"
i love myself way more than i love you.
and i think about killing myself-
so best believe i thought about killing you today.
(premeditated murder)
"

ye is the most profound artistic statement kanye's ever made. this is his magnum opus. this is his rawest, most emotionally vulnerable, most personally relevant record. this is the culmination of every bad decision he's made and every unfortunate occurrence that has brought itself upon his career. this is the most self-aware ... read more

not a huge fan of "Tell U Sum", i think the beat doesn't have enough of a punch to give it flow, but "Nosferatu" is great.

quick thoughts: it's very, very interesting to me that as kanye starts to make less consistent and more braggadocios music, he also starts to make better music. i am watching his slide into insanity in real time and yet there's a certain beauty to it as an outsider. he's clearly becoming more and more of the "piece of shit" persona that he knowingly played into on *MBDTF* (and *Yeezus*), but the results can range from such boring pieces of resampling as "Pt. ... read more

quick thoughts: i think it's interesting how much you can see that kanye's "dickhead" persona becomes his entire character on this album. it's like he explored it on *MBDTF* but came to enjoy being so brazen and brash. regardless, most of the production on here is amazing and a lot of the lyricism does fall a bit below standard kanye levels in terms of wit and such, but it does work very effecitvely as a shocking and aggressive style. this is a very artistically done ... read more

quick thoughts: marry "No Church" and "Murder to Excellence", fuck "Paris" and "Otis". kill the rest. this feels so below-par for literal Kanye West and Jay-Z. and the beyoncé feature is really underwhelming too. even "New Day" which is supposed to be introspective and cute just feels...plain? "That's My Bitch" is like a way worse monster, where Kanye does his best Nicki impression in terms of flow and the beat feels so ... read more

quick thoughts: i'm letting anthony fantano down, but yeah this is amazing. i love how hard he commits to being a dickhead across this album, and i am intrigued by the ways in which he explores his shortcomings through doing so. this feels like an incredibly authentic and raw piece of art, even though it does feel like he's playing a character throughout it. it's as if he knows how bad he is and is trapped in his horrid ways. and oh, the production. "POWER" might be one ... read more

quick thoughts: i wish most of these songs were better, but it just feels like such a prototype of songs that people would make in the future. nearly every song has either too repetitive of a chorus or too long of an outro. especially "Amazing" and "See You in my Nightmares", those two are so boring after a very short amount of time. again, not a horrid album, and i appreciate how experimental and influential this became, but i can really only view it as the first step in a ... read more

quick thoughts: his hunger left. you can feel it, even in the good songs like "Homecoming" and "Good Morning", that he's just not as feverish as before. we've got "Drunk and Hot Girls", and "Good Life" here, which really feel like dated missteps, and "Barry Bonds" could've been better if Wayne actually tried to be good here. things fall apart sometimes. it's good we still get highlights, though even they can sometimes feel ... read more

quick thoughts: genuinely, i like this better than *College Dropout*. it feels so much grander, so much more developed, so much more personal, and so much deeper. every feature brings their a. fucking. game! i'm blown away by the consistency on this album too, i don't think a single song didn't deserve to be here, even "Gone" (which drags on, but ends up as a great conclusion to the album). god, i'm so amazed. "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" is maybe the ... read more

i can't say i'm much of a noah kahan believer, but maybe i could be. maybe. this song is pretty damn good.

"we're just morons, who broke skin in the same spot // but i've never seen you take a turn that wide // and I'm high enough to still care if i die"

those lyrics hit me the first time i heard this song in a way i've not been hit by noah kahan ever before. he might be on to something, perhaps i'll try his new album for a spin.

quick thoughts: i seriously slept on this so hard when i first heard it. didn't help that he immediately became a full nazi for a while. still don't fully forgive him by any means, but idk. my moral compass tells me that listening to his albums isn't entirely wrong anymore. anyway, this shit's gas. i didn't realize he actually spit bars on here when i first heard it either. like damn, kanye used to have good social commentary???

this particular style of electronic that glaive has on lock is so fucking good. i love it so much.

quick thoughts: this album reminds me that yeat has had the capacity for greatness for a long time and has really just found himself split between two types of music in the current day. it makes me sad to see, but i have faith in him to recover from his misstep on ADL.

to be expanded: literally perfect. self-improvement music.

to be expanded: fuck it. it's amazing.

to be expanded: it's rough and it's difficult to hear sometimes and i love it for that. it's so raw and the closest thing they would have to *PAX-AM Days* until they made it. i love the hardcore influences throughout this---it's so deliciously rough.

to be expanded: actually my least favorite FOB album, but it's got its fair share of bangers across it ("Golden" and "Fame < Infamy" are sleeper hits i swear).

to be expanded: the best FOB album and it's very, very, VERY close to being perfect.

to be expanded: second best FOB album and it's really, really close.

quick thoughts: the ryland heagy edge is strong with this one. well done combat.