Culture

Rating: 4.5/5

The moment Yeezus, Kanye West’s sixth solo album, leaked online, it set a million keyboards around the globe on fire. Suddenly everyone was a critic, scrambling to push their opinion of an album worlds away from its predecessor, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Indeed, in contrast to the lush grandeur of that record, Yeezus is like being doused with freezing water.

“On Sight” opens the album perfectly, Daft Punk’s abrasive synths crashing into you like a fist. You can tell from this assaultive first song that with Yeezus, West is taking his listeners into brand new territory. “Yeezy season’s approaching,” Kanye raps during the first verse. “The monster’s about to come alive again.”

Follow-up track “Black Skinhead” is my personal favourite on the album, with a rolling industrial drumbeat that makes you want to pump your fists and rage at the world around you.

Each new song is different to the one before it, and just as excellent. Standouts include the savage and biting “New Slaves” and “Hold My Liquor,” with its woozy, throbbing beat. Closer “Bound 2” is a welcome break from the fury that permeates the rest of the tracks; recalling the style of his breakthrough album The College Dropout, West both confronts his reputation with women and closes out Yeezus with an ode to his past.

One of the weaker tracks, however, is “Blood on the Leaves,” which samples the iconic Nina Simone song about the abhorrent practice of lynching. While the end result is beautifully put together, with West’s autotuned moans lamenting a messy breakup, I can’t help but feel a song as meaningful as Nina’s should have been worked into a track with a little more weight, a little more purpose. To me, the lyrics don’t quite match up to the sense of ferocity and vengeance that pulsates through much of this record. However, I am a small ginger white girl, so I’m not really the person to judge this.

When asked in an interview whether his instinct has ever led him astray, West replied: “it’s only led me to complete awesomeness at all times. It’s only led me to awesome truth and awesomeness. Beauty, truth, awesomeness. That’s all it is.”

If Yeezus is the result of Kanye following his instincts, then that statement is absolutely true; it’s beauty, it’s truth, it’s awesomeness. It’s a pure, disorientating hit of noise and emotion that leaves you reeling. It’s 100 per cent unfiltered Kanye West and he’s shoving it in your face. As a choir of schoolchildren sing during the interlude to “On Sight,” “he’ll give us what we need … it may not be what we want.”

Take it or leave it, I doubt he’d really give a fuck either way.