Kanye reaches a new peak on soulful ‘Pablo’
Three weeks ago, many Kanye West fans scratched their heads when the rap icon declared, in one of his typically scattershot Twitter rants, that his new album is “actually a gospel album.”
But what seemed like a left-field pronouncement comes blatantly into focus in the opening notes of Ultralight Beam, the first song off West’s intoxicating The
Life of Pablo ( eeeg out of four). Backed by a church organ and choir, and sampling a devil-spurning prayer by 4-year-old Instagram personality @SheIsNatalie,
Beam begins in the midst of a “God dream” as West mulls his faith and asks for peace, serenity and prayers for Paris.
The-Dream and Kelly Price chime in with rousing vocals, but it’s Chance the Rapper who walks away with an album-best verse, deftly dropping references to everything from Sia to kids’ show Arthur in his fervent, freewheeling manner.
Beam sets the tone for the rest of Pablo, streaming exclusively on Tidal for one week before hitting retailers. Marrying the soulful introspection of his 2010 masterpiece My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy with the taut production of his brash 2013 effort Yeezus, West has never been more reflective nor more cocksure than on this loosely structured seventh album, which finds him at the peak of his power.
On the deceptively catchy Father Stretch My Hands Pts. 1 and 2, West gets deeply personal singing over throbbing 808s: recalling failed relationships, his mother’s death and how he won’t make the same mistakes as his work-consumed father, who walked out on the family when West was 3.
The rapper is equally vulnerable on the wistful Real Friends, with Ty Dolla $ign, and the mercurial FML, featuring The Weeknd. The latter is a gloomy ode in which he pledges his devotion to Kim Kardashian West and rails against a disparaging media. (“They don’t wanna see me love you,” he warbles through a hazy wash of Auto-Tune.)
He also is winningly self-aware. “I’ve been outta my mind a long time,” he playfully announces on the wonky Feedback, calling himself “Steve Jobs mixed with Steve Austin” and the “ghetto Oprah,” and later heralding his own singularity as an artist on acoustic interlude I Love Kanye (“I love you like Kanye loves Kanye,” he concludes with a laugh).
Rihanna ( Famous), Frank Ocean ( Wolves) and Chris Brown ( Waves) deliver some of the most memorable spots on the 18-song album, padded with bonus tracks after its launch at Madison Square Garden, which gives the record a more strung-together feel than his narratively cohesive Fantasy.
If Pablo stumbles, it’s in West’s tone-deaf digs at others: knocking Rob Kardashian for his weight; his wife’s ex-boyfriend Ray J for his wealth (or lack thereof ); and Taylor Swift, whom he suggests should have sex with him, after he “made that (expletive) famous” with his stage crash at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. These particular jabs are lazy at best and misogynistic at worst — showing a less-evolved artist than the rest of Pablo lets on.
Pablo doesn’t carry the weight of Kendrick Lamar’s racially charged To Pimp A Butterfly (he shows up here on No More Parties
in L.A.), nor does it have the Internet-stopping gravitas of Beyoncé’s #BlackLivesMatter call-to-arms Formation.
And while it may not deliver on West’s promise of being “the album of the life,” it’s undeniably the work of one of music’s most boundary-pushing artists and will give fans plenty to unpack until West’s next feverishly anticipated release.
Download: Ultralight Beam, Famous, Real Friends