Album Review: Kanye West’s “The Life of Pablo”
By: Jerry Hoffman
Staff Writer
Hip-hop artist, fashion designer and pop-culture icon Kanye West debuted his seventh studio album of his career, “The Life of Pablo.”
During the weeks approaching the album’s release, fans were left in question about the direction and legitimacy of the album, given that it had changed names multiple times and was constantly under scrutiny due to West’s famous “Twitter rants,” which have been at an all time high during the completion and release of this album.
“This album is actually a Gospel album,” West tweeted at the end of January, a few weeks before the release of the album. “This is not album of the year. This is album of the life.”
The 17-track album is a rap-heavy album from West, featuring guest artists such as Chance the Rapper, Ty Dolla $ign, Kendrick Lamar, Chris Brown, The Weeknd, Rihanna and many more.
The opening track, “Ultralight Beam,” featuring a verse from Chance the Rapper really sets the tone for what Kanye described as a “Gospel album,” with a church choir and an organ playing in the background. As the album progresses, listeners get a pleasant dose of “the old Kanye,” which fans have been yearning for since the release of “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” a studio album released by West in 2010 and considered one of the greatest rap albums ever produced.
Following the release of his last studio album, “Yeezus”, which is co-produced by EDM super-star Skrillex, fans feared that West’s career was taking a turn towards electronic and more “rage-filled” music. It appeared that West took this criticism very seriously judging by the soulful vibe that “The Life of Pablo” carries throughout its entirety.
While this is already one of the most anticipated and talked about albums of 216, music fans received some bad news from West on Monday, Feb. 15.
“My album will never never never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale… You can only get it on Tidal,” said West in a Tweet. “Please to all my friends fans and music lovers. Sign up to Tidal now.”
Basically, if fans aren’t paying a monthly fee for Tidal, hopefully they have a friend who is – otherwise, they may never hear “The Life of Pablo.”
