Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Jirin
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by Jirin »

BleuPanda wrote:
Jirin wrote:Is this streaming anywhere? Not on Spotify yet.

Surprised Only One not on the track list. Are we going back to the 60s convention of not putting singles on the albums?

I think it's just Kanye having a different idea for the final album; I'd rather have a cohesive record than "Only One" tacked on simply because it exists. I just hope these tracks released between Yeezus and The Life of Pablo aren't ultimately forgotten.
I agree with that, but it presents an issue for me just because I tend to listen by albums. Sometimes I'll put on a Beatles or Stones singles collection but that's an exception. Maybe it can show up as a bonus track on an expanded version or something.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by bootsy »

luney6 wrote:
bootsy wrote:
luney6 wrote:I feel like Kanye West's lyrical prowess and lyrical focus has been on a steady decline since 808s.
It's changed because his style, musical stype has changed but on decline, no.
I guess so. Maybe I'm missing something, but what he's doing now seems too similar to what a lot of other rappers are doing, and not unique to him. I think I prefer his more thoughtful and introspective style. For some reason, the new matter doesn't stick with me as well as his old stuff.
What other rappers are doing what he's doing? MBDTF and Yeezus was so far from what any other rapper has done.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by Setherex »

Well. This has just been chaos and insanity, but I do have to say that I've been wholesomely amused by the cultural upheaval this man has caused.

And joyous that the album will be out today. "30 Hours" is lovely.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by PlasticRam »

luney6 wrote:
bootsy wrote:
luney6 wrote:I feel like Kanye West's lyrical prowess and lyrical focus has been on a steady decline since 808s.
It's changed because his style, musical stype has changed but on decline, no.
I guess so. Maybe I'm missing something, but what he's doing now seems too similar to what a lot of other rappers are doing, and not unique to him. I think I prefer his more thoughtful and introspective style. For some reason, the new matter doesn't stick with me as well as his old stuff.
I kinda agree that lyrically he isn't focusing as much as he did before. During MBDTF era he was actually very focused, and he did get some lyrical praise.
I feel like that
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by luney6 »

bootsy wrote:
luney6 wrote:
bootsy wrote: It's changed because his style, musical stype has changed but on decline, no.
I guess so. Maybe I'm missing something, but what he's doing now seems too similar to what a lot of other rappers are doing, and not unique to him. I think I prefer his more thoughtful and introspective style. For some reason, the new matter doesn't stick with me as well as his old stuff.
What other rappers are doing what he's doing? MBDTF and Yeezus was so far from what any other rapper has done.
I guess you're right. Where I do think that MBDTF is his best album, it felt slightly inferior to his earlier works lyrically. And I think I should give Yeezus another chance. But most of his recent work, at least, seems either like a repeat of something he's already done before, or kind of uninteresting and less thoughtful.

Edit: I didn't see Plastic Ram's post when I was posting. I completely agree. I feel like he used to have a much more intimate touch then.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by Jirin »

Kanye is the kind of guy who every album he makes he's trying to paint the Mona Lisa, and it's all channeled through a streak of narcissism.

His inner compulsion to be iconic may be pushing him away from the personal and vulnerable toward the more attention grabbing political and cultural statements.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by Nick »

Setherex wrote:
And joyous that the album will be out today.
I won't believe anything about this album until im able to hear it. Release date especially included.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by Henrik »

Jirin wrote:Kanye is the kind of guy who every album he makes he's trying to paint the Mona Lisa, and it's all channeled through a streak of narcissism.

His inner compulsion to be iconic may be pushing him away from the personal and vulnerable toward the more attention grabbing political and cultural statements.
Like "Bill Cosby innocent"!? :angry-cussingblack:
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by Harold »

Henrik wrote:
Jirin wrote:Kanye is the kind of guy who every album he makes he's trying to paint the Mona Lisa, and it's all channeled through a streak of narcissism.

