[Severian]

Originally Posted by noisereductions

My fav of the year so far too.

Mine is The Life of Pablo. Everything else out sounds like little toy music for plastic people who live in ticky-tacky houses and go to church and shit.

Kids table music. All of it. David Bowie and Flume are the only competition that would be insulting. Maybe that Not Waving joint too.

TLOP nonstop. Masterpiece. Damn that "Famous" track w/ Rihanna is the hottest fucking thing in the world!

[Severian]

Can't tell me that "wake up Mr. West!" line doesn't get you bro.

I feel like the beats and music on this record are objectively amazing.

I had my girlfriend throwing her hands in the air during the second half of "Famous" ....

Did anyone read that NPR piece? Anyone at all?

[Severian]

The Life Of Pablo gets a 9.0 rating + BNM status on Pitchfork.

http://m.pitchfork.com/reviews/album...life-of-pablo/

I hate the way Pitchfork determines and decides how successful an album is. I hate that every publication in the world could hate an album, but if Pitchfork loves it, it's a success, even if it bombs. I hate this because they have ultimate veto power over everything, and they can damage a career by giving an artist a low rating.

But I'm not going to lie.... I'm psyched and relieved that Pitchfork and NPR both seem to hear the album the way I hear it.

I haven't read the review yet. Will get to it in the am. It's late and I must get to sleep, but I think we can call it at this point: TLOP is a success. Even if it flops commercially.

[louder]

That Pitchfork review was more about Kanye's Twitter account than the actual album. They gave Ye's public image a 9.0, congrats I guess but even in that aspect he deserved like a 4.0 for all the dumb shit he said in the last few weeks.

[louder]

In one last rug pull, Kanye claimed that the "Pablo" of the title was neither Escobar nor Picasso, but St. Paul of Tarsus ("Pablo" in Spanish).

Disappointed to be honest..

[louder]

Man College Dropout, Late Registration and yes even Graduation are amazing lyrically for me. 808s is not a rap album so whatever. Yeezus had its share of dumb lines but I thought they fitted the aesthetic of the album, it was so underground and raw.. and I thought he would bounce back from that on his next one too. Not to mention it also had some substance (like the lyrics I pointed out a while back, when I called them overlooked) which I can't find in TLOP at all.

[louder]

Originally Posted by noisereductions

My fav of the year so far too.

This little video is gonna make you happy then: https://twitter.com/hotfreestyle/sta...69623606345728

[louder]

As well as this one: https://twitter.com/andersonpaak/sta...41292966854656

[Severian]

Originally Posted by louder

Man College Dropout, Late Registration and yes even Graduation are amazing lyrically for me. 808s is not a rap album so whatever. Yeezus had its share of dumb lines but I thought they fitted the aesthetic of the album, it was so underground and raw.. and I thought he would bounce back from that on his next one too. Not to mention it also had some substance (like the lyrics I pointed out a while back, when I called them overlooked) which I can't find in TLOP at all.

But... But... There is substance.
Even if it's just on "Real Friends," "NMPILA," "Wolves," "30 Hours," (I pick these because they're song you have claimed to like, right?)... Even if it's only those tracks, that's still four out of this world songs. I think College Dropout only has about 4 truly out of this world tracks...

"Famous" (dude this is seriously my favorite Kanye track since pre-Yeezus)

I am not trying to convince you to like the album. I AM trying to convince you to give it more time. And I'm definitely trying to convince you to NOT allow this one disappointment to ruin Ye for you.

Sorry bro, I'm not trying to troll you here. But we're stuck in a bit of a stalemate. The more you diss the album, the more I'm probably going to praise it and question you about it. I don't want to piss you off, but I also don't want you talking crazy, saying you're rethinking all of his music.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by louder

Man College Dropout, Late Registration and yes even Graduation are amazing lyrically for me. 808s is not a rap album so whatever. Yeezus had its share of dumb lines but I thought they fitted the aesthetic of the album, it was so underground and raw.. and I thought he would bounce back from that on his next one too. Not to mention it also had some substance (like the lyrics I pointed out a while back, when I called them overlooked) which I can't find in TLOP at all.

