So, I told you this was coming. I thought I might break up my thoughts on Kanye's new album itself, and then tackle the extremely drawn out and disastrous promotion of it. The roll-out of this album has got to be one of the worst in recent memory, barring those that have never been released (though for a while, I thought The Life of Pablo would join the ranks of Detox and Smile).
It started off normally enough with the release of 'Only One', and the announcement that Paul McCartney was in the studio with Kanye, and that he'd have his hand in production of the new album. Yeah....that didn't happen. All the songs from these sessions, 'Only One', 'FourFiveSeconds', and 'All Day', didn't make the album. It's worth noting that the album was also called So Help Me God at this point. That would change 3 times within the almost 3 years it took to concoct this in-cohesive mess of an "album". I'd say its more a compilation, but whatever.
Then there was the Wiz Khalifa beef over the word 'Waves'. Seriously? This was a thing? Not to mention the Madison Square Garden premier, where he played an unfinished version of the album off a laptop, while ticket holders got to look at bored models for three hours. On a side note, Road Warrior meets Operation Desert Storm is not a forward thinking fashion choice. People aren't letting you into fashion because your ideas are garbage, not because you're black. It's not even an original idea. Movements such as zef, among others, have been doing this hobo chic thing for a while. Also, since these ticket payers were promised a copy of the album with their purchase, but now there is no commercial release (the album will only be on Tidal in perpetuity throughout the universe, or so Kanye says), do they just get a Tidal subscription now? Pretty weak.
So the album dropped after the show, right? Of course not. After 3 more days of waiting, recording, a terrible and well publicized (more for the meltdown) SNL performance, blaming Chance the Rapper for the delay (did he set the release date?), he finally dropped it: only on Tidal. Dude. Tidal will never catch on. Get over it. The anticipation on Twitter was actually pretty insane. I literally saw a tweet of someone threatening to put their hand on a stove top if Kanye didn't drop the album by the end of the day on the 11th. Lo and behold, I see a picture of a hand, with the imprint of a stove coil burned into it. That was just so crazy to me.
Following the release (which the album apparently still isn't done btw), and an insane Twitter rant about how Mark Zuckerberg should give him money, how he's 53 million dollars in debt, and how white publications don't cover him (dude, you can't be serious), he's already hinting at a new album. No. Just no. I don't care about TurboGrafx16. I'm not falling for this again. This album promotion cycle was so messed up, and probably pretty manipulative for those that buy into the Kanye cult of personality. The pay off for this much hype cannot be so underwhelming. Kanye has never been so frustrating. I generally give an artist 2 bad albums before I tune out. Kanye has had 2 frustratingly sub-par (not bad) albums. I'll tune in to the next album, but don't expect me to be waiting with baited breath. My expectations have sunken to quite a low point, especially now that Kanye feels like a guest on his own albums, and that his press takes precedence above the music. Over it. Onto the next.
Check back in later. I'll be sharing my opinions on the new Animal Collective album, as well as the new project from Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.
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