KANYE WEST - The Life Of Pablo

If “Yeezus” had introduced West's new incarnation as an arrogant, brazen (semi)God, the time that has passed since that album has made clear just how stressful it is to keep up such a reputation: a new album to prepare, fashion shows at regular intervals, deranged tweets served up as daily bread, and even the announcement of a run for the US presidency in 2020.

The one to pay the price was the gestation of “Pablo”, frantic and chaotic to say the least. Between constant title changes, which we'll spare you out of mercy, and a tracklist that kept mutating right up to release day, “The Life Of Pablo” radically sums up the schizophrenia of today's Kanye West: a work that presents itself not as something finished, but as a hic et nunc snapshot of Mr. West's state of mind. When, some time ago, he had proclaimed in booming tones that the new record would be "the album of his life," no one imagined that the meaning of that phrase wasn't metaphorical but literal: “Pablo”, that is, is the album that best portrays Kanye West's life, both what it has been and what it is now. There are no masks or alter egos acting as a filter.

The sense of incompleteness and non-sequentiality that emerges from this album shouldn't be attributed to a lack of attention to detail, as if the perfectionist West had suddenly forgotten his craft, but is instead an integral part of the project underpinning it. As I write this review, it's still not certain whether what we have in our hands is the definitive version. Actually, to be honest, we don't even have it in our hands, since as of today it's an absolute exclusive of the Tidal streaming service.

Fans of the college trilogy will find plenty to sink their teeth into in the soulful atmospheres of “Real Friends” and “No More Parties In L.A.”, while devotees of the experimentation on “808s & Heartbreak” and “Yeezus” will spot several traces of those records in the relentless use of Autotune, as well as in the jagged, unpredictable backing tracks, as in the piercing beats of “Feedback” and “Freestyle 4”, direct descendants of the caustic histrionics of tracks like “Black Skinhead”.

The tracklist follows no logical thread, creating a strong sense of disorientation: while the extraordinary “Ultralight Beam”, epic and spiritual, seems to fulfill the promise of a gospel record, what follows is decidedly disorienting. Potential hits are shredded to pieces in a constant departure from song form. “Father Stretch My Hands Pt.1/Pt. 2” flows without interruption, between sharp vocoder parts and disparate samples. As if that weren't enough, the lyrics dwell on reflections that are trivial to say the least, in stark contrast with the search for faith that is the driving theme of the opening track.

After all, the antinomy between the inner West, in some ways anchored to the memory of his loved ones and a need for spirituality, and the public West, vulgar and cocky, is an irresolvable contrast, almost like a sort of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. And so, if on one hand he's capable of confessing his torments in an intimate guise, as happens in the splendid trio of “Real Friends”, “FML” and “Wolves”, steeped in nostalgia and fragility, on the other his exuberant streak spills into embarrassing rants on the sparkling “Famous” and “Highlights”.

And good old Kanye even takes pleasure in poking fun at those who miss his old-school early style, on the brilliant divertissement “I Love Kanye”, which with a good dose of irony hints at the design underlying this pseudo-identity crisis. The only foothold for lovers of the old Kanye is the closing section, more conventionally hip-hop, where we find the vintage sound of “No More Parties In L.A.”, alongside Kendrick Lamar over a soul backing track produced by Madlib, the relaxed atmospheres of “30 Hours”, which dredges up Arthur Russell in a successful and original way, and the megalomaniac “Facts” and “Fade”, split between the recent trap trend and Detroit techno.

Kanye makes no secret of wanting to release a new album this summer, a plausible claim too, considering that apparently many songs recorded over the past few years were left off “Pablo”, but are ready to be released in the immediate future. In the meantime, all we can do is confirm that, amid various delusions of omnipotence, on his seventh album Kanye West is still able to get people talking about him, and in absolutely positive terms, for the thing he does best. What more could you want.