Sign In to rate and review

CRITIC REVIEWS

100
AllMusic

Yeezus is an extravagant stunt with the high-art packed in, offering an eccentric, audacious, and gripping experience that's vital and truly unlike anything else.

100
The Telegraph

Styles and genres smash into each other. At first listen it sounds messy, but the more you play it, the more inspired and essential each brutal interruption becomes.

100
Pretty Much Amazing

Kanye West doesn’t give the listener a second to realize the album is more a masterly response to a masterpiece than a masterpiece itself. With one sweep of the hand, West brushes away expectations. And then he sticks you squarely across the face. 

100
Consequence of Sound

It’s an album for the books, one that indicates West’s hunger for exploration while always sounding like it could become extraordinarily popular, even for him. This is the level that things could be at.

100
FACT Magazine

Faced with making a career defining album, he opted for a palette of uncommercial sounds and ideas that takes his artistry to a level unparalleled in hip-hop (and pop music, for that matter). 

95
Pitchfork

On Yeezus, he trades out smooth soul and anthemic choruses for jarring electro, acid house, and industrial grind while delivering some of his most lewd and heart-crushing tales yet.

95
The 405

With every successive album, Kanye West somehow summarises his entire career while simultaneously staying years ahead of the game.

91
Entertainment Weekly

As much as he pushes the envelope aesthetically, Yeezus isn’t quite the hardcore manifesto that early signs indicated.

91
A.V. Club

Despite its surface severity, it’s a lean, immediate record, its brevity a sharp contrast to 2010’s wandering My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

90
Rolling Stone

Yeezus is the darkest, most extreme music Kanye has ever cooked up, an extravagantly abrasive album full of grinding electro, pummeling minimalist hip-hop, drone-y wooz and industrial gear-grind.

90
Exclaim!

On Yeezus, West invites us to the decadent, bonkers bachelor party of his dreams; it's an all-id affair where his dick barely stays zipped up inside his black leather jeans. 

90
FasterLouder

It’s dark as anything but able to turn uplifting at any moment, synths and drum machines giving way to choral samples as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.

90
Billboard

Those looking for vintage soul sounds or even full-on raps from start to finish will be thrown several curves here. It’s an album with numerous emotional layers as well.

90
HipHopDX

Yeezus is audacious, ornery and miles outside of what’s expected from Kanye West, and often what’s conventionally accepted in Hip Hop.

90
Crack Magazine

A hypnotic and addictive record created by an over-excited, totally unhinged mastermind with almost unlimited resources at his disposal.

90
NME

‘Yeezus’ is so tight, so bold, that with a few tweaks Kanye could’ve made his rock for the ages. As it is, he’ll have to settle for one of the best records of the year.

90
musicOMH

Whether West intends to expose his vulnerabilities and imperfections as an artist and as a person is irrelevant: West always goes for the top. Yeezus is no different – and it’s brilliantly flawed for doing so.

88
Beats Per Minute

If there’s anything Mr. West finds completely alien to his person, it’s restraint, and Yeezus is the perfect, chaotic, and ultimately uncompromising dive into this world. 

85
Earmilk
The album as a whole is rather brilliant, and there aren't many missteps. Every time Kanye does something it's immediately tagged über avant-garde and forward-thinking, and while I don't know if that's the case here, it certainly feels that way.
80
NOW Magazine

Electronic music has been pulsing its way through rap, and with his sixth solo effort, Kanye swoops in like an alien Phoenix and mops the floor with everyone in the process.

80
The Independent

It’s not quite godlike, but Yeezus certainly feels like it was created by a higher power.

80
Mojo

Nasty, brutish, short, and wholly compelling, Yeezus begs only one question: where next?

80
The Guardian

Noisy, gripping, maddening, potent, audibly the product of, as he put it "giving no fucks at all", Yeezus is the sound of a man just doing his job properly.

80
Q Magazine

Contradiction incarnate, Yeezus is Kanye's most Kanyeish LP yet.

80
The Irish Times

Topped and tailed with pulsating, arresting, noisy and vivid sonic-whippery, and featuring some of the best and worst lines spat into a mic in quite some time ("Hurry up with my damn croissants"), Yeezus is an album sharply detailed and dressed up to attract attention.

80
XXL

With Yeezus clocking in at a short 40 minutes, Kanye achieves his goal of creating a stripped-down, minimalist project; there’s nothing extra or out of place here. More importantly, Kanye makes it abundantly clear that he’s still got a lot to say, and a lot of new ways to say it.

80
Time Out London

West’s albums have always taken a while to unfold their many, usually extraordinary layers, but even on first listen it’s a hell of a ride.