His inner compulsion to be iconic may be pushing him away from the personal and vulnerable toward the more attention grabbing political and cultural statements.
Like "Bill Cosby innocent"!? :angry-cussingblack:
Don't forget the six (I think) exclamation points that accompanied that bizarre tweet earlier this week. That also inspired much hand-wringing on social media and in the media in general - even though I'm halfway convinced that one of Kanye's idiot in-laws got hold of his phone and posted the tweet as a sick joke. This Week In Kanye has certainly been even more eventful than usual. Hope the album turns out to be worth it.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by Sweepstakes Ron »

This is just posted by Nintendo of America's official Twitter:
Image

Now I know that TLOP is going to be a disappointment no matter what, because it doesn't have Waluigi as a guest.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by BleuPanda »

Sweepstakes Ron wrote:This is just posted by Nintendo of America's official Twitter:
Image

Now I know that TLOP is going to be a disappointment no matter what, because it doesn't have Waluigi as a guest.

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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

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Apparently they have site where you can make those
http://www.tlopcover.com/
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by Setherex »

Kanye Watch 2016:
Chance the Rapper has, apparently, convinced Kanye to add "Waves" to the already expanded tracklist, and the album is "done." Now we wait.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

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Remember when we were wondering about the CD/vinyl release? Now we're wondering when the heck are we getting digital release Image
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

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This thread may soon turn into "who can make the best mock album cover".
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

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Image
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by Nick »

Much like Drake's cover to "If You're Reading This..." last year, it seems as if the cover to the new Kanye album has been successfully meme-ified, which I have no doubt was one of the goals that Kanye/the cover artist had for the album art.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by TimmyWing »

Just got around to listening to "30 Hours". This track's wonderful. Bonus points for sampling Arthur Russell - definitely turned that clip into something special with this beat.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by Setherex »

Kanye has tweeted out, in so many words, that the titular Pablo is referring to Paul the Apostle (known as Paul in some languages).

He is performing on "Saturday Night Live" tonight, which has just started on the U.S. east coast. His first performance should be in roughly 30 minutes.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by Sweepstakes Ron »

Kanye just performed "Highlights" with some people who I can't recognize. The volume levels felt off.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by Sweepstakes Ron »

He topped off the night with "Ultra Light Beam", and then died... or something... then muttered something about kanyewest.com and Tidal.

Chance the Rapper is great.

EDIT: Maybe not "streaming"
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

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The album is, I can declare, officially streaming on Tidal. And for sale on his website. Going through the first listen now.

Blessed Yeezy season to you all.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by Sweepstakes Ron »

I'm told that instead of 'Fade" it plays "Facts" a second time. I'm sure it'll be fixed soon.

I'm going to sleep so that when I wake, I can listen to it as it is; an album, not the destination of a hype train that was so off the rails that there were no rails to begin with.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by Setherex »

Initial impression: This album is ridiculously fun. Even more so than I expected it to be, which was an incredible amount to begin with.

Also, the Tidal problems have been fixed, as least on my end.

The first post has been updated with the proper tracklist and such.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by GucciLittlePiggy »

Looks like he went with the decidedly worse cover.

And I'm hoping this thing becomes available on Spotify sooner or later because I'm really not in a position to be throwing $20 around. Unless my FOMO becomes too great for me to handle (which is likely) I'll hold out a little while longer to see if I can save money.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

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GucciLittlePiggy wrote:Looks like he went with the decidedly worse cover.

And I'm hoping this thing becomes available on Spotify sooner or later because I'm really not in a position to be throwing $20 around. Unless my FOMO becomes too great for me to handle (which is likely) I'll hold out a little while longer to see if I can save money.
There's a 30-day free trial which I definitely recommend, but you used it already I gather?
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

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My review is that this is solid four stars out of five cos Kanye is talented and he works with many talented producers. The reasons I think this is not a stone-cold classic is that Kanye didn't put that much effort into lyrics and the production still is so messy, like pretty random, though there's many dope sounds. It's a shame cos if there would have been Rick Rubin to cut stuff off or just some executive producer to make it more cohesive, this could have been a brilliant album. Also for ex. Wolves was actually made worse compared to the version a year ago (performed on Yeezy Season 1 and SNL 40) cos Vic Mensa and Sia were cut and an average Kanye verse was added.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by Nick »

First reaction: The album is good, very good, but ultimately Kanye's least essential album other than "Watch the Throne".

The pros: Fantastic production, and the best songs here are great (Famous, Waves, Real Friends, No More Parties in L.A.).

The cons: Really disjointed feeling, not a whole lot of cohesiveness, some real lyrical stinkers that drag the album down a bit.

