The Life of Pablo

I want to dive straight into it. Summer of 2016 produced some of the world’s most renowned music. Frank Ocean blessed the world with Blonde, Rihanna blessing us with ANTI, Beyoncé dressing the female rights group movement with Lemonade and many others but none of them were as beautifully crafted as Kanye West’s hit album, the life of Pablo. From the first gospel themed track “Ultralight Beam” to the last anthem themed track “Saint Pablo”, the 66 minute LP was a lyrical and productive masterpiece that continues to influence current musicians. The critics certainly think so too. Rob Sheffield dubbed it both a mess and masterpiece: "This is a messy album that feels like it was made that way on purpose.” He elaborated, writing that "West just drops broken pieces of his psyche all over the album and challenges you to fit them together".Corbin Reiff opined that The Life of Pablo "feels far different from any of the tightly constructed, singular works of West's past", asserting instead that "as a beautiful, messy, mixed-up collection of 18 songs, it's a brilliant document".Writing for The New York Times, Jon Caramanica said West "has perfected the art of aesthetic and intellectual bricolage, shape-shifting in real time and counting on listeners to keep up", concluding "this is Tumblr-as-album, the piecing together of divergent fragments to make a cohesive whole".

A masterpiece.