Kanye West's new 2018 album

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.

Kanye is a key interlocutor in this utterly shit discussion. He conflates mental health issues and 'genius' on very a basic level, just for the sake of his own mythology. It's gross really.

― Van Horn Street

genius is pain

this album is not good but it is better than the multiple twitter takes I have read about how it ties into the decline of music or whatever

― aloha darkness my old friend (katherine)

i tend to ask for more out of music than "be better than twitter hot takes"

someone would hand you a copy of twitter

― President Keyes

i wish someone would hand me a copy of twitter so i could burn it

Am enjoying Twitter trash talk on this thread tbh.

sorry but Twitter is my best source of Drake insults so it's indispensable

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.

― triggercut, Frida

uh Kanye's brand/image "maintenance" is to create music that adduces his support for an authoritarian president. And so what? Why should he get credit for shitty beats and rhymes that adduce that support?

like I wrote today on an erstwhile ILMer's wall: "It's not a matter of "divorcing" or "separating art from artist." Kanye has made shit art -- cluttered, nattering, megalomaniacal in a rote manner -- since 2010. I'm quite happy he's released something with which I can find some consensus with colleagues."

uh Kanye's brand/image "maintenance" is to create music that adduces his support for an authoritarian president. And so what? Why should he get credit for shitty beats and rhymes that adduce that support?

I might agree with you if he even mentioned Trump/supporting Trump once on this album, but he doesn't. This record isn't about that at all.

Also, I like that this album has the second instance of Kanye lyrically referencing the 'medulla oblongata' after his feature on Cudi's Make Her Say back in 09. You just know he discovered that word from watching Adam Sandler's The Waterboy (a movie he also referenced on New Slaves) and I like that it still circulates in his mind to this day.

referencing it isn't coming up with a good rhyme about it or finding a beat to complement it.

triggercut makes a compelling case for the record, which is still pretty lousy imo (except the first track). there's no trump stuff on here. i understand if events outside the text make it hard to appreciate or engage with but this album does exist on its own personal terms, it's not a political album.

Kanye would have to be interested in something besides sniffing his own b hole too make a political record

a lot of great art has come from the b hole

Kanye doesn’t need to include Trump to further his cringe habits, ie. any reference to women, or the Russell Simmons line, the mental health stuff, etc. How many records about Kim’s body parts are you willing to listen to?

this album isn't the trainwreck I could have expected, or an unfinished mess like Pablo, it's just dull instead. that alone feels like enough to make it solidly his worst - Pablo was not good but it did have a few gems at the very least and it certainly wasn't dull.

agreed

a 7 song TLOP would be great:

Ultralight Beam
FML
Real Friends
Wolves
30 Hours
No More Parties in LA
Fade

better than the og tlopper

https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2018/06/02/616402658/two-sided-trying-to-hear-kanye-wests-new-album-ye-through-all-the-noise

ugh

like myopic parents desperate for validation

There’s some good commentary on bipolar in there though (take your meds)

didn't dislike this as much as I expected to

I like the NPR article. How can you ignore the mental health issues when it seems relevant to the music? Doesn’t make it good, but it’s not exactly idle speculation.

this has no joints
no one will care about any of these songs a year from now possibly even a month from now

He sounds bored & tired & uninspired

"a lot of great art has come from the b hole"

yeah, like Bobbi starr/ Sasha Grey/ Dana Dearmond/ Mike adriano kinds of art!

yeah i know, they're great

haha this album is such trash

good mourning!

My friend kelly enthused about how amazing this record was which felt weird after reading the mixed reviews here. She said it has some deep mental health reflection but I couldn’t help but think I have Kendrick or angel haze records that nail that anyway.

I wonder if it’s possible both to 1) hold that Kanye’s politics suck and 2) not 100% dismiss his mental health stuff ...

and 3) think this album fails on a musical level and also to interestingly engage in either of those things

Oh yeah lol I’m not even talking about the album thereby ceding your point, more just reacting to the idea that the only explanation for his behavior is narcissism and drugs - which obv may play a role too

This album is such a nullity.

i've got kanye muted everywhere but apparently there's an unapproved sample from "Mono No Aware" on the first track