I stressed a bit about "dumb" lines on Yeezus at first too. But now I think it totally works. There are lines that can be viewed as "dumb" on every album. Especially hip hop albums. But what can I say, I don't actually believe Kanye's dumb in any way (except for socially). I think he knows how to sound profound (which he does, many times on this album... I don't know the lyrics well enough yet to quote A ton of examples but whatever), and I think he knows how to sound pigheaded and dumbassed, and I think it's all ALWAYS been part of Kanye's aesthetic.

Look at the chorus of Runaway, the best song he's ever done in my opinion.
Toast for the douchebags and assholes, really? Lyrics about sending dick picks to bitches? In a love song?! How does that even work? I don't know... I can't explain it. But it totally works!

His "dumb" lines are systematically linked to his most beautiful songs, his ugliest moments are what make his best moments so great. I think he's of particular significance to men becaus he reflects back at us feelings we can all relate to about how we've viewed women, mistreated women, been assholes to our girlfriends and wives, but he also reflects back the best of us. The instinct we have to provide and protect and love our wives and mothers and daughters.

His music is real in a way that assclowns like Future (no offense, Future, you had your moments bro) never will. He says the things we all think (not literally of course, but he says awful things just like we all think awful things and he says heartwrenchingly beautiful things just like we all think lovely things..) he says it, shouts it, expresses to the entire world what we keep bottled up.

The baser instincts of humanity are a huge part of Kanye's personal appeal for me. Love him or hate him, you can't really say he doesn't own his shit.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by louder

That Pitchfork review was more about Kanye's Twitter account than the actual album. They gave Ye's public image a 9.0, congrats I guess but even in that aspect he deserved like a 4.0 for all the dumb shit he said in the last few weeks.

Actually they kinda went song-by-song... they talked about his image, but what they had to say was not super complimentary.

I thought you'd like the review, because it says a lot of the same things you've said (albeit without the apocalyptically negative bent l), calling the album sloppy and hastily out together. But they still found excellence in it. They even took that "bleached asshole" line you hate and called it, what was it.. The most "unforgivably stupid thing he's ever said in an album?" Was that it?

But still, they see that it's a Kanye album, and that Kanye knows what he's doing and has dropped another Fucking masterpiece on us. Because they're usually pretty spot on about Kanye, and this album is FULL of excellent moments.

Dude can I just ask you, as a friend, to please not give up on Kanye just because one album *finally* didn't blow you away. Honestly, you may hate the lyrics, but if you told me that this album was musically crap, I would not believe you. Your taste in hip-hop and in music in general is too good for that. It's very obviously a beautiful and hard hitting album scattered with revelatory musical moments and some of the best beats ye's put on a record in 6 years.

I tried to PM you about this shit because I thought maybe we could rap about it (aww' check my pun skills yo!) more comfortably without basically arguing publically with one another (for the first time I can remember). Maybe we should switch this convo over to a pm chat to make it a little less "BLAH!" Because I seriously don't want to offend or set you off, but I am really curious to hear your responses to some of my questions that you haven't gotten around to yet.

Eh?

[Severian]

I should say though, that I definitely think this is Kanye's "Let it Be" ... Yes it's something new for him, but it's not an absolute game-changer. It's a comfortable album, with Kanye being Kanye, not trying to reinvent the wheel, but simply making a really fucking badass wheel that rolls super good

There's a line in the Pitchfork review that stuck out to me. It said something like "it sounds as if Kanye's is still furiously mixing the album and making changes even as it's playing through your headphones" ... This nails it. Because it does feel a bit all over the place. In terms of flow, it's somewhere between Cruel Summer and Yeezus, with these brief reprieves bringing a little bit of "Dropout" and "LR" back into the fray.

Or maybe it's Kanye's Abbey Road? Abbey Road sounds inconsistent as hell, like you're being slammed with a different song ever couple of seconds, even wen you're listening to a song that encompasses the entire second side! But Abbey Road had a bit of everything on it. Thrown at you with abandon, the Beatles just playing themselves instead of other characters for the first time in ages.

