Yeezus Review 

Yeezus, Yeezus, Yeezus. Where do I begin with this album? Ok, so we all know Kanye is the most narcissistic artist out there and more than just a few of us have questioned his mental stability but we look past it because the man is a genius when it comes to his music.With Yeezus, I don’t know. Oh I must mention that I am glad I decided to give the album another listen before writing this review because it would have been completely different. I had no idea what to expect on this album because in a strange way of marketing, we weren’t given a single from the album, save for the various building projections and his SNL performance. I heard rumblings of how it might be in the direction of “808 and Heartbreaks” which I loved but I definitely wouldn’t compare the two albums.

Ok, so the first 3 songs on Yeezus(On Sight, Black Skinhead, I am a God)I felt like I had done something wrong and wanted my mommy to hold me. Even though they are all reminiscent of the playful, electronic sounds that Kanye usually likes to explore with (shouldn’t be surprising – the electronic music duo, Daft Punk produced the first 3 songs on this album), they still sounded like being yelled at. The album eventually eases in and we are treated to usual Kanye – samples, funny explicit lyrics (“Put my fist in her like a civil rights sign, and grabbed it with a slight grind, and held it ’til the right time.Then she came like AAAAAHHH!”) and just a fireworks of various sounds.

What did I think of it?

I think it was an okay album but for Kanye? Not his best work at all. In fact, I can confidently say that this is his worst work on his discography. I’ll give him this, you can’t deny his musicality on this album, Kanye’s ears have always been an asset to him in the past and it is still here with the various sounds that can be heard on the album from motown classic, reggae to EDM but the problem is all these sounds didn’t quite gel together as a whole and ended up sounding more like noise. I read somewhere where the goal was for the album to be minimalist but somehow there was so much synthesizers or something that kind of took away from the songs. There was also a lot of break aways for lack of a better word on most songs, where all of a sudden, the song changes direction and is a completely new sound. It only worked for me on “New Slaves” (I only liked the second half). I know Kanye hasn’t been the same since his Mom died but I have to say, I wasn’t expecting the album to be so dark for a man that is supposed to be in love and expecting a new child, it was quite a serious album.

Overall do I recommend it? Yea. It deserves to be listened to at least more than once (just because it’s much better after the first listen) but I am sure it doesn’t have high re-play value. The core Kanye can still be heard on this album in a few of his songs but for the amount of time spent and the talent that he has, it should have been a lot better. I know some people will say this album is so “deep” and if you don’t love it, then you probably just don’t get it but I beg to differ. I don’t go to Kanye for true hip hop, I go to him for great and varied music and unfortunately Yeezus fell flat and didn’t deliver on that level.

Favorites: Blood on the Leaves, Bound 2, I’m in it.

Have you listened? What did you think?