Kanye’s new album stands in stark contrast of his interesting public persona. I disagree, from my point of view, Kanye really missed the mark here.…
Kanye’s new album stands in stark contrast of his interesting public persona.
I disagree, from my point of view, Kanye really missed the mark here. While millionaires are using mental illness as a selling point for their albums, or as an explaination for their public behavior, people across the world are hiding their mental issues, losing their jobs over it, and generally hesitate to call it a “superpower,” but I’m getting ahead of myself.
A lyrical genius should be able to articulate such important subject matter in ways no one has, or they needn’t touch on it. Alas, this run of the mill statement about being bipolar staring back at me from the Spotify app shows me a superficial understanding of the disorder is present even in an apparent victim. But perhaps this would all make sense once the album got going. Or maybe it’s a single misstep and the album contents are where I’ll find the gold. One mustn’t judge an album by its cover.
A few minutes into the first track “I Thought About Killing You” and it’s apparent to me that at best, the album cover won’t be the only misstep of the 23-minute record. Instead I was being subjected to a mildly interesting beat and try-hard lyrics.
“The most beautiful thoughts are always beside the darkest.”
Yes Kanye, and it’s always darkest just before dawn, in moments of weakness you’ll find strength, out of dirt grows a beautiful tree, and so-on. It seems odd to me, for Kanye to open his album with lyrics remisniscent of a motivational email forwarded from my grandmother, but I don’t blame a lack of talent. Complacency, I suspect is the culprit. It’s important for an artist to be intuitive, but relying exclusively on one’s own instincts, creatively, can lead to assuming the first try is as good as it something has to be, and that’s almost never the case.
Brilliant art isn’t defined by the artist’s process, it’s defined by the final product. If the final product is incredible, people may ask about the process, but if it isn’t they won’t care. It occurs to me that the issue with a lot of contemporary musicians is their focus on the means, rather than the ends. It doesn’t detract from brilliance if you spend a lot of time working on a great album. For that matter, a boring album isn’t going to be more impressive if you tell everyone it only took you one try and you recorded it over a weekend.
“Today I seriously thought about killing you. I contemplated, premeditated murder.”
Perhaps this is going somewhere.
“And I think about killing myself and I love myself way more than I love you, so…”
“Yikes” has the makings of being a decent standard hip-hop track, but a painfully generic, yet dragging hook hinders its otherwise steady direction. After the track closes with Kanye yelling that bipolar disorder is his superpower, it’s difficult to take this album as any kind of serious depiction of mental illness. Instead, he’s reducing his diagnosis to a gimmick. Again, having known someone I’m very close to who suffered from BPD, it makes this difficult to not see as mostly exploitative. Still, I remain less angry and more let down by an opportunity missed.
“No Mistakes” has a catchy singable chorus with Kanye reminding us it’s been a shaky year for him and that he was “too grown in high school.” In 2004 releases and even a bit beyond, Kanye’s less-than-stellar year and recollections of misspent youth seem emotionally resonant. Here, they feel like either filler or a poorly executed callback, I’m unsure which.
“We’re still the kids we used to be, yeah, yeah. I put my hand on a stove, to see if I still bleed”
