“Facts” is such a Drake song that you’d almost accuse Kanye of being unoriginal, until you remember that 808’s was the album that spawned Drizzy’s aesthetic in the first place. The incredible intro “Ultralight Beam” brings in Chance the Rapper, who belts out one of his best guest verses of all time while praising his mentor and favorite rapper. By looking back, Kanye draws not only from himself, but also from those he’s inspired. “Highlights” feels like “Good Life” part 2, while the crescendo of “FML” feels like a spiritual successor to “Hold My Liquor”. Some tracks have him spitting bars energetically (“Feedback”), while others have him reduced to such primitive lyrics that you wonder if he’s actually blacked out in the studio (“Freestyle 4”).
Kanye draws from the very best, most interesting aspects of his music, and somehow fits it all together like only he could.
Once you’re willing to take the plunge, however, you’ll find that this is a very well-crafted, enjoyable assortment of aesthetics.
To put it simply, if you're not about Kanye West, then you might not be about this album. It takes a certain knowledge of Kanye the artist, and a certain appreciation of his work, to truly enjoy this album. If you haven’t grown used to the auto-tuned, simplistic lyricism of 808’s and Heartbreak, or the brute arrogance of Yeezus (both of which are excellently utilized here), then this will seem like a strange, confusing piece of work. If you’re new to his work, however, I would hesitate to recommend it to you. I’ll put it this way: if you’re a Kanye fan, this is your dream album. This diversity might make the tracks on this album seem disconnected, but it actually speaks to the variety that exists between all of his albums. There’s bits of every album he’s ever created in here some tracks would fit comfortably on Late Registration, while others are so dark and animalistic that they could’ve served as the intro to Yeezus. Instead, he decides to slow down, look back on what he’s done, and play with it in his music. Fans of Kanye’s work may be taken aback by TLOP at first, because it’s the first album in a long time where he doesn’t try to create a genre-defying work of art. This album is full-on, no-holds-barred, Kanye West he pulls out every trick, aesthetic, and guest in his bag of tricks, and ends up with a truly amazing album. On TLOP, Kanye maintains that experimental, free-wheeling vibe, but don’t be mistaken: this album definitely stands on its own. Yeezus was about the aesthetic it sought to create, through its instrumentals and lyrics, an album that had a singular, harsh, and uncompromising sound. This album is If Yeezus was an album with no pop filter, then The Life of Pablo is a pop album with no filter.
If Yeezus was an album with no pop filter, then The Life of Pablo is a pop album with no filter. Maybe he should have worked on it for a little longer but TLOP is in no way a bad album and sets the scene to Kanye's future music endeavours. The messy release of TLOP, Kanye's latest weird tweets and the suprise edited version of Wolves are in order with the raw and disorganized nature of TLOP. However there are some excellent pieces of music here like No More Parties in LA, FML, Wolves, Waves or Famous. However there are some excellent pieces of music The first impression I got upon listening to TLOP for the first time was that it is not as cohesive as MBDTF or Yeezus which it clearly revisits and attempts to fuse, and even though it's growing on me with each listen, TLOP sounds somewhat unfinished and a little step too far from the sheer greatness of MBDTF or the raw emotion of Yeezus. The first impression I got upon listening to TLOP for the first time was that it is not as cohesive as MBDTF or Yeezus which it clearly revisits and attempts to fuse, and even though it's growing on me with each listen, TLOP sounds somewhat unfinished and a little step too far from the sheer greatness of MBDTF or the raw emotion of Yeezus.
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