Kanye West - Yeezus

When I sat down to watch the Ben Affleck-hosted edition of Saturday Night Live earlier this year with my university housemates, the general impression throughout was a stunned silence. Not just at the revelation that Affleck could be funny, but West's first glimpses at new material from this: his sixth studio album. His performances of New Slaves (in particular) and Black Skinhead were furious, pointed - and just a little bit pouty. Anger isn't exactly a sparce emotion in West's back catalogue: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy tread a fine line between apology, self-mockery and bitterness. The public's favourite jackass, West always seems to feel like he has something to prove, something to overcome and people to put right. For those of us who find little wrong in him, it can be frustrating and whiney, but hey, at least he wears his heart on his sleeve.

Following up that album is a mammoth task. Sideprojects between 2010 and now have sort-of washed away expectations and let us approach this optimistically (it can't be worse than Cruel Summer, at least), but then he had to go and call it Yeezus. Of all potential names... oh Kanye.

Since 2010, hip hop has already changed drastically. A real resurgence of do-it-yourself, make a name for yourself newcomers, with their fresh, industrial and loud noise, has shaken up the purists and left them ruffled. West - maybe not the trendsetter - responds with 'On Sight'. A screaming, bubbling pile of distorted, dark noise helmed by Daft Punk is the sound of choice employed by West to announce "Yeezy season approaching". But he really lets it all go on 'Black Skinhead', a scathing chronicling of racism and desire to shake up white, middle class America. "Claiming I'm overreacting/ Like them black kids in Chiraq, bitch", he refers to Chicago's crime problem, as a stomping drum-beat (not dissimilar to Marilyn Manson's The Beautiful People) turns the energy up to 11. He flips between serious and parodical so seamlessly, though: on 'I Am a God' - where the title alone is enough to wind up some - he's spawning 4chan-ready one-liners ("hurry up with my damn croissants") and living up to his status of a performer with many fans and followers, but by the end he's panting and screaming: a man with demons.

Much of Yeezus might appear to deal with personal problems but, unlike MBDTF, the real targets here are societal. On 'New Slaves', we're all the victims of corporate exploitation and greed. "You see there's leaders and there's followers/ but I'd rather be a dick than a swallower", he boasts, after a strong verse bemoaning the lack of real progress: there are still those who're guilty of what he calls "rich nigga racism", where rappers and successful black people are expected to indulge in Bentleys, gold chains and fur. Sampling Billie Holiday's devastating epochal Strange Fruit (though as performed by Nina Simone), the 'Blood on the Leaves' dealt with is blood money. Inbetween the two stand-out tracks, though, there's the weak and vulnerable 'Hold My Liquor', where West plays the consumer and a man used and flushed away by society. 'I'm in It' feels a little out of place here and, as a musing on relationships and ditching his former life for "the got-the-kids-and-the-wife-life". It's not a strong moment at all, but at least he coins himself "speaking Swaghili".

For me, the masterpiece here is 'Blood on the Leaves', a TNGHT-produced meltdown of Kanye's confidence and the bare-faced admission that "something strange is happening". Where most of West's discography professes to be assured, here he harks back to where "before the limelight tore ya/ before the limelight stole ya". Indeed, 'Guilt Trip' stretches out that whole what might have been angle further, before 'Send it Up's intro laughs it off: "reliving the past? Your loss". Here, he aims to top 50 Cent's In da Club (to mixed reviews) and there's the prospect that Yeezus is actually the name of his penis ("just rose again"). So that's fun. He bows out happy enough, though: 'Bound 2' is a sweet, soulful sample of love songs and dedication to Kardashian. "One good girl is worth a thousand bitches", he proclaims, before admitting "I wanna fuck you hard on the sink". I guess it'll pass for cute in 2013...

Whilst there's arguably nothing to fault here, the album doesn't quite grab me as much as others have done: there's no track as far-and-away breathtaking as Runaway or Devil in a New Dress. It must be tiring being this consistently excellent.

Rating: 8.5/10
Highlights: I Am a God; Black Skinhead; Blood on the Leaves; New Slaves; Hold My Liquor
Avoid: I'm In It

Artwork Watch: Does not compute.
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