanks!

Hey, I'm just being honest.

Agreed with Seauteau, this record is vmic for Kanye over the past 8 years and that’s the extent on how we should think about this context.

/ But I feel like this is album is an honest reflection of his life and mind state at the moment,/

oh come ON NOW! You can say this about every record written at any point in any country on earth. I'm not trying to pick on you, but it means nothing.

oh come ON NOW! You can say this about every record written at any point in any country on earth. I'm not trying to pick on you, but it means nothing.

Disagree with you here. Firstly, I don't think that all artists aim for that "here's where my mind and life is" thing in their art, so they don't even try to work in that mode. And secondly, I do feel like a lot of modern music is still hyper-calculated in trying to shape an artists' public image while trying to pass itself off as an honest portrayal of the artist. Taylor Swift is the classic example, and I feel like it isn't too difficult to recognise these kinds of albums when they come out. Not saying that calculated always equals bad (I like Taylor), but it's often the least interesting music to me.

I don't think many artists are willing to portray themselves as mentally ill and flawed and human as Kanye makes himself look here. The first track is about suicidal thoughts, there's references everywhere to his bipolar disorder, he worries about the impact of his actions on his wife and child. Despite what you think of Kanye the person and his politics (for the record: his politics are idiotic), there's a level of honesty and introspection here that I think is laudable in an era where brand/image maintenance is one of the most important things a pop star can do to to keep their career going.