First it was “So Help Me God,” then it switched to “Swish,” before becoming “Waves,” until ultimately Kanye West and company landed on “The Life of Pablo” as the title for Yeezy’s latest album.
“The Life of Pablo” was long-awaited, ever since Kanye began releasing singles early on in 2015. “Only One,” “FourFiveSeconds” and “All Day” had their airtime, their hype, their place in the musical history book of 2015— but then the book was closed, the epilogue read as the new year was rung in, and there was no chapter, paragraph or even a sentence about Kanye’s latest album. People all over the world were beginning to question whether or not an album even existed. Why make them wait so long?
Tracks like “Wolves” and “Fade” were debuted at fashion shows toward the end of the year and, “No More Parties in LA” was released in mid-January. These songs were the only true tastes of what the album with almost as many names as Kanye himself would include, yet things were delaying the release.
The track list was constantly changing. On Jan. 24, Kanye tweeted “So happy to be done with the greatest album of all time,” with a picture of his handwritten track list, 10 songs long, its legibility somewhere in between your childhood pediatrician’s prescription pad and that one time you attempted your signature left-handed.
Kanye West reacts as he accepts the video vanguard award at the MTV Video Music Awards at the Microsoft Theater on Sunday, Aug. 30, 2015, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)
By Jan. 26 the album was 12 songs long, had been separated into three acts and renamed “Waves.” Messages like “Swizz (Swizz Beatz) Is Here” found their way onto the page like the names of neighborhood kids find themselves engraved in freshly-poured pavement on the sidewalk, caught in the perfect moment before it’s dry and done forever.
The pavement wasn’t dry though, not yet. On Feb.10, one more name change and Wiz Khalifa Twitter outburst later, the album was “The Life of Pablo.” It was 10 songs long. The track “Waves,” which two weeks prior had been the title track of the album, was missing.
On Feb. 12 the wait for the album was seemingly over. Kanye had tweeted the “final” track list, now 17 songs long, and Ye said the album was being mastered and set to release later that day. But there was a problem: “Waves” was still missing from the track list. The song, which fellow Chicago artist Chance the Rapper helped to write and arrange, was a track that, and forgive me for this, Chance couldn’t take a chance on. The minutes trickled away as the 12th turned into the 13th. Kanye’s album hadn’t been released. Chance was in the process of going to bat for “Waves” wearing his signature White Sox hat. Kanye would later blame Chance for delaying the album.
The following night, Kanye took the stage of Saturday Night Live, performing under a screen of pixelated clouds for “Low Lights” and “Highlights,” back to back. His second performance of the night, “Ultralight Beam,” found Kanye facedown on the stage as a gospel choir belted behind him, his arms outstretched as Kirk Franklin prayed over him. Before we knew it the choir had calmed, the prayer concluded, and Kanye was back up on the stage announcing the album was out on his website, streaming on Tidal “right now” as he jumped around before falling into a hug with Franklin.
This time it was real. There weren’t any more songs to be added, no more questions or concerns. “The Life of Pablo” was now a completed and released, 18-track and 58 minutes long album. “Waves” had found its way back into the record. Chance had apparently hit hard enough.
The album is spiritual, gospel-influenced, seamlessly transitioning from track to track, producer to producer, the liner notes including superstars in their own right like Rihanna, The Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar as well as newcomers like Brooklyn rapper Desiigner, who many listeners will probably assume is Future on the first or second listen of “Freestyle 4” due to Desiigner’s very similar sound.
The album itself opens up with a message of faith, but also a warning that this album isn’t for those who aren’t fully aware of who Kanye is or what he’s trying to do. “We don’t want no doubters in the house,” a soundbite of a young girl proclaims to start the album, “we want the Lord.”
Kanye opens up, “We on an ultralight beam, we on an ultralight beam, this is a God dream.” He asks for serenity, he asks for peace and love, prayers for Paris and parents as a choir of 30 joins him in the God dream.
The album goes on for 17 more songs, impossible to explore all of in this particular format, but something that everyone should do in his own time. The highlights of the album are plentiful, including “Ultralight Beam,” a prayer in itself asking for faith but more at the same time, both parts of “Father Stretch My Hands,” when Kanye just wants to be liberated, apologizes for what he’s instigated, but asks if you can’t relate.
The song that’s most likely to dominate the radio for the rest of 2016 is the song that cost the album a day on the release date, “Waves,” with production that sticks out from Hudson Mohawke and Charlie Heat and vocals from Chris Brown. It’s a song that’s the most catchy and probably the most predictable on the album at the same time. “Waves don’t die/ let me crash into the moment,” sings Brown. “Sun don’t shine in the shade/ Birds don’t fly in a cage,” says Kanye over an increasingly arpeggiating choir-note. Is it a good song? Yes, but also predictable compared to the rest of the album. The songs with the most substance seem to come from the Frank Ocean featured “Wolves,” where Kanye and Kim are metaphorically Joseph and Mary in a club full of sheepskin covered wolves, but they’re okay, because they can at least see who the wolves are now; as well as “30 Hours,” as Kanye tracks his back and forth drives from Chicago to St. Louis, St. Louis to Chicago. It’s music to drive to as the beat comes and in and goes out, over and over again, like the passing of white lines in the middle of the road perpetually replacing each other.
“The Life of Pablo” didn’t come easily — it took its time, angered people in the process, changed constantly from a 10-song album of bare essentials to an 18-song album representative of the amount of time it took to arrive. In the end, it was well worth the wait, full of future new favorite songs of Kanye lovers who’ve been with him since “The College Dropout.” Judging from the size of his smile after his Saturday Night Live performance this weekend, Kanye knew he was sitting on something great.