Will post a more in depth review in due time.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by GucciLittlePiggy »

PlasticRam wrote:
GucciLittlePiggy wrote:Looks like he went with the decidedly worse cover.

And I'm hoping this thing becomes available on Spotify sooner or later because I'm really not in a position to be throwing $20 around. Unless my FOMO becomes too great for me to handle (which is likely) I'll hold out a little while longer to see if I can save money.
There's a 30-day free trial which I definitely recommend, but you used it already I gather?
Yeah, I had Tidal for a few months last year.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

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Surprised that Kanye somehow made a bad album cover even worse. Thing is, I was convinced that this "alternate" cover was a joke - did anyone else think "WHICH / ONE" was just a question to his Twitter followers to choose which cover they preferred? Now it's some weird metavisual in-joke that's not very funny.

Starts very strong then there are peaks and troughs. More club bangers than I expected - not sure if that's a good thing.
I agree that's it's very disjointed. I really don't like the general lack of song transitions; it's jarring, especially when I assume everyone hearing it will have gapless playback on. Sadly the industrial style of Yeezus returns on "Feedback" and "Freestyle 4", but it's offset by some fantastic production in other places.
I like the relatively short lengths of some tracks. Some are perfectly long, and the more malleable and experimental tracks do not outstay their welcome.
Having said that, I am baffled as to why he drew out "30 Hours" for so long. The long outro on the Soundcloud version was great: calming, tranquil. Did not need him ad-libbing (or pretending to) all over it, and disappointing everyone by enlisting André 3000...for the chorus. [The artless ad-libs remind me of Nicki Minaj's outro on "Anaconda" - which really didn't need anyone to come and imitate it]

The skits do conjure up nostalgia for old epic hip-hop albums, like his own. But I can't help feel that this and Rihanna's new album have killed the idea of an album as a cohesive whole - both have great tracks that I can see myself returning to again and again, but as full listens they don't seem that carefully constructed. And if they're not going to make the effort, why will people buy them as albums?
And why does Highlights sound like an old T-Pain song?!
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by Sweepstakes Ron »

Just finished my first listen. Great hooks, tons of fun! Looking forward to many future listens!

I heard some people joke that he would continue to change it even after it was out. They were right.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

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Sweepstakes Ron wrote:I heard some people joke that he would continue to change it even after it was out. They were right.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by bootsy »

Finally the album is here and on first listen I absolutely love it. It's still way too early to rank where this album will be in terms of Ye's discography but it is behind Late Registration and MBDTF for me. I love the production and the lyrics for the most part. My complaint is that I wish the songs were longer and that he rapped a little more. Some of the songs as others have mentioned felt unfinished and like Ye was the feature and not the main artist but it is at the top of discography.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by irreduciblekoan »

I really enjoy it. It has more immediately grabbed me than Yeezus (an album I ended up loving the more I heard it). As expected from Kanye, it's a left turn. Pretty much as loose and scattershot as Yeezus was abrasive and tightly constructed. Like most of Kanye's work, especially his later stuff, the lyrics are frequently ridiculous, and there are liberal servings of Autotune, which will rub many people the wrong way. If you weren't already a fan of his, this album definitely won't change your mind. I'm a fairly big Kanye fan, so I was right on its wavelength.

I will say that, out of all of his albums, this is the one where I am most interested in the critical and end-of-year (and all-time) attention. I foresee a fair number of critics to greet it lukewarmly, but I think some will rave about it. I wonder where this will end up on the end of year spreadsheet and 2017 update.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by TimmyWing »

What are our opinions on whether Tracks 14-18 ("Silver Surfer Intermission" onwards) count as "bonus tracks" in context of the album?
As I've stated, Kanye seems to be debunking the whole idea of a cohesive album release with The Life of Pablo, but thinking about it, there does seem to be a natural ending to the thing (especially with Frank Ocean's new outro to "Wolves"). So what do people think? Even if it's not officially outside of the album, I feel like Wolves is very much a good ending to the album 'proper'.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by Sweepstakes Ron »

