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Review: Kanye West - Yeezus

Rating: 6.6

Up until now, Kanye's always made music like The Beatles: high quality, palatable, and not particularly emotionally resonant. Yeezus is a completely different beast. It's somewhere between the Sex Pistols and early Nine Inch Nails. It's got brutal, simple electronic sounds and a punk mentality.  Kanye's apparently moved past Common and thrown his lot in with Chief Keef. I don't think he could've done anything more misguided. Look at it this way:

Kanye's Strengths:
Writing and finding great melodies
Layering sound

Kanye's Weaknesses:
Drum programming
Rapping (all of it - lyrics, flow & rhyming)

Yet, for some reason, he's roped in Rick Rubin to remove everything that plays to his strengths and focus entirely on his weaknesses. It's like asking a drum 'n bass producer to cut out the low end and make a Brian Eno album. There's no way you're gonna get good results. Now, I will admit that, if you are looking for anger in sonic form, Yeezus does a pretty good job. Unfortunately, if you're looking for quality music, you're gonna have better luck just about anywhere else.

Amazingly, critics and fans are still in love. If nothing else, this cements Kanye's position as the most respected artist in music today. No one else could've received such accolades for something so mediocre. Even Radiohead couldn't get the benefit of the doubt to this degree when they released the similarly mediocre King of Limbs a few years ago. Who knows, maybe this'll be the Never Mind the Bullocks of rap: a mediocre album that that, nevertheless, changes the genre and garners lasting respect. Probably not though.

 Key Tracks: The Chorus of Bound 2

Track-by-Track Rating:
  1. On Sight - 7.0
  2. Black Skinhead - 7.5
  3. I Am a God - 7.0
  4. New Slaves - 7.5
  5. Hold My Liquor - 6.0
  6. I'm in It - 5.5
  7. Blood on the Leaves - 6.0
  8. Guilt Trip - 5.0
  9. Send It Up - 5.0
  10. Bound 2 - 7.5

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