Customer Reviews

Yeezus

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The title says it all. This album feels rushed and there is little to no production value here. The beats and lyrics are both poor. Guess he fell victim to the 'got rich and stopped trying' category.

Fresh, modern, just what society needs to hear. My only criticism would be that there isn't enough of it. Can't wait for Kanye West's next album.

He is as mad as a box of frogs, has an ego the size of Antartica and unites people in complimentary levels of mutual love and hatred. Not that Kanye West really cares any about this. He attracts more press than Kate Middleton and artists buzz around him to collaborate on his albums like moths to flame. West is one of the biggest "minds" in music and fundamentally the best thing to happen to rap since the Sugarhill Gang had a bright idea all those years ago to popularize an approach to music of spoken and chanted rhyming that broke the top 40 for the first time. Granted we do not need to reflect too long on his severe misfire with Jay Z on the horrible "Watch the throne". But anyone who releases an album quite as brilliant as 2010's "My dark twisted fantasy" should be cut some slack.

"Yezzus" is West again pushing the boundaries out there so far that he is the musical equivalent of Star Trek. There are more ideas in the Daft Punk assisted opening track "On sight" than most artists have in a lifetime. It is all about "attack' and its almost Prodigy like thundering ascetic makes for a storming start. Unfortunately bearing in mind the history of its lead singer the song "Black Skinhead" doesnt half sound like the Glitter Bands "Rock n Roll". Let us forgive Mr West for this and just enjoy an excellent rap with an almost Eminem assertion that "Baby, we livin' in the moment/I've been a menace for the longest/But I ain't finished, I'm devoted/And you know it, and you know it". Truth be told is pretty dark stuff and leads into a slice of pure West that will irritate, anger and annoy some of his core constituency namely the song "I am god". Frankly who knows what West is talking about here but its is hard brutal rap of mint quality with overtones so black it could appear on a Marilyn Manson album. The intensity continues on "New Slaves" a song so menacing it should be issued with an ASBO. It concludes with West and Frank Ocean's freestyle falsetto which offers respite from its brooding first minutes. Much more soulful is "Hold my liquor" a Bon Iver supported solidly wasted house ballad that would have been destined for repeated airplays if it wasn't so populated with graphic imagery. Indeed throughout West makes precious few concessions to FM radio and his previous fan base. It is clearly the case that Executive co-producer Rick Rubin has gone for an harder edge which will not appeal to some. West even has the audacity to sample the great Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" which may for some be almost sacrilegious, but "Blood on the Leaves" dealing with the pernicious impact of racism is clearly an high emotion album standout. "Guilt Trip" sounds like the nearest thing to a single on the album while the final two songs sees the somewhat repetitive spoken rap "Send it up" register the albums low point, in short its just too bare. Things improve slightly for the concluding "Bound 2" a joyous bubble pop rap and assertive Kayne West vocal.

"Yezzus" with its choppy and industrial sounds is going to try the patience of many brought up on the pure pop of "All falls down" and the sheer commercially impacting sounds of "Heard them say". In a show of pure Kanye West bravado he has given interviews about this album that almost writes off the importance of "My dark twisted fantasy" and proclaims his passion for another musical form stating that "I knew that I wanted to have a deep Chicago influence on this album, and I would listen to like, old Chicago house". Does this make "Yessus" yet another attempt by West to deconstruct previous work and release a broadly anti-commercial gambit. The answer is probably and as we know he is not short of a shilling if it doesn't sell. The point however is that it is a challenging work with depth and darkness. It shows West at his intriguing best and if it does lend itself to the accusation of being inwardly focused and introspective as one critic stated recently "his navel-gazing remains the best and most fascinating navel-gazing around".

Kanye West is a musician a bit like Marmite: you either love him or hate him. I love him!
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was one of my favourite albums of 2010 and Yeezus is similarly epic in an entirely different way!
I personally think that points to how incredibly talented Mr West is - able to produce albums of startling difference but always maintaining a quality unsurpassed by anyone else in his field.
So, anyway, Yeezus is incredibly flawed lyrically, hard to listen to sonically, but absolutely brilliant!!
(Incidentaly, I bought this whilst Amazon had it for download at �4.99)

The simplest way to describe this is to say that it's the exact opposite of Kanye's Debut The College drop-out in every way. While his début had a polished old school sound, was lyrically clever and full of long tracks and skits, Yeezus is raw, direct and at times genuinely terrifying. Its not his best lyrically but is still has enough good lines to impress, and a few icky ones.
It begins with the raw daft punk produced 'on sight' and moves on to the glam rock sounding Black skin head, from here the scale just gets bigger, the next few track are all massive sounding, politically motivated stompers, that only someone as mad as kanye could make.
'Blood on the leaves' samples nina simones' 'Strange Fruit' into a James Blake style ballad before going a bit mental. I also love the track Bound 2 and what ever songs it samples.
Overall despite using a huge amount of samples and guest artists, this is very much Kanye's album. The production is grand as you'd expect and you can never quite predict which way a song will go, its not far off from some of the track on Kendrick Lamars, 'Good Kidd, m A.A.D city' in the way that the songs change direction and feel more like one or two tracks rather than just one song.

I love this album, its a record that only kanye could make, 10 bold, raw, angry and amazingly non-commercial songs that will sell millions regardless.

What can i say, with Kanye's original talent his production you at leat expect the beats and production to be tight but sadly it all just sounds like noise. He is not the best rapper but he normally comes up with 1 or 2 witty rhymes again on this album he lacks flow. Just hopping Jay-Z's new album will be on point.

First of all, I'm just going to open up and say I'm not one of Kanye's biggest fans. I just haven't really liked much of his material, with the exception of songs like Gold Digger.
However, having listened to a few song from this album, I can just say that this is one of those album which definitely fits with my taste, and definitely deserves some form of praise. I recognise that whilst I don't like a majority of his stuff, he is obviously a highly influential man, and this record is the result of someone who has reached a pedestal in which experimentation is bound to happen, with mixed-but-wonderful results.
Whilst there are a couple of tracks on here I could do without, its definitely worth a listen

Good album for his return to the scene, its dark its sinister and its a grower. There are some standout tracks from the start, but the more you listen the better the album gets.

Kanye has once again proven why he is so needed in Hip-Hop. He thinks way outside of the box and delivers lyrics and music that both entertains and challenges listeners. Love or hate Kanye he can't be ignored. Yeezus is a stroke of crazed genius and will probably not be appreciated fully until a few years from now. I get it right now and will be playing it for years to come.