TimmyWing wrote:What are our opinions on whether Tracks 14-18 ("Silver Surfer Intermission" onwards) count as "bonus tracks" in context of the album?
As I've stated, Kanye seems to be debunking the whole idea of a cohesive album release with The Life of Pablo, but thinking about it, there does seem to be a natural ending to the thing (especially with Frank Ocean's new outro to "Wolves"). So what do people think? Even if it's not officially outside of the album, I feel like Wolves is very much a good ending to the album 'proper'.
The album stopping at "Wolves" feels insufficient. It needs those "bonus" tracks to feel complete.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by babydoll »

Sweepstakes Ron wrote:
TimmyWing wrote:What are our opinions on whether Tracks 14-18 ("Silver Surfer Intermission" onwards) count as "bonus tracks" in context of the album?
As I've stated, Kanye seems to be debunking the whole idea of a cohesive album release with The Life of Pablo, but thinking about it, there does seem to be a natural ending to the thing (especially with Frank Ocean's new outro to "Wolves"). So what do people think? Even if it's not officially outside of the album, I feel like Wolves is very much a good ending to the album 'proper'.
The album stopping at "Wolves" feels insufficient. It needs those "bonus" tracks to feel complete.
Isn't he fixing Wolves? So maybe it'll be different. However, I've got to say that I see those tracks after Silver Surfer Intermission as the second half of a four hour long movie condensed into an hour's worth of music.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by Jirin »

Life Of Pablo, and both Lucinda Williams and Marlon Williams' albums aren't on Spotify, damn it.

Why do these people think I'm going to give them money if I haven't had a chance to hear their full album? I bought Blackstar and Adore Life *because* I could hear them on Spotify first.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

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"The Life of Pablo" is maybe, possibly, apparently streaming for free on kanyewest.com. Go nuts.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

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Setherex wrote:"The Life of Pablo" is maybe, possibly, apparently streaming for free on kanyewest.com. Go nuts.
Is that message from Mos Def still the first thing you hear when you enter his website?
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by GucciLittlePiggy »

Sweepstakes Ron wrote:
TimmyWing wrote:What are our opinions on whether Tracks 14-18 ("Silver Surfer Intermission" onwards) count as "bonus tracks" in context of the album?
As I've stated, Kanye seems to be debunking the whole idea of a cohesive album release with The Life of Pablo, but thinking about it, there does seem to be a natural ending to the thing (especially with Frank Ocean's new outro to "Wolves"). So what do people think? Even if it's not officially outside of the album, I feel like Wolves is very much a good ending to the album 'proper'.
The album stopping at "Wolves" feels insufficient. It needs those "bonus" tracks to feel complete.
I didn't know those last few songs were intended to be "bonus" tracks. It all makes sense now because the album felt disjointed to me after "Wolves". "NMPILA", despite being one of my favorite songs on the album, felt a bit out of place sonically so late into the record. I also strongly feel "30 Hours" should have been the closer. The only other spot that would make sense to me would be as the penultimate track with "Wolves" closing it out. And on the subject of "Wolves" I'd probably say it's my favorite song from TLOP but I think it deserved to be longer (that's such a minor issue, I know).

Overall, I'd say this album exceeded my expectations and fell short at the same time. As we inched closer and closer to the release, I had serious worries that the whole thing would be a gigantic mess but fortunately, it has more than a few great tracks. On the other hand, considering all of Kanye's previous work, this was the least "album" album he's had which comes as a disappointment to me. I just always prefer cohesive albums that seem particularly sequenced and have overarching lyrical and/or sonic themes. This record was all over the place. I think Ye should have done more than just tack on those last few tracks; he really should have taken time (yikes! an even longer wait) to find their place in the album and work on transitions. And some tracks, honestly, I could do without. I don't think there's anything bad on here, but even the new, improved version of "FACTS" had no business being on the record, in my opinion. I still need to listen to it more to find its place in the Yeezy canon but the verdict is good.

