Kanye's New Album is Just As Weird As You Would Expect

Kanye dropped an album yesterday and, as with anything that he does, we’re not quite sure how we feel about it. The first thing to note is that, unless you have Tidal (which we’re guessing that you don’t; broke college kids can only handle so many monthly music subscriptions and Spotify is clearly the move) you don’t yet have access to the album. Apparently Kanye wants Life of Pablo to be a permanent Tidal exclusive, so maybe start saving up now?

In true Ye fashion, he debuted the album via a trippy fashion show in Madison Square Garden on Thursday where his models, clad in a menagerie of… interesting clothing, stood in various states of hipster disinterest while his tracks played in the background. It was like a giant listening party with a staging that was reportedly influenced by a photo of a Rwandan refugee camp. Yeah—it’s super trippy.

The album itself was a giant divergence from his previous album, “Yeezus,” although there was a definite religious vein throughout this album too—from the very first song Ultralight Beam (which sounded like it was plucked straight out of a Chance the Rapper performance) to Low Lights.

Also overtly obvious was how much this album was a giant middle finger to the bad publicity Kanye’s been receiving the past few years. All of his songs had that vibe of “screw what my haters say, this the real Ye” which, quite frankly, is respectable. But then in the song “Famous,” Kanye flaunts his alleged extensive sex life (wait, isn’t he married?) and how much he would love to do the dirty with Taylor Swift. You know, the pop star who (allegedly) said that Kanye “made me famous” when he embarrassed her on stage at the VMAs. Not cool, Kanye.

We recommend the album, if for no other reason than it being a truly wild ride. Of course, there’s probably a million specific artistic comments that can be made about the album, but we’ll save that for true art critics.