80
The Line of Best Fit

While it might not be his most enjoyable album, I think time will show it to be his most important.

80
DIY

It's Kanye doing what he does best, but it's also the sound of a rapper pushing himself for all his worth. Ranging from intimidating to wonderfully eye-opening, it's always forthright, and it barely falters.

80
The Fly

By laying out his neuroses unvarnished for the world to see, what Kanye has created is the most honest – and yes, at times dislikable – record of his career.

80
SPIN

Yeezus ranks as more than a glorified placeholder in West's catalogue, but one can't help feeling that parenthood will compel his muse to even more Olympian levels of bombast and grandiosity.

75
Spectrum Culture

While it’s easily his most abrasive work and understandably not for everybody, Yeezus is a worthwhile next step.

74
Sputnikmusic

Yeezus is a challenging album. Usually when people say that, they imply that there will be a reward for closer listening, but I’m not sure that there is with this album.

72
Paste

Ultimately, Yeezus is the least likable album Kanye’s ever made.

70
Drowned in Sound

It’s certainly his boldest, most provocative record in a career as a bold and provocative musician. Its political backbone will gradually become appreciated and with time and it may even become canonised as Kanye’s most important record.

70
Tiny Mix Tapes

Ultimately, we’re dealing with a record as messy as Yeezy himself, which is the point. 

70
The Sydney Morning Herald
His contradictions run amok on his sixth album, which can be audacious and abrasive.
70
PopMatters

Although West has made some bold moves with this album, a few weak tracks and the occasional lack of focus on the lyrical front prevent this from achieving the untouchable status that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy did.

70
No Ripcord

It’s a dense, difficult listen, nigh impossible to compare to the rest of Kanye West’s work, and its rewards come slowly.

70
AllHipHop

Yeezus is a good effort, but falls short of the masterpiece we were looking for. 

70
Clash

No, ‘Yeezus’ isn’t a great record, but it doesn’t have to be. As with any Kanye recording, he dares to be different and sets a pace for others to follow.

60
The Young Folks

Yeezus is a statement of provocation in the music world, an unsettling and intense album that impresses for being ambitious, but falls short on the expectations of being an overall good record, no matter how dark it might be.

60
Slant Magazine

From a production perspective, it's a smash. The beats remain head-spinning. But 'Ye's lyrics feel lazy rather than merely drawled, and he's seeking social-commentary cred that he hasn't earned.

50
The Needle Drop

On Yeezus, Chicago rapper and producer Kanye West takes his typically ambitious production down some really dark, noisy passageways.

40
The Skinny

As a whole, the album is stagnant; at times deeply unpleasant. What could have been a showcase of underground musical ideas, and a chance to elevate his lyrical concerns against a darker-hued backdrop, has been utterly wasted.

Aoaystheory
100

I think at this point in time, two years later, we can all accept this is a masterpiece. Just go ahead and change your rating to 100.

BradTasteMusic
81

bullshit music

MattsReviews
80

My God Complex has taken over, and I know claim this album as MY WORK.

I FEEL LIKE A GOD RIGHT NOW. THIS ALBUM GIVES ME SUCH A HUGE GOD COMPLEX I CAN'T EVEN EXPLAIN.

I AM A GOD. I AM A GOD. YOU CAN NOT FUCK WITH ME. I AM A GOD. I AM A GOD.

Y'all better refer to me as "Eminent God Matthias IV" from now on.

souleaterwill
80

Nobody:
Kanye in I Am A God: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

And yet, this is an 80/100

Fav Track: Black Skinhead
Least Fav Track: I Am A God

Leahj44
80

Looking back on this album is very conflicting. As wonderful as it is sonically it's hard to look at the current state of Kanye and not to see early signs of his current behaviour in this album. Again, the way I listen to music I am left to consider its creator's morality and the subsequent meltdown that would follow over the next decade. I love the production, it's phenomenal. It pushed the more experimental bare-bones sound into the mainstream but for me, it's always overshadowed by Kanye ... read more

TaylorButReal
100

Actual tragedy this isn’t on vinyl

Purchasing Yeezus from Amazon helps support Album of the Year. Or consider a donation?
Become a Donor
Donor badge, no ads + more benefits.
Advertisement

Track List

1On Sight
2:36
89
2Black Skinhead
3:08
93
3I Am A God
3:51
83
4New Slaves
4:16
93
5Hold My Liquor
5:26
91
6I'm In It
3:54
80
7Blood On The Leaves
6:00
89
8Guilt Trip
4:03
83
9Send It Up
2:58
76
10Bound 2
3:49
93
Total Length: 40 minutes
Sign in to comment
1d
4d
4d
6d
1w


Added on: May 18, 2013