Pitchfork gives Yeezus a 9.5

[ECA]

This shouldn't have 7 pages.

Ya'll are giving P4k way too much power by arguing about their opinion of the album.

 

[retroracer]

If you go...on spotufy or wherever the fukk and listen to a daft punk album all the way through...

you will see that this record is amateur compared to what they have done before

the reason so many of us are disappointed is because no matter the style of hip hop or music he has done so much better lyrically and production wise its really not comparable.

This IS his worst produced album, His lyrics are AMATEUR hour, HIS CONCEPTS AND TRANSISTIONS have been done before but 10 times better by other artists that HE is trying to emulate...


but you wouldn't know that because this is your first time hearing songs like these while other people on the board has heard sh1t like this since the turn of the millennium.



IM not demanding people respect anything, my whole original argument was against your wishy washy statement that posters who like this are usually this or that.

Ultimately this album lacks soul and direction.


Lets CALL this album for what it really is.... dark twisted and 808 leftovers with a couple of shining tracks that should have been saved for a more complete album that we hold kanye to.

This shyt sounds nothing like a Daft Punk album, or anything they would try to create themselves (and yes I know they contributed to a few tracks). DP is straight euro pop. They've never used the HUGE baselines or the frenetic drumming like on this album. Daft Punk is POP music through and through. They just happen to be from Europe where electronic music has been one of the most popular styles of music for over 2 decades.

 

[Jeffrey Lebowski]

reminds me of some J Peterman shyt from Seinfeld.

dude why didn't you make a thread about this review

this is EXACTLY what people need to read....this is the exact type of discussion I would hope would come from a forum on music

Someone who actually dissects and understands the music. Thanks breh.

I think it'd be interesting as hell to have a thread focused on that review, but I'm also worried no one would read it and it'd go straight in the bushes

 

[ROFL_GUY]

you're gonna want to read this

he doesn't like yeezus either

1. “On Sight” | Vintage acid backing track that will sound fresh—”black new wave” as Kanye puts it—to hip-hop fans who don’t accept or explore other genres. With their Music Marketing in 2013 dogsbody Random Access Memories fading fast in pop’s rear-view mirror, Daft Punk will, going forward, be known more for their wardrobe, stagecraft and celebrity endorsements. Which is a pity, because by my watch, “Emotion” was one of the best tracks of the 2000s.
Daft Punk are here to legitimize Kanye West with the EDM crowd, because EDM is the order of the day. It’s sadly that simple. The duo paint the first half of Yeezus with every color in the Universal Indicator rainbow, with the Joyrex tape and AFX EPs. “On Sight” in particular owes much to the fifth track on Universal Indicator Green, which Richard D. James recorded in 1992. “AFX2” is in there as well; it’s as if Kanye is prepping society for a future that sounds like “Entrance to Exit” twenty years after it was first released.
As noted a few weeks ago, the hard-cut gospel choir dropout didn’t clear, but Kanye, being rich, paid another choir to replicate it exactly, and equalized the result to approximate the original loop. He can afford to manufacture authenticity; it’s a fair play. This move has a curious precursor, however: the dropout in Aphex Twin’s “Isopropophlex” (at 4:15).
Aphex Twin opened his career with a cynical techno remix of the Pac-Man theme. I’m not here to bury Kanye or Daft Punk with his impeccable reputation, because he doesn’t have one. 26 Mixes for Cash is the original “HOLIDAY SEASON” but in 2013, RDJ is almost totally unknown to pop music fans, while neophyte producers are flat-out leveled on first exposure to his expert knob-twiddling.