Best tracks: "Ultralight Beam" "Wolves" "Real Friends" "No More Parties in LA"
Setherex wrote:"The Life of Pablo" is maybe, possibly, apparently streaming for free on kanyewest.com. Go nuts.
It seems like you still need a Tidal subscription to listen to it.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by Setherex »

GucciLittlePiggy wrote:It seems like you still need a Tidal subscription to listen to it.
Ah, my mistake. My computer misled me. Dreams don't always come true.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

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Splish splash, I was raking in the cash
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by PlasticRam »

Jay Z has prolly asked Kanye to keep it Tidal exclusive and Kanye's doing it out of gratitude or something. That's definitely not smart for Kanye himself cos it's getting pirated so much too. And he's 53M in debt...
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by babydoll »

PlasticRam wrote:Jay Z has prolly asked Kanye to keep it Tidal exclusive and Kanye's doing it out of gratitude or something. That's definitely not smart for Kanye himself cos it's getting pirated so much too. And he's 53M in debt...
Is it not going to be selling through even iTunes? That's a death sentence there. Well, that happens when you make $500 sweatpants.
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by bootsy »

TimmyWing wrote:What are our opinions on whether Tracks 14-18 ("Silver Surfer Intermission" onwards) count as "bonus tracks" in context of the album?
As I've stated, Kanye seems to be debunking the whole idea of a cohesive album release with The Life of Pablo, but thinking about it, there does seem to be a natural ending to the thing (especially with Frank Ocean's new outro to "Wolves"). So what do people think? Even if it's not officially outside of the album, I feel like Wolves is very much a good ending to the album 'proper'.
I agree with what others have said those tracks make this album as complete as can be for this album. They are so necessary and I like all of them including Facts which I know most people didn't like.
Kingoftonga
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by Kingoftonga »

Still processing my opinions on it, but I agree that the album's sequencing made a lot more sense when I realized everything after the Silver Surfer Intermission was Kanye's equivalent of Stevie Wonder's A Something Extra EP. I feel like those last tracks could have been better integrated into the tracklist (as well as "Only One"). I don't really miss "FourFiveSeconds" or "All Day."

Caroline Shaw, the contemporary composer, has some appropriately haunting vocals on "Wolves." However, I'm a little disappointed that's all that came of their collaboration. After Kanye released his Shaw-inspired remix of "Say You Will," I was hoping he'd go in a contemporary-classical music direction, doing an album inspired by Meredith Monk or Steve Reich. Although I suppose I was expecting another thematically-unified statement like Yeezus; instead, Kanye seems to have gone in every direction at once. I'm not sure how I feel about it.
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Maschine_Man
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by Maschine_Man »

People are liking this? I'm very underwhelmed to be honest.

I'm up to Freestyle 4 and have not been impressed by much, the Goldfrapp sample in this song is the highlight so far. Mainly because I think Felt Mountain (and Goldfrapp in general) needs more recognition. Maybe Kanye picked up the LP at the last record store day? hmmmmm
TimmyWing
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by TimmyWing »

I only mention it because he himself says "This the bonus track" on 30 Hours. And Frank Ocean's outro on Wolves has such a satisfying finality to it...not to mention that Fade's (ironic) lack of a fade-out or anything means the album just stops dead if you count it as the final track. It does make it easier to process - No More Parties in LA is epic but a little overwhelming after all the tracks that precede it.

Overall, I do like it - I don't know how much use it is to compare it to classic albums like Songs in the Key of Life or The Beatles* - but there are some amazing tracks here, enough that I can just ignore the ones I don't like. I don't know how often I'm going to listen to the album as a whole, but...well, I'm just glad it's not a disaster.

It still baffles me how much acclaim Yeezus got. The whole let's-be-edgy-like-Death-Grips thing didn't work for me primarily because he wasn't willing (able?) to be as abrasive as MC Ride and co. I've listened to it so many times and it just leaves me cold. Oddly enough, the one song I really loved on it ("Guilt Trip") got nowhere near as much attention as any of the others, but I felt that was the one song that didn't have anything lyrically or sonically cringeworthy on it. So that's a batting average of 1/10 I guess? Pablo already fares much better.

*Thinking about it..."What if we fuck right now?" isn't miles away from "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?"...
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PlasticRam
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Re: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"

Post by PlasticRam »

I've thought about it and maybe this is like The White Album without Happiness Is a Warm Gun, Blackbird and Mother Nature's Son (Wolves better version, Only One and I Feel Like That) meaning its top 3 songs, whatever they might be in everyone's opinion.

Or then I just think that the connections to White Album are flimsy. Only in the sense that Kanye quality-wise has been on par with Beatles IMO this can be his 'White Album', but this is as if White Album had been kind of a dud. But maybe I'm being too critical.
Last edited by PlasticRam on Wed Feb 17, 2016 3:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I feel like that
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