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Kanye's Original 'The