Every album Kanye has released since 2008 has been challenging for the listener. 808s, Yeezus and even MBDTF to a certain extent have all needed time for the listener to decode his intentions and translate his brutally honest stream of consciousness lyrics and progressive production into something coherent. And so far, when the dust has settled, you’ve been left with something beautiful.

Right now the dust hasn’t settled on The Life Of Pablo, and it’s difficult to predict if or how it will. I’ve listened to it 10+ times and watched the live stream 6–7 times over, but I’m still not incredibly clear on how to summarise my thoughts in a sentence. It’s an incredibly inconsistent album with some knockout 10/10 moments and some undeniable moments of idiocy, making it very hard to summarise your thoughts into a conventional rating system. There is still talk of an overarching narrative about the life of St. Paul, but so far I don’t think there’s a consensus on if it exists or if it’s communicated clearly enough to be of any value, so I haven’t focused on that here.

The opening track, Ultralight Beam, gets the album off to an incredibly strong start. It’s possibly the strongest part of the album, with Kirk Franklin’s gospel vocals interspersed with Chance verses. It feels almost like Kanye passing the baton to his young Chi-town protege, particularly highlighted by Vic Mensa’s absence. The song covers Kanye’s battles with his faith, and feels very honest and touching.

Following this is Father Stretch My Hands part 1. The beat on this is lovely, and following on from Ultralight Beam this feels incredibly exciting when the drums kick in and Cudi starts singing the (awesome) bridge. Kanye’s hook is straight out of the Graduation era and is instantly memorable. However, the first verse starts with possibly Kanye’s worst lyric ever, talking about models bleaching their assholes. This is the first of many moments in this album that feel close to brilliance, but scarred by Kanye’s ever growing distance from his audience. He is renowned for his honesty and ability to expose both the negative and positive sides of himself, but in the past it was delivered with far more self awareness and subversion than here. This line just feels so crass that it pulls you out of what had the potential to be a great line. It actually has a lot to offer beyond that line, but it’s fighting an uphill battle after that.

The song transitions into a beat switch for Part 2 where it takes on the darker side of similar themes (his relationship with his father and wife), swapping Cudi out for Desiigner. Lyrically this is one of the better tracks but one of the worst production wise. The samples are thrown in haphazardly and it feels a bit disjointed.

Next up is Famous. This song has another ‘wtf’ moment, with Kanye’s already infamous line about Taylor Swift. Straight after release Ye took to Twitter and defended his right to artistic expression, but I’m not sure what the artistic purpose behind that line could possibly be other than ego fulfilment. It comes across as misogynistic and disrespectful to an artist who has always treated Kanye with respect, despite his infamous Grammy’s stunt towards her. Again, this song is pretty all over the place. Opening with a Rihanna verse over minimal production, he flips this into a trap influenced beat seamlessly, but then just a minute later tries to flip it into a dancehall sample. The whole thing ends up feeling very disjointed and challenging for the listener.

Feedback is Kanye at his most unapologetically braggadocious, but in a cohesive and intentional way. It’s single minded and all of his claims are substantiated. It’s not my favourite beat, but it feels less haphazard than some of the other tracks with similar themes.

Low Lights doesn’t feature Kanye in any vocal role, and consists of an uncredited vocalist giving a monologue about their relationship with god over a simple beat and minimal piano. Her voice is full of emotion and the dialogue is moving, so while it isn’t a stand out track, it fits well within the broader context of the album.

The seventh track is Highlights. I really like the beat and Thugger’s hook on this track, but again, it has a moment that really pulls you out of it. I wish my dick had a GoPro? Really juvenile lyricism that jars with the rest of the track. I can even tolerate his lyrics about him and RayJ fucking the same bitch, because at least it’s something personal. It gives you an insight into Kanye as an individual. The first one though is just incredibly purile and reeks of Kanye needing more of his collaborators to challenge him during the creative process. This song actually has some great lyrics on it too, but they don’t end up the focal point because of it’s detracting moments.

Next up is Freestyle 4. This song seems to have been badly received so far, but I think the sample is fucking brilliant. Taken from Mica Levi’s awesome score for Under The Skin, it’s incredibly eerie and unnerving. The strings cut through and make the listener feel the paranoia and swirling emotions that Kanye is trying to convey. This song is about negative themes — drug abuse, losing control of reality, sexual indulgence, etc, but it stays consistent to it’s own internal logic. Unlike Famous, which is all over the place and inconsistent, this song has one theme it tries to deliver on and sticks to it. The lyrics show a really dark side of him, but it works.

Ye goes meta with I Love Kanye, almost following in Drake’s footsteps by creating songs with the intention of becoming memes. He references online humour with the closing line ‘I love you like Kanye loves Kanye’. It’s silly but it’s fun, and it shows a level of self awareness that is lacking at times on this album.

