Feb 16, 2016 TLOP is akin to many of the students I knew in college who were profoundly intelligent but would neglect their studies and turn in papers late. They end up getting a B- instead of the A+ they had the potential to reach. Yeezus was like this too, except it was a more coherent monochromatic sound, whereas TLOP is more random diverse and all-over-the-place. TLOP was delayed numerous times, flirted numerous lead singles which didn't make the cut, had several working titles and several tracklists. It's launch was on a low-quality stream, the Tidal-only release resulted in record levels of piracy. The album isn't even finished. It was both routinely delayed and rushed at the last minute. With Kanye entering the fashion world and starting a family, he put less time into this project. TLOP still shows flashes of Kanye's brilliance when it wants to. Ultralight Beam might be his best opening track ever, combining the soulful, the bars, the industrial, the experimental edge. It's certainly an inspirational visionary track, and feels like the most complete song on the album. Father Stretch My Hands is a mixed bag as well. It should have been combined into one track. There's a great beat, great sampling, great vocals and Kanye's 2nd verse is very good. But Kanye ruins it by talking about "bleached assholes", and the mixing was uneven all around. Famous is a very well rounded track. Strong beat, nice hook, funny lyrics. Feedback was all around great. Love love love the beat. Could've used a 2nd verse. Low Lights is just filler. Highlights is decent at best but has some good elements to it. Freestyle 4 has a nice great energetic industrial beat, vocal effs and guest vocals. But weak lyrics and it could've been turned into a full song rather than a fragment. Waves is good but generic as all h---. I Love Kanye was a very nice interlude, but I also could have imagined it being a full-length track about how his style and life has changed, with an actual beat and two other verses 30 Hours was a strong track, but could've been shortened by 1 minute. Silver Surfer Interlude wasn't necessary at all. Real Friends was perfect. No More Parties in LA is solid. Facts is delusional confident and energetic. Both a strength and weakness. The beat goes hard. Fade sounds decent but isn't really a Kanye song. Wolves had an awesome beat, concept, lyrics and such. I totally understand why he would defy expectations and remove the featured artists from it. But the new track, from an objective standpoint, was lazily done. The first bridge is missing. And after the singing is just one quickly laid verse. It's like he just cut out 2/3 the song and laid a verse. He didn't add any complexity to the standard beat loop at all, no outro, nothing. There's so many things I loved on this album. Though it was a step up lyrically from his previous 2 albums, it's not on par with his first 2. He needed more bars, better singing, better mixing, more time recording in the studio and some ideas to add to some of his song fragments to make them complete. This album is eclectic, diverse and chaotic. I like that. I love the direction it went in. But with each song, there were lots of little issues that could have been mitigated if more time and effort were spent on the project.
Feb 16, 2016 Complete Songs Ultralight Beam, Waves, Famous, Real Friends, No More Parties In LA, FML, Facts Dope Songs That Need Tweaking Father Stretch My Hands, 30 Hours, Wolves Fragment Songs That Need Fleshing Out Feedback, Highlights, Freestyle 4, Fade, I Love Kanye Cut The Crap Low Lights, Silver Surfer Interlude If he worked on those songs to their full potential, this would have been his best project no questions asked.
Feb 16, 2016 i appreciate ur take but 1) lol Low Lights is a great lead in to Highlights. Juxtaposing Thug's vocals against that interlude was inspired 2) Silver Surfer Interlude is literally necessary with the "waves" drama Some of things you consider fragments arent really -- they serve their purpose well. Like I Love Kanye and Freestyle 4. I dont even like the latter, but it's almost a makeshift centerpiece for the entire album -- it's a mental breakdown on wax. and its what makes the tracks leading up to and afterwards work to some extent. No reason at all for it to be "fleshed out." It would lose its charm. I Love Kanye works in the same fashion as Freestyle 4, cept on the opposite end of the spectrum. They're like 2 sides of a bipolar mind. Album works a lot better than most are giving it credit for
Feb 16, 2016 shouldnt be shortened at all 30 hours is dope dope dope u all s--- and have short attention spans
Feb 16, 2016 TLOP reminds me of that kid who would write a great essay in English class, one of the bests but the English teacher got angry at him because it didn't follow the guidelines
Feb 16, 2016 Really, this is a great write up and I agree with almost everything. The gifted/lazy student is a perfect analogy.
Feb 16, 2016 I forgot you don't listen to those things I don't hate the Low Lights / Highlights transition. I just hate that she's proclaiming about God and Kanye starts rapping about how he wishes his d-ck had a GoPro attached to it.
Feb 16, 2016 30 hours shouldn't be shortened but 3 stacks shoulda did a verse on that fsmh should have been combined into one track and extended about two minutes
Feb 16, 2016 Really like this write up. Agree with pretty much everything. Need FML on there. I think that's why he's not releasing it yet. I think he's changing some of the songs up to give a finalized version for Apple and CD purchase.
Feb 16, 2016 vibes bro vibes and yeah i meant the juxtopistion of that interlude w thug coming in on highlights kind of framed thug as like a gospel singer himself u know? obviously not literally but yeah, thats all i was referring to