2. “Black Skinhead” | Desiccated drum thuds and heavy nods to Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus,” both melodically and structurally. Probably intentional given the album title, but so overt as to warrant a written explanation. The case for Gary Glitter’s trademark is too thin—I doubt it, full-stop, as an influence on anything Kanye West has done—but Rubin’s afoot, and the droning guitar-like waves, in proximity to that thumping stutter, made me debate it.
Once the sub-bass comes in at the one-minute mark, a vocal sample blares underneath the beat—given the “c00n” verse and shots at Kendrick Lamar/Gunplay, this of course has roots going back before funk to Delta Blues (you can ring Mandy Rock-like for more on that)—but the continued acid distortion on the bass warble brought AFX’s “Elephant Song” to mind as I drove around blasting it for the fifth time. The most locked-in and convincing delivery on the album, by far.


3. “I Am a God” | Three songs in and we’ve got substantial rhyme issues. Ye has now paired “shyt” with “shyt,” “God” with “God,” and “you” with “you.” The massage/restaurant/croissants triplet halfway through this is so weak they have to destroy the track and rebuild it again (a great call; it saves the piece). The requisite “swagger” here is forced and phony, and not at all borne out in the content or context of the lyrics.



4. “New Slaves” | The album’s overt roots in Daft Punk’s acid techno bins don’t help sell this rip of mid-period “Goon Gumpas” RDJ. Also check “Corrugated Tubing“ (and find a proper rip); its cast-iron bass and drum thrum make the rounds on more “production notes” mixes than you’d expect.
I’ve already excised and looped Frank Ocean’s breathtaking psych-soul finale for twelve minutes; it’s a positively spiritual alignment of influences that deserves an album’s worth of exposition.


5. “Hold My Liquor” | Smack in the middle of the record, where it should be, we get the Soul-Baring Narrative that reminds us Mr. “I Am God” is still just heartbroken Yeezy from the block. [PITCHFORK REVIEW EXTRACT] “At 5:27, and featuring both Chief Keef and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, this shyt better be good. Takes a minute to get there, but ‘Liquor’ definitely delivers.”
Could have called it “Ms. U,” though, something nerdy and clever, considering the Amber drama that’s sure to overshadow what might be the most daring piece of production on Yeezus. Thankfully, “Liquor“‘s syrupy auto-tune intro comes back around, but the left-channel squeal in the first verse was a major distraction for me, because it sounds like the ending of “Block Rockin’ Beats.” I spent half an hour sourcing that memory echo to find I was wrong, that it’s just a coincidence. The Fripp/Eno sky-saw synths are tone-poem perfection, but the final movement is a shocking Ctrl-C Ctrl-V of Moby’s “Heaven” that doesn’t play well at all. I’ve a bad feeling Yeezus has walked farther down the ambient-house boulevard than his flock will follow.
In closing, “You love me when I’m hungover” is the best line on this record by a nautical mile and should be a t-shirt.


6. “I’m In It” | Whatever hopes I had for this disc are both realized and dashed in “I’m In It,” which is wildly open-eared and stylistically irreverent, but lyrically, cretin-level sub-moronic. Using “Free at last” to describe a woman “letting her titties out,” and backing that up with straight collard-greens racism—eatin’ Asian p*ssy/ all I need [is] sweet n’ sour sauce—is fukking Krazee-Eyez Killa territory. How can a thirty-six year old multimillionaire who name-dropped Le Corbusier in a fawning New York Times profile piece, who works for and with the biggest names in popular music, be allowed to loose shyt this puerile from his isolation booth. Spielberg called MJ out on “Jew me! Kike me!” Here’s hoping George Takei knocks Ye on his ass in the middle of Times Square, gets right in his face and bellows, “WORLDSTAR, bytch.”


