Kanye West - Jesus Is King

[Johnny Textface]

I've heard he's now a christian gospel artist.

I've not listened yet but, judging by the song titles, this ain't Yeezus 2. Opinions?

[peanutbutter]

Underwhelmed so far. Feels like a second tier album from that spree he went on last year.

Kenny G might be one of the highlights

[Ja'moke]

Very disappointed on first listen. It feels rushed and lifeless. Kanye's lyrics have been getting progressively worse with each release, but these are beyond terrible. Crappy surface level stuff about being Christian.

There's some decent production here, but even that isn't at the usual Kanye standard that can help elevate weak material.

[NJ Uncut]

Kanye Worst!!

[Lordofthefiles]

Kanye is Shit

[up_the_hampipe]

He's given false release dates and many delays, then drops an album that clocks in at 27 minutes long and is largely half-arsed religious dogshit. Is he trolling?

[DukeDeMondo]

Well I love it. I fucking love it so much I can't stand up. It is beautiful. Beautiful beautiful beautiful.

"Water" is one of my absolute favourites. Just... aw man, it's just fucking... beautiful.

Beautiful, now.

I like "Closed On Sunday" less than the rest. But even it gets better and better as it goes on.

But "God Is," "Water," "Everything We Need," "Use This Gospel"...

Those are all incredible tracks. The stuff ported over from Yandhi sounds fucking phenomenal, and it already sounded pretty phenomenal on that bootleg. 

I love it. He is incapable of putting out an album that isn't exciting as fuck. That's what I believe. Incapable.

And of course it had no sooner dropped than he was announcing yet another. Jesus Is Born due on Christmas Day, by the chat.

I had insanely high expectations for this, and they have been exceeded beyond anything I could have hoped for.

That's my first listen gush on the matter. I fucking adore it. I could not love it any more than I do.

[Urinal Cake]

Very disappointed on first listen. It feels rushed and lifeless. Kanye's lyrics have been getting progressively worse with each release, but these are beyond terrible. Crappy surface level stuff about being Christian.

Lyrically the second half of Jesus Walks is more substantive than this.

Kenny G might be one of the highlights

The use of the car  'open door' warning noise was more inspired.

The production is polished and tight. But if I was Jesus I wouldn't return to Earth for this.

[alan nagsworth]

complete piss, easily the worst album he's ever put his name on. looking back, ye hasn't aged well in the year and a bit since it was released, but fuck me if this dog egg of a record didn't immediately age even worse the split second it dropped

i don't give a single ha'penny cunt about jesus and even i consider this a besmirching. judgement day comes along and it turns out jesus is hella lenient and decides to forgive basically everything ever but he still makes a face when this album steps up for a reckoning. goes back to heaven, takes a screen grab on his phone of the album playing in spotify, puts it on his insta story with the caption "big oof"

awful

[DukeDeMondo]

Are we hearing different albums? Clearly we are. The album I'm hearing is absolutely fucking gorgeous. It has made my year. Jesus is king, after all.

[alan nagsworth]

jesus is a dried up turd on a bad stretch of road and this album proves it

[Johnny Textface]

Well I love it. I fucking love it so much I can't stand up. It is beautiful. Beautiful beautiful beautiful.

"Water" is one of my absolute favourites. Just... aw man, it's just fucking... beautiful.

Beautiful, now.

I like "Closed On Sunday" less than the rest. But even it gets better and better as it goes on.

But "God Is," "Water," "Everything We Need," "Use This Gospel"...

Those are all incredible tracks. The stuff ported over from Yandhi sounds fucking phenomenal, and it already sounded pretty phenomenal on that bootleg. 

I love it. He is incapable of putting out an album that isn't exciting as fuck. That's what I believe. Incapable.

And of course it had no sooner dropped than he was announcing yet another. Jesus Is Born due on Christmas Day, by the chat.

I had insanely high expectations for this, and they have been exceeded beyond anything I could have hoped for.

That's my first listen gush on the matter. I fucking adore it. I could not love it any more than I do.

