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Kanye West – Yeezus

Chosen and written by Sean May.

Yeezus begins in a way that almost seems to be designed to turn away listeners looking for radio-friendly bangers, something West has been known to produce with shocking consistency. With a sharp, electronic cry sounding like it is coming out of the depths of a dying computer, the first moments of “On Sight”, the first track on the album, let you know that this isn’t going to be like anything you’ve heard before.

The minimalist production (aided by minimalist genius Rick Rubin at the helm) is raw and spare, with beats so distorted they sound post-apocalyptic. Kanye’s verses are urgent and panicked, with energy that we haven’t seen from him in years. Yes, some of Kanye’s social messages sound like poorly developed diatribes from a undergrad who just discovered Malcom X and Nietzche, but still, there’s powerful, affecting stuff on the album.

Yeezus is a brilliant album, especially coming from someone at the forefront of culture like Kanye is. He could do super mainstream garbage for the rest of his life and nobody would be surprised, but instead he’s choosing to branch out and even become more difficult to put into the mainstream (though Motorola is using his song “Black Skinhead” in a commercial, something I find really strange). Compared to someone like Jay-Z, who it is clear is just coasting on his past success at this point, I think Kanye made some bold choices in Yeezus that we’re going to be feeling in music for years to come.

VERDICT 10/10

Second opinion

Written by Matt Doyle.

This is really not a choice I can get behind. Kanye can be commended for trying new things; for at least giving this more industrial sound a try and for not just churning out another album full of radio-friendly hooks featuring Katy Perry etc. However, for me, Yeezus just comes off as a messy exercise for Kanye’s ego; that he can come out with basically anything, and the people will still talk about it as if it’s bold and interesting.

Kanye’s bombastic persona and larger-than-life image were a perfect fit to his grand, sweeping production techniques; to his tongue-in-cheek, boisterous verses and to his in your face messages and themes. This version of West, hop-skotching between jarring, dissonant production and occasionally confused off-beat samples, always linked through a larger than usual affinity to auto-tune is not exactly pleasing to my ear. It’s also hard to take Kanye seriously as he tries on the ‘Man of the people’, ‘The disadvantages of fame’ and ‘vulnerable sort’ masks, particularly on the same record as ‘I am a God’… (I even managed to not mention that video… Whoops…)

VERDICT 4/10

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What are your thoughts on Yeezus? Was Sean right? Or Matt? Or do you have a different opinion all together? Read our full list of albums of 2013.