The College Dropout. Late Registration. Graduation. 808s and Heartbreak. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Watch the Throne. Yeezus. And finally, we now have Mr. Kanye West’s 8th studio album, titled The Life of Pablo (TLOP). They are all extremely influential albums, with their own unique mixes of synthesizers, R&B samples, legendary hip-hop producers and artists, and of course controversial punchlines. However, the focus right now is primarily on The Life of Pablo.

Announced in January under the title Swish, the album has gone under three name changes (the album name was changed to Waves before Kanye finally settled on The Life of Pablo). In addition, a whirlwind of controversy has surrounded Kanye giving him a popularity boost before his album released early Valentine’s Day morning. From an argument with Wiz Khalifa over the album title Waves to claiming that Bill Cosby is innocent over his twitter, West certainly has certainly been gaining attention these past few weeks. However, his new album has attracted a lot of attention, mostly because it has only been released on TIDAL, the music streaming service co-created by West, similar to Spotify.

“Ultralight Beam”

Kanye starts off this album as strong as any of his past releases. Combining a slow beat with a spattering of gospel choir, as well as a verse from fellow Chicagoan Chance the Rapper. Kanye and friends rap about their faith in God and how he helps them whenever they feel down.

“Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1”

Kanye enlists the help of longtime friend Kid Cudi to sing the chorus on this song about past relationships and how he just wants to be happy, and in the end, wake up with the woman of his dreams.

“Pt. 2”

A continuation of the first part, this song is about Kanye’s rise to fame, as he talks about his car crash from 2002, where he nearly died. Kanye raps about his rise to fame in the first verse, and the new GOOD Music-signee Desiigner raps about the perils of fame that entail the success like Kanye has experienced.

“Famous”

On Famous, Kanye raps about about his life right now, while also revisiting past girlfriends, as well as the controversial Taylor Swift incident from the 2009 Video Music Awards.

“Feedback”

Feedback is probably the song on TLOP that most accurately represents Kanye’s braggadocious spirit at this time. Rapping about pissing off animal rights group PETA because of the furs and jackets he is making, to comparing himself to Steve Jobs, to calling himself the “ghetto Oprah” at the end of the song, shouting “You get a fur! You get a fur! You get a jet! You get a jet!”

“Low Lights”

Lowlights is a weird track on this album because it does not actually contain any music from Kanye West himself. It is only a speech of a woman talking about how much she loves her spouse and how good it feels to finally be accepted by someone and be in a stable relationship. I guess we can only assume that he put this on here because of his wife Kim Kardashian’s relationship issues in the past.

“Highlights”

Young Thug is featured on Highlights, while he and Kanye sing and rap about being famous and how good they want their life to be, a life full of highlights. Kanye compares his family (the Kardashian-West group) to the Jacksons, and talks about the Grammys he has won. Typical Kanye music.

“Freestyle 4”

Freestyle 4 is for sure a stand out track on the album. It starts off with a high-pitched violin, which turns into Kanye rapping in weird blurts about his fantasies. In the background we also hear a warning blip that goes off, as if warning us about the lewd, surreal content of the track.

“I Love Kanye”

On this track, Kanye addresses the public criticisms of his recent music, about how he has drifted away from his original style of music, and raps from the point of view of a fan, asking what would happen if Kanye made a song about himself, as he does here.

“Waves”

On Waves, Kanye and Chris Brown sing about how relationships never fully die, like a wave. Brown sings at the end of the song, “You set the night on fire, I’m still gon’ be here in the morning, no lie.” Kanye could have meant this to be about his wife again, or it possibly could have been about his own past relationships and how he still feels for other women, as he addresses on the next track.

“FML”

FML is the track on TLOP that stands out because Kanye West directly addresses the wandering eye he has for other women and how he is tempted by them, and how the media twists things about the relationship between him and his wife. The Weeknd joins him on the track, and sings about how the media wants him to destroy his life.

“Real Friends”

Released a few weeks before TLOP was, Real Friends details the struggles that Kanye experiences with the relationships he has between friends and family. He speaks on how people use him to get what they want, and come to him because they know that he has a lot of money. He also talks about how he dislikes family reunions and get togethers because of the problems they cause, and how he feels like everyone uses him. This is not a new subject for Kanye, since he has rapped about it on previous albums.

“Wolves”

On Wolves, Kanye raps about how he feels he and his family are targeted by the media and various outlets that speak ill of him and even his kids. In the song, he compares him and his wife to Mary and Joseph (probably the weirdest comparison of the whole album) and even adds in a little bit of Frank Ocean at the end of the song.

“Silver Surfer Intermission”

Similar to Lowlights, Silver Surfer Intermission has no music in it. It is only a phone message from Max B. Max B, Kanye West, and Wiz Khalifa were caught up in a debate on Twitter a few weeks before the album was released, since Kanye had the title for his album to be Waves. Wiz was concerned that Kanye was “taking the wave” from Max B, but this phone call here shows that he was actually okay with it all along and even appreciates it.

“30 Hours”

30 Hours is yet another song detailing a past relationship that Kanye has had. He swings over a smooth beat that sounds more like The Police than Kanye West. Nevertheless, a standout line from the song is “I’m drivin with no winter tires in December/ skrrt skrrt skrrt like a private school for women.” This shows Kanye’s lyrical ability in comparison to his other songs, which are pretty basic rapping and not as detailed.

“No More Parties in LA”

Kanye enlists the help of Kendrick Lamar on this track, where they speak on the lifestyle in Los Angeles. The bright lights, the women, and mostly, the hype and press that comes along with fame and how much they both dislike it.

“Facts”

Originally released on New Year’s Eve, Facts came out as a strong protest against Nike, Kanye West’s old shoe company that he was signed to. Now that he is signed to Adidas, he has made a track that totally disparages Nike and their business ethics. In addition, the song’s original artwork featured Kanye jumping in the air with his Adidas Yeezy Boosts on, similar to the Nike Air Jordan logo.

“Fade”

Initially debuted at Yeezy Season 2, the second fashion event for Kanye last year, Fade definitely sounds like you would hear it running in the back of a department store, with its new wave beat and infectious sample from Rare Earth and Barbara Tucker.

Initially, The Life of Pablo did not strike me as what many believe to be a “quintessential” Kanye West album. Though his lyrics were at times controversial, a staple of West’s persona, I was left without the unmistakable feeling of Kanye. There were neither the bangers nor the meaningful lyrics that many fans were hoping for. Nonetheless, a few listens in and I was hooked––maybe it was because of the hype, but maybe it was just because of… Kanye.