What do you love about it apart from just loving it though?

[chveik]

utter garbage

[Johnny Textface]

Tell you something. I know he's a capable producer, getting people in a room, getting the beats and vibes going, arranging the tracks, all that. But the actual production (like mix etc) on MBDTW is bobbins.

[alan nagsworth]

Tell you something. I know he's a capable producer, getting people in a room, getting the beats and vibes going, arranging the tracks, all that. But the actual production (like mix etc) on MBDTW is bobbins.

i love how messy that album is personally. it feels like an artist stood on the precipice of a crisis and starting to freak out and chucking it all together thinking it's a masterpiece, and then in spite of itself, it sorta is a masterpiece in its own weird right. that album is bonkers.

afterwards he got mad as fuck and made yeezus which is still my personal favourite, not least of all because it is his most well-produced, focused stream of angry piss that corrodes the wall it splashes violently against.

then there's pablo and i just found that pretty boring

i have dumb opinions

[Ja'moke]

Well I love it. I fucking love it so much I can't stand up. It is beautiful. Beautiful beautiful beautiful.

"Water" is one of my absolute favourites. Just... aw man, it's just fucking... beautiful.

Beautiful, now.

I like "Closed On Sunday" less than the rest. But even it gets better and better as it goes on.

But "God Is," "Water," "Everything We Need," "Use This Gospel"...

Those are all incredible tracks. The stuff ported over from Yandhi sounds fucking phenomenal, and it already sounded pretty phenomenal on that bootleg. 

I love it. He is incapable of putting out an album that isn't exciting as fuck. That's what I believe. Incapable.

And of course it had no sooner dropped than he was announcing yet another. Jesus Is Born due on Christmas Day, by the chat.

I had insanely high expectations for this, and they have been exceeded beyond anything I could have hoped for.

That's my first listen gush on the matter. I fucking adore it. I could not love it any more than I do.

I wish I still felt this excitement over a Kanye record.

There is nothing surprising about this album to my ears. It just feels half-baked. You can hear the bare bones of a potentially great track, then it either finishes early (Everything We Need being the main culprit) or is terribly mixed. And when you add on top of that the kindergarten-level lyrics... it's just bad.

Listening to a new Kanye album used to be an exhilerating experience; multi-layered production with surprising little flourishes and these epic transitions. Jesus Is King is just flat.

The new JPEGMAFIA album was way more exciting.

[peanutbutter]

Kanye should stick to collabs for a while, even on this you can hear he's totally capable of knocking out some solid production but it's so totally uninspired. ye wasn't great but it was bold as fuck for how scrappy it was, like trying to double down on what made TLOP (imo) one of his best. This is just... bleh?

[Urinal Cake]

MBDTW is Kanye at his best. But he needs to die so somebody can remaster it.

I think the word for Jesus is King is superficial.

[Johnny Textface]

MBDTW is Kanye at his best. But he needs to die so somebody can remaster it.

Not sure it can be corrected there, maybe too late.

It needs remixing - in a similar way to the recent Beatles re-issues.

[DukeDeMondo]

What do you love about it apart from just loving it though?

I'm not good at talking about music, really. Describing what's going on. I can't really do it. I just know a track like "Water" makes my soul fucking sing like fuck. The warmth of the thing, that lolloping beat, those mumbled half melodies, that gorgeous proper full melody that erupts out of it, the choir bursting in like all the sun that has ever shone. Kanye's droll Jesus chat. Those voices throbbing behind him. "Let your light reflect on me..."

It's fucking stunning. I think the whole album's fucking stunning.

I have loved every album he's put out - Graduation took a while, but it got there - and this is fit to sit alongside them with its head fucking beaming. It's the warmest he's ever sounded. His singing on "God Is"  is captivating as fuck. That rasp in his voice. The conviction. "King of kings, Lord of Lords..." It's fucking beautiful. "There is freedom from addiction!"

It's everything a gospel record should be. "This a mission, not a show!"

