Kanye West And "The Life Of Pablo" Review | The Odyssey Online
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Kanye West And "The Life Of Pablo" Review

Reviewing Kanye's new album track by track, "The Life of Pablo".

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Kanye West And "The Life Of Pablo" Review
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It's finally here and I love it. We went through album names, Good Fridays, and a Twitter fight with Wiz Khalifa, but the finished album is here. It was welcomed by those at Kanye's Yeezy Season 3 presentation at Madison Square Garden. This 18 track album called "The Life of Pablo" is here.

I experienced the Madison Square Garden concert through the Tidal livestream and it was to say the least, amazing. Beginning with watching Kanye walking up to the sound system and starting the show with a simple "hey." Before releasing the first track, he told the audience that if anyone liked the songs playing and felt like dancing along, then go ahead and do so.

1. Ultra Light Beams

The first song is titled "Ultra Light Beams. It begins with a sound clip of a little girl praying and then Kanye following suit. They pray and give blessings until that fades out, and a gospel choir and bass line come in and continue for the rest of the song. The song included a verse by Chance The Rapper, with the rest of the album featuring artists like Frank Ocean, Rihanna, Kid Cudi, and Sia.

2/3. Father Stretch My Hands Pt.1

Next we have "Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1 & 2". This song truly goes back to Kanye's emotional struggles. The song mentions his relationship with his past relationships, his mother, and his life before fame and how these struggles then impacted his life. Kanye showing his vulnerability in this song only makes me love Kanye more. The beat in Pt. 2 is one of my favorites off the track, a personal song, but still a hyped one at that.

4. Famous

And then he pulls out Rihanna to feature in "Famous". I loved their collaborations before and I love them together now. This song is crazy funny and crazy good. The most talked about line in this track would be the "Taylor Diss": “I think me and Taylor still might have sex / I made that b**** famous.” Other than that, the beat is good, but it ends on a soulful tone becoming one of my favorite tracks.

5. Feedback

Wild. This song reminds me of his "Yeezus" album, he boasts about his accomplishments, and I loved every second of it. The lyrics take digs at his blogger critics, while also making references to cops and introducing the mention of Pablo. The tune of the song was a very techno tone that was out of this world. Then the second verse of the song started with Kanye doing his own imitation of Oprah and it made me cry tears of joy.

6. Lowlights

This song serves as the introduction for the next song, Highlights. Lowlights can be described as another gospel track off the album. Powerful and inspirational overall, the track's entirety is a monologue related to biblical verses with mention to God.

7. Highlights

One thing about this song is the amount of AutoTune, and for once I'm supporting it fully. Beautiful vocals in the background, and then entering in with a Ray J Diss, A Blac Chyna and Rob Kardashian Diss. Probably the most Kanye-est song off the album with the amount of boasting her does. It's boasting, but it's honest, real and I love it and I thank Kanye.

8. Freestyle 4

The next track is spooky. "Freestyle 4" has an orchestra in the back that creates a "rap god" ambience in a beat driven song. It really grabbed my attention. The drums dropping at one point were a plus, but still pretty strange. The song overall doesn't do much for me compared to the songs before it and that's okay.

9. I Love Kanye

This short song is a parody of the critics who didn't like the music that Kanye was starting to make, wanting the "Old Kanye" back. Of course, Kanye doesn't care and only makes fun of these claims in this song. I think it's funny and a classic Kanye move, I just wish it was longer.

10. Waves

The song "Waves", which was also a potential album name, is the song that delayed the album's initial drop date. The song features Chris Brown's vocals, which helps the track progress and create a slightly sad yet still heartwarming tone.

11. FML

Sound wise, song number eleven, "FML", seems to be a track just solely focused on vocals and beats in the background. Kanye only raps sometimes, but when he does it really sounds like it's from the heart. He shows us something real and deep with his internal struggles and external struggles. Quite moody. Another highlight of this song is the inclusion of "The Weekend" with their vocals.

12. Real Friends

"Real Friends" song number twelve, is one of my favorite songs. Kanye raps about the annoyances in his personal life, talking about dealing with these supposed friends and everything he has to juggle in his life along with them. It's surprisingly a heartfelt song, especially with the ending lines, “I guess I get what I deserve.” It made me want to call my friends and start apologizing about any of the times I was a bad friend to them.

13. Wolves

After listening to song number 10, "Wolves" all I can say is that I have seen the light and the light is "Wolves." This song is beautiful. There's more autotune, but I still love it. Most of the song is singing between Kanye and Sia, but then he begins to rap about The Virgin Mary and Joseph getting together in a club and falling in love and Kanye's imagination and overall creativity leaves me speechless. Wow.

14. Silver Surfer Intermission

This track serves as an intro for "30 Hours" and an intermission for the the album. The track is a phone conversation with Kanye. The conversation including praise for the album and just positive vibes.

15. 30 Hours

Another personal song from Kanye. At this point the album has shown me a deeper version of Kanye that I feel like I've never seen before. On this track, he reflects back on exes, the relationships and fights he encountered, all this reflection being done after a night out.

16. No More Parties In L.A

If you couldn't figure out from the title Kanye is rapping along with, it's about Kendrick Lamar about wanting his girlfriend to stop throwing parties in L.A. I'm all about a party, especially in L.A, but I guess if even Kanye is done with them then Kendrick Lamar hit that limit. This track shows more of a hip-hop tone with more mentions of being like Pablo, with his name being thrown into scenes.

17. Facts

The infamous "Nike Diss Track". This track was released months before the album release. The song obviously stirred trouble with his former partner Nike, "Nike, Nike treats employees like slaves/Gave Lebron a billi' not to run away". This song stirred so much trouble, that even Michael Jordan came out and defended Nike. The song is a win on Yeezy's part, sorry Nike.

18. Fade

"Fade" is a mid-tempo beat, and it, once again, features AutoTune from Kanye. But the mood of the song, along with the incorporation of Rare Earths "(I Know) I'm Losing You", makes me feel better about it. The song brought back the "Old Kanye" in 808's and Cruel Summers, which cures my nostalgia. The song overall reminds me of why I like Kanye as an artist, integrating new and old sounds. A memorable song and great track to end the album.


The album itself is a piece of art, just like Kanye intended it to be. He always leaves the audience with much to admire, and I'm sure Yeezy fans will leave satisfied just like I was with "The Life of Pablo". It's streaming now exclusively on Tidal and next week it will be available to purchase.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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