So I get the "sloppy" comments, and I get that it sounds unpolished... But again, what can we expect from Ye other than the unexpected? Who expected him to suddenly stop being an anal retentive mad scientist who spends a thousand hours on a single track? Not I. And yet that's what he did. And as Kanye fans. We should know better than to wish this sounded more like "old Kanye".... Though in all honestly it sounds more like MBDTF than anything else he's done.

[Severian]

Ok, I'm gonna take a breath here. Maybe go listen to that Anderson (no dot!) Paak joint you guys are so fired up about.

Can't wait to hear what the rest of you think of the Life of Pablo. Can't wait to have a discussion about it with the whole crew. Even if every opinion is different, I, like louder, totally value all the input that comes into this thread. I'm proud of the Café, boys. Can't believe it... I was like a different person when I pestered Louder to start a recurring hip-hop thread to help me get back into the genre.

It worked dude. If there was an SYG award for thread making, you'd win the fuck out of it.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by louder

This little video is gonna make you happy then: https://twitter.com/hotfreestyle/sta...69623606345728

HOLY WOW! THAT SHIT IS HOT!

Why have I been sleeping on this dude again? I'm going to buy his fuckin album on iTunes right this second.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by louder

Man College Dropout, Late Registration and yes even Graduation are amazing lyrically for me. 808s is not a rap album so whatever. Yeezus had its share of dumb lines but I thought they fitted the aesthetic of the album, it was so underground and raw.. and I thought he would bounce back from that on his next one too. Not to mention it also had some substance (like the lyrics I pointed out a while back, when I called them overlooked) which I can't find in TLOP at all.

The very reasons i didn't like the tone of Yeezus because frankly i didn't think it was just being artistic for the concept of that album. To me it felt like this was the direction he was going.. not surprised at all to see it follow on this new record.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

The very reasons i didn't like the tone of Yeezus because frankly i didn't think it was just being artistic for the concept of that album. To me it felt like this was the direction he was going.. not surprised at all to see it follow on this new record.

But if I know you, you probably haven't heard the new record. (?)

'Cause it's absolutely nothing like Yeezus. Entirely different direction. Nothing alike. Some of the lyrics may be closer to Yeezus lyrics than those on MBDTF, in terms of approach and subject matter, but still not on the same tip as Yeezus.

And I thought you didn't like Yeezus because you absolutely hate Kanye West, as you've stated hundreds of times over the years. I think you've expressed an appreciation for "Jesus Walks" once or twice, but that's it. ?

[louder]

Originally Posted by Severian

HOLY WOW! THAT SHIT IS HOT!

Why have I been sleeping on this dude again? I'm going to buy his fuckin album on iTunes right this second.

Real! He's very very talented.

[Severian]

Yeezus felt super blunt and rushed to me at first. I also thought it was more than Kanye was just getting lazy than that he was making some grand statement about music or culture, or deliberately trying to challenge people. That smelled like a bit of an excuse to me at the time, and I'm still irritated that the album had no cover art.

But it really makes quite a bit of sense to me now. I think it was deliberate. And I think it was a great fucking album... Exactly what hip-hop needed. It lit a fire under everyone's ass, and it plays from beginning to end with no let up. It's the culmination of his aesthetic protests that started with 808's. It was a reminder that you don't need glitz to make a great hip hop album. You don't need to make the best, or be the biggest or brightest to turn the genre on its head. All you need is passion, something to say (doesn't need to be Walt Fucking Whitman, just needs to matter to you), and Kanye had a lot to say on that album, about himself and his frustration and his image and his sadness.

Even if you hate it, you can't point to another rap album and say "Yeezus sounds like that" because it only sounds like Yeezus. Any time an artist can pull that off, it's a success. Yeezus started out as lower on my list of albums for 2013 than 12 Reasons to Die and The Terror. It ended at #1, and I've listened to it many times between 2013 and now. No so with those other albums. Not a bit.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by louder

Real! He's very very talented.

Bought the album and I'm jamming to it right now while working from home. Hot shit, bro.

[louder]

Yeezus is still great. TLOP just happens to be that one Kanye album I don't mess with. It had to happen eventually and yes it makes me a little sad, not to mention confused (due to how the majority of the world seems to love the record and hear it differently than myself), but everyone and their mother had "duds" in their discography before, including each and every one of Ye's idols, so it's really not the end of the world.