"What've you been hearing from the Christians?
They would be the first ones to judge me,
Make me feel like nobody love me"

It's extraordinary. It's fucking punch the air stuff.

It's his Slow Train Coming, I suppose, and it sounds every bit as vital to my ears.

[Ja'moke]

It feels more like a marketing gimmick to sell his shitty merch.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

musically one of his least interesting, although I like the saxophone bit on 'Use This Gospel'

[mr. logic]

Why doesn't he do rap records anymore? He was really good at those.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

Using taxes to justify his merch prices in 'On God', Kanye's lyrics once again demonstrate the utter dullness of his preoccupations

[NJ Uncut]

I have issues with the pushing of religion as a solution

Not morally, or anything (well...) but musically?

[NJ Uncut]

I'm not good at talking about music, really. Describing what's going on. I can't really do it. I just know a track like "Water" makes my soul fucking sing like fuck. The warmth of the thing, that lolloping beat, those mumbled half melodies, that gorgeous proper full melody that erupts out of it, the choir bursting in like all the sun that has ever shone. Kanye's droll Jesus chat. Those voices throbbing behind him. "Let your light reflect on me..."

It's fucking stunning. I think the whole album's fucking stunning.

I have loved every album he's put out - Graduation took a while, but it got there - and this is fit to sit alongside them with its head fucking beaming. It's the warmest he's ever sounded. His singing on "God Is"  is captivating as fuck. That rasp in his voice. The conviction. "King of kings, Lord of Lords..." It's fucking beautiful. "There is freedom from addiction!"

It's everything a gospel record should be. "This a mission, not a show!"

"What've you been hearing from the Christians?
They would be the first ones to judge me,
Make me feel like nobody love me"

It's extraordinary. It's fucking punch the air stuff.

It's his Slow Train Coming, I suppose, and it sounds every bit as vital to my ears.

Music'd be pretty shit if we all liked it as prescribed, no?

Glad you're liking it. I didn't get far in.. I dropped off years ago in fairness, but I can recognise the power here.

I mean, music is something at minimum entertainment and at best philosophically moving. I sometimes.. Maybe not enough?... Believe no true musical construct is bad, it is merely the presentation that has failed.

Kanye has long been an enigma for me. He's everything I want in an artist, really. Just.. For me, it's mainly presentation.

You're speaking from somewhere true though Duke and I don't particularly want to live in a lookalike world, this one's bad enough as it is.

Thanks for a viewpoint I can't provide myself. An interested one, one that can qualify it, can place it within Kanye's ouevre, even important for bland biographical reasons, to understand a journey not yet complete.

Guess I just like music making people excited. It happens for me too... Daily, sometimes.  Mmm, that might be small quarter re: massive concepts like the world's most famous artist's legacy, but I did feel a need to redress anything seen as a pile on, as that's not truth neither.

Tell ye what I won't be listening to tonight: the fucking pipes, the heating coming on. The wind outside, the traffic. Yeah, bits of that, but music is perfection, the new tyme religion.

[up_the_hampipe]

I thought Ye was crap when I first heard it, but it really grew on me over the past year. When I first heard 808s & Heartbreak I thought it was terrible, and now I absolutely love it. I'll have to see how this album holds up.

[Ja'moke]

God Is is the best track on this; that raspy singing voice works really well with the production. And it feels like a complete song, unlike a lot of the other tracks on this thing.

[peanutbutter]

I thought Ye was crap when I first heard it, but it really grew on me over the past year. When I first heard 808s & Heartbreak I thought it was terrible, and now I absolutely love it. I'll have to see how this album holds up.

It's reminding me way more of that Nas album than Ye in terms of my response to it. Really doesn't feel like I'm missing much, it's polished enough to not feel like there might be something nice to come from the roughness, the highs aren't high enough.

Dunno if I'll ever listen to it again at this stage, nothings pulling me back

[Monsieur Verdoux]

God Is is the best track on this; that raspy singing voice works really well with the production. And it feels like a complete song, unlike a lot of the other tracks on this thing.

Gotta agree, he really sings up a storm on that one