7. “Blood on the Leaves” | How is a song this good on an album this weak? As openly stated, it’s a licensed duet co-opting the greatest cover of one of the greatest songs ever recorded, but I can’t deny Kanye West—impossibly—delivers on the advantage he’s taken. Which is to say Kanye is probably one of seven people on the planet who could get entire passages of “Strange Fruit” cleared, and I suspect he’s the only one who could deliver a result.
This is a personal rather than critical observation, and given the title I laugh at such an incredibly obvious and facile comparison, but I didn’t even realize it as it came to me. Hearing this song was much like absorbing the unfolding ecstasy of DJ Shadow’s “Blood on the Motorway.” It’s an exposition of one artist’s unique talents, a compound second act that not only reaffirms their established, recognized powers in one grand gesture, but adds to a legend only they could divine how to improve upon.
The Inception horn grain he wrings from TNGHT’s brass hits is terrifically powerful; it’s an Important Song, though the critical dialog around it is likely to focus on the subjective abortion message (and it ends flat, on a too-purple Lil’ Wayne note). Still, all the acid/EDM nonsense Daft Punk was supposed to cosign is gone, forgotten, and in the face of this epic, revealed as a failed makeover. This is what Kanye West can do that nobody else can. He doesn’t get here often, but he’s the only one that knows the way. Or can hear the directions.


8. “Guilt Trip” | Surprisingly strong sonic bed, which you’d need to follow “Blood on the Leaves,” but the arrangement is too cerebral, stuck in Cudi’s kaleidoscope. The chorus incantation is beautiful and ominous, but Kanye’s verse in particular is rank cheese. Star Wars, Zulu, Big Poppa, and “I’m the new Shabba”? Ye, there will never be another Shabba. Record really falls off a cliff here, because if you thought this was phoned in…


9. “Send it Up” | This doesn’t even belong on the album. Not on any album. King Louie shows up for Kanye West, but Gesaffelstein doesn’t have a track ready. Nothing about this makes any sense or leaves a lasting impression. Hugely wasted collab here…Beenie Man’s outro is such an upbeat, poetic breath of fresh air, it only drives home how bad the rest of it was, and what a glorious, swelling verse he toasted into the wind.


10. “Bound 2” | If you’re trying to pretend this isn’t “International Player’s Anthem 2013,” get the fukk out of here. Ye, you got Charlie Wilson, you tried to give UGK the statue, but the Billy Ocean break is Kim in a tennis skirt. Fooling nobody.

 

[ItWasWritten]

^^^^^^^

like i said the originators did it better.


now go to sleep.

 

[tru_m.a.c]

I think it'd be interesting as hell to have a thread focused on that review, but I'm also worried no one would read it and it'd go straight in the bushes

nah I feel you I feel you...might as well continue the discussion here then

I don't agree with his last assessment. Int'l Players Anthem and Bound 2 are not the same type of song.



Just cause they both have that "Ooooooooooh"......

eh on second thought...they're very similar sonically and theme wise

but all soul samples are like that....hence why soul sample tracks that go mainstream are so successful, but those that follow get

 

[Mike Otherz]

Blackballed too extreme?

Ok, the general point that was brought up was that writers who may have unfavorable reviews of the album probably won't get published in anything major, or even lose work/connects for outright shytting on a particular album. You can agree or disagree with that notion that but I don't think that sounds too far fetched.

this is an important point. if you want to trace the downfall of the source etc. or just look at elliot wilson. at the very least, these writers hold their opinions when it comes to someone powerful like jay. i would love to see a major writer or publication just engage this album critically. i dont even mean sh!t on it, just point out where it fails or whatever. instead its more kanye the tortured genius narrative. i wish the gave these type of passes to cats withought this type of industry pull.

 

[Jeffrey Lebowski]

I don't agree with his last assessment. Int'l Players Anthem and Bound 2 are not the same type of song.

Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You) (Director's Cut) - YouTube

Just cause they both have that "Ooooooooooh"......

eh on second thought...they're very similar sonically and theme wise

but all soul samples are like that....hence why soul sample tracks that go mainstream are so successful, but those that follow get

Soon as I read that article I realized I'd never be able to listen to Bound 2 without thinking of IPA. Its the sonics, breh

I'm not sure where the idea came from (probably a random post from here), but I kind of like the notion that at least the foundation of Yeezus was strung together over some weekend-long molly-fueled bender in the south of France. It helps explain some of the spontaneity and rawness of the album at least (I STILL don't get the jump-off between parts 1 and 2 of "New Slaves"...). Of course, after that the perfectionist in Yeezy comes out and he calls in Rick Rubin while making what i imagine to be a million little tweaks before his self-imposed deadline comes and goes.

