Album Review: Jesus is King

The rollout for Kanye West’s latest album, “Jesus is King,” was characteristically chaotic. Two release dates announced by Kim Kardashian had already passed. After Kanye tweeted out a release date of Thursday at midnight, I was one of the many fans who stayed up late that night refreshing Spotify, hoping that Kanye would fulfill his promise this time. However, 12:00 and 1:00 passed with no release—even though Kanye, on Jimmy Kimmel’s show, announced that it was out. Twitter and Reddit erupted in memes, and eventually I gave up and went to bed, increasingly impatient to hear Kanye’s long-awaited gospel album.There was much to be excited about. Since September 2018, with his announcement of “Yandhi,” the sequel to 2013’s “Yeezus,” a steady stream of leaks and bootleg tracks had surfaced online. In addition to these compelling, albeit unfinished, songs, Kanye had been regularly performing with his “Sunday Service” choir, performing gospel songs, new songs and repurposed versions of his old songs, rewritten to be about his faith. Some of the performances and leaked tracks ended up going viral, displaying a surprising amount of fresh production ideas from Kanye. In addition to this slow burn of releases, his two most recent albums, “Ye” and “KIDS SEE GHOSTS” with Kid Cudi, piqued my interest more and more over the year since their releases. Taking a more personal, subdued approach while discussing his mental health more candidly than ever before, Kanye had reinvented his rap identity once again, dismantling the braggadocio that he had displayed since his 2010 opus “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.” Although the production wasn’t as expansive or epic as it was on his previous works, I still appreciated the fact that Kanye seemed to have turned over a new leaf.Enter “Jesus is King.” Just as suddenly as he announced it, the album appeared on streaming services around noon on Friday. After seeing the notification while at Wetherell, I rushed back to Abbot to listen to it, ready to kick off the weekend with Kanye’s glorious production. As I made my way through the 11 tracks, however, I slowly came to the one realization I wish I didn’t have to: Kanye should’ve delayed its release even longer. The best comparison I’ve heard is that “Jesus is King” is like the paper turned in late by the smart kid who wrote it the night before—it clearly has good ideas, but overall I’m disappointed that, with all the wait, it couldn’t be more polished. For one, the initial mix was awful. Although legendary hip-hop engineer Mike Dean updated it within 24 hours, mostly resolving it, my first listen through was plagued by out-of-place vocals and muddy kick drums. Now, it would be hypocritical of me to judge the album by its first release—considering that “The Life of Pablo,” which was similarly “fixed,” is my favorite Kanye album. Still, some ideas even in the updated album are massively underdeveloped.“Follow God,” for example, features a compelling soul sample and a catchy hook. However, the song structure is so repetitive that Kanye manages to make a one minute 45 second song feel like an eternity. Similarly, the gorgeous choir vocals of “Water” feel empty within a meandering track that doesn’t know what it wants to do.There is also the question of lyrical topics. While Kanye has always been plainly Christian in his music, this is his first album that is explicitly gospel, both lyrically and sonically. Nearly every lyric on the project is religious, whether they are direct biblical quotes or similes concerning Chick-Fil-A. While Kanye has never been known for dense, meaningful lyricism, his effort on this album reaches a new low. Half of the lyrics could have been written by any Christian artist, and the other half are shoddy explanations of why he charges so much for his luxury clothing line.However, Kanye’s characteristic grandiose production shows up on multiple tracks. Despite Pusha T’s offbeat vocals, “Use This Gospel” manages to repurpose one of the leaked tracks into an epic ode to faith (featuring a sax solo from Kenny G!). “Selah” and “On God” are also highlights, with some of the best vocal performances on the whole album. Practically every track, in fact, features some very compelling ideas—including the childish “Closed on Sunday,” which features a haunting guitar melody.Perhaps the closer, “Jesus is Lord,” is an apt representative for the whole album. It builds up slowly with beautiful layered horns, with Kanye delivering an admirable singing performance. However, just after 49 seconds, the song abruptly ends, leaving you in silence and wondering why Kanye couldn’t have just spent a little more time on it.“Jesus is King” is my least favorite of Kanye’s albums. However, this is really not saying much, as until now Kanye has showed incredible consistency in his projects. While I do like listening to much of this album, it simply cannot compare to “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” “Late Registration” or any of his other classics. The few songs that stick with me do so because of Kanye’s innovative production using the “Sunday Service” choir and the unabashed positive messages present all over the album. That is why in good faith I cannot truly criticize Kanye’s creative process surrounding this album; I know it stems from a much happier and healthier place than those surrounding any of his previous albums. I hope that Kanye remains happy with what he has found in religion, and keeps refining this gospel sound. Until then, I will stick to his old material.