Review Summary: Bigmouth Strikes Out Again
Sometimes the game changes. You're kidding yourself if you believe the way people judge and relate to music is static, it isn't, it morphs and bends according to the current generation of listener's quirks and preferences. One particular current trend is that often when asked what an artist's greatest strength is a fan will state that they're 'a great producer'. This is quite a new perspective, one that's slowly emerged over time as genres like hip hop and electronica have established themselves in the mainstream collective consciousness. It reminds me of the world of sport where nowadays pundits will name a player's strongest quality as being 'a real athlete and model professional'; in other words he works hard down the gym and keeps his nose clean. It's hardly a description that gets my palms wet in anticipation of witnessing some silky skills and similarly when someone claims the greatest quality of a musician is they're a wonderful producer, well, mark me down as distinctly underwhelmed.
Kanye West is who I associate the most with this argument; listeners rarely big him up as a phenomenal emcee, a writer of consistently excellent songs, nor even as a particularly insightful lyricist. No, his biggest strength is having a producer's ear, he will squeeze sonic greatness from the raw materials he has at hand. No doubt a highly enviable skill, so long as those raw ideas are worthy of your time; one thing that's never changed over the years is people can always sniff out a turd through any number of layers of polish.
West has released six solo albums prior to 'The Life of Pablo' and despite their styles ranging between the straightahead easygoing vibes of 2004's 'College Dropout' to 2013's deconstructed punk/noise influenced 'Yeezus' all these works have failed to vary in one significant way; they're all incredibly patchy in terms of song writing quality. Even accounting for the hip hop signature of cramming a plethora of skits and filler tracks onto albums these releases are still found wanting. At the last count Kanye's hit rate stands at roughly one truly great song in every four or five, and for someone considered a musical wunderkind that simply doesn't add up. It feels like I'm sat in the stadium watching Mr West striking out over and over and over again....but everywhere I look there's all manner of whoopin' and hollerin' going on and oh Lordy there's Kim Kardashian with a huge foam hand punching the air. The crowd just love him.
'The Life of Pablo' finds Kanye leaning on this audience goodwill like never before; the shameless release shenanigans that have come with this album have amounted to a man-child playing peekaboo on a never before seen scale. Just release the finished album already. It only takes a few listens to understand why West subjected us to this marathon session of foreplay; 'Pablo' is a sprawling mess packed with heavy handed lyrics, faux gospel melodrama, eye roll inducing in-jokes, and a total reliance on vocal overproduction to mask the criminal lack of any top tier melodies.
Simply put this is the Kanye album that doesn't even bother to include the usual four or five classic tunes to bail it out. The rhymes have to be his laziest ever; in terms of content West appears to have backed himself into a cul de sac of vacuity, his lyrics settling into a vague mush of grandiose self-mythology, celebrity culture cannabilism, 'woe is me' rich man's blues and knob gags. They're 90% disposable to 9% humorous to 1% profound; a meagre return. In the past any similar deficiencies were compensated by Kanye's delivery, he's always been a master of channeling that planet sized ego into his attack and in short bursts his vocals were frequently irresistibly engaging. Not so here, the phrase 'phoned in' is unavoidable; if you told me West had recorded these vocals while reclined on a sun lounger I'd believe it such is the lack of urgency, passion and inspiration.
Personality goes a long way and it has little to do with inherent likability, a fact certainly not lost on Kanye; he's a classic anti-hero and has carefully built up an 'us and them' siege mentality among his followers. The challenge for West has become making sure his persona never manages to totally outstrip his art in terms of the level of interest and devotion it generates....and 'The Life of Pablo' marks the point where he appears to be stumbling in this arms race of his own creation. The production is tight tho.