Waves was going to be removed from the album until the last minute, but Chance fought to keep it on. For that, we can definitely thank Chance, because this is one of the the strongest tracks on the album. In all honesty, I’ve not been able to decode this lyrically and understand exactly what Kanye/Chris Brown are trying to say thematically, but this song connects with me emotionally (despite my overwhelming dislike for Chris Brown — I can’t deny his positive contribution on this song). I think Kanye’s second verse is most telling, when he talks about how ‘sun don’t shine in the shade, bird can’t fly in a cage’, and then hints towards his mother’s death in the lines straight after. I wonder if he’s using waves as a metaphor for the ebb and flow of life, constantly putting him through new challenges and stifling his creativity? Not sure really at this stage, but will definitely be listening more to try and decode it.

FML is one of the most direct songs on the album, with Ye and The Weeknd tackling some of their demons head on. This song also has a line about how crazy he is when he’s off his Lexapro, admitting to the world that he battles with depression and contextualising his erratic behaviour more. He talks about the difficulties with keeping faithful in his relationship, and his struggles to kerb his partying as he grows up. This is the Ye I love personally — incredibly honest and open, but not shying away from his demons. The hook is brilliantly delivered by The Weeknd, who was undoubtedly the perfect partner for the track.

Real Friends was undoubtedly my favourite track before the album release. Again, Ye looks inwards and talks about his own failures as a friend, and how he may deserve his failing relationships with friends and family. When compared to his earlier stuff that touched on similar topics (most notably Family Business), it paints a really stark contrast that highlights how far he has developed as an artist. He talks about how he struggles with the pressure of the high status he has received, and how difficult it is to understand who is genuine in his life. Ty Dolla $ign is great on the supporting vocals, with his autotuned voice blending brilliantly with the mellow beat. One of the album’s best.

Wolves is a tough one. I *love* the production on this track — Cashmere Cat knocked it out the park. It’s dark, moody, and sounds completely different to anything I’ve heard before. The hook is great, and the lyrics are incredibly dark at times. Like everyone else, I was super excited to get the exact same version we heard on SNL last year but in better quality, but I think the one we got is quite a significant regression. Sia’s vocals really played well with Ye’s — his autotune going head to head with her beautifully unaltered voice. In their absence we have one of the worst verses on the album — full of stupid lines that get far more focus than they deserve. His verse ends well, directly explaining the Wolves metaphor (though perhaps in a too heavy handed way). Frank’s outro is good (particularly since the beat almost fully drops out, giving his voice far more focus), but it’s still far less remarkable than what it replaced. Apparently the album was meant to end here, and the songs after this point are considered bonus tracks, but since Ye hasn’t said anything on it himself I’ll assume they’re not.

Silver Surfer Transmission is just completely unnecessary. I have no idea why felt the need to include this on the album, rather than just put it out on Twitter. It doesn’t deliver into any of the core themes, it’s just him alleviating himself of any guilt he may have over the name situation.

30 Hours is fantastic. The Arthur Russell sample is a prime example of Kanye’s brilliance — flipping an example from a relatively obscure avant-garde musician from the 80s and turning it into a catchy hook driven hip-hop song. The core narrative in this song is really compelling, as Kanye remembers driving from Chicago to LA to see his girlfriend who he fell out of love with shortly after. It’s still interspersed with some shitty lyrics — most notably ‘a blowjob’s better than no job’. It also falls apart near the end as he decides to ad-lib over the beat for the last verse, with no real direction or purpose to it. The version on Soundcloud is far tighter, and it seems like a stupid decision to include it on there.

No More Parties in LA is great, and the best showcase of Kanye’s rapping on the album. He goes head to head with Kendrick and comes out on top, which I don’t think anyone else has done in recent years. The Madlib beat is a match made in heaven, and he has some clever word play that is absent in other tracks.

The new version of FACTS is an improvement over the previous one, but it shouldn’t be on the album. This is a throwaway track of the highest order, and it has no place being on there.

Fade is a bit better, and all the collaborators (Ty Dolla $ign, Post Malone, Rare Earth) add valuable elements to a song about fading relationships and the difficulties in understanding who is real and who is fake in your life. The bassline is great and a nice throwback to some Chicago history. It’s not a particularly strong end for the album, but it’s definitely better than Facts.

Overall, I really enjoy this album but it’s so erratic it’s difficult to make sweeping statements about. It has some moments of genius (Real Friends, Ultralight Beam, 30 Hours, FML) and some absolutely terrible moments (FACTS, Famous, Silver Surfer Transmission). The inconsistencies and polarising extremes are something we should be used to with Kanye releases by now, but it’s really tough to ignore some of his most idiotic moments on this album. The good bits shine brightly enough that it’s definitely one of the best releases in the last few years, and by no means a blip on his stellar discography, but it’s no MBDTF. Right now I’m thinking a 7/10 due to absolute 10/10 moments that are tarnished by numerous 3/10 moments.