In the end, I guess I'm just glad whoever was digging in the crates during production dug a little deeper, and someone out there was smart enough to connect the dots and write a piece that helped get me to listen to more Aphex Twin

 

[CASHAPP]

1). fukk Pitchfork

2). Kanye is NOT the innovator of using Biblical imagery, Metaphors, or Euphemisms in his music or image. Rakim is known as the God-MC, Jay-Z christens himself Hova (Jehovah) and named his comeback album Kingdom Come. Nas's 2002 album was called God's Son and his 2004 album Streets Disciple depicted the many differing versions of Nas's persona coming together in an homage to the Last Supper, 2pac depicted himself on 1996's 7 Day Theory in a Christ-like crucifixion pose. Kanye's use is but a further example of rappers utilizing the image as a means of furthering the message of Greatness or persecution in their music


3). fukk PITCHFORK

Pitchfork are the same reviewers who gave "Frank" a 4.5 rating(yes the winehouse album)

I have now clue how to comprehend how anyone can rate an album so highly where the only good songs are "New Slaves" and "Blood On The Leaves"

 

[MoneyTron]

Pitchfork can fukk off after that Gambino review though.

 

[Roaden Polynice]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vns-81egipQ&feature=youtu.be


Needle Drop gave it a 5 out of 10 doe

Called Ye a grown up Tyler the Creator doe

 

[hustlemania]

this is an important point. if you want to trace the downfall of the source etc. or just look at elliot wilson. at the very least, these writers hold their opinions when it comes to someone powerful like jay. i would love to see a major writer or publication just engage this album critically. i dont even mean sh!t on it, just point out where it fails or whatever. instead its more kanye the tortured genius narrative. i wish the gave these type of passes to cats withought this type of industry pull.

nah..

yall just wanna see writers say they dislike it, for the same reasons yall do..

some folks like the album.. why is that a big deal..? everything aint some conspiracy..

 

[Roaden Polynice]

Whenever Fantano recites the lyrics it does make them sound absolutely cringeworthy tbf

 

[Cubosa Gambino]

Pitchfork are the same reviewers who gave "Frank" a 4.5 rating(yes the winehouse album)
I have now clue how to comprehend how anyone can rate an album so highly where the only good songs are "New Slaves" and "Blood On The Leaves"

What?!? An album with lyrics about eating Asian p*ssy with sweet and sour source is apparently twice as good as my girl's Amy classic?

Pitchfork

Pitchfork can fukk off after that Gambino review though.

Exactly - like any of the racial issues and themes Ye brings up here are >/= Camp.

 

[tru_m.a.c]

Soon as I read that article I realized I'd never be able to listen to Bound 2 without thinking of IPA. Its the sonics, breh

I'm not sure where the idea came from (probably a random post from here), but I kind of like the notion that at least the foundation of Yeezus was strung together over some weekend-long molly-fueled bender in the south of France. It helps explain some of the spontaneity and rawness of the album at least (I STILL don't get the jump-off between parts 1 and 2 of "New Slaves"...). Of course, after that the perfectionist in Yeezy comes out and he calls in Rick Rubin while making what i imagine to be a million little tweaks before his self-imposed deadline comes and goes.

In the end, I guess I'm just glad whoever was digging in the crates during production dug a little deeper, and someone out there was smart enough to connect the dots and write a piece that helped get me to listen to more Aphex Twin

is that the rumor going down? that Yeezy finally had that drug inspiring moment? thats prettty cool

I still believe that only Kanye's vocals can pull off this black new wave thing. He just sounds so DIFFERENT on the mic than everyone else. And lucky for him, he wasn't brought up as just a rapper. So he's not mentally and physically constrained by certain rhythm patterns or making perfect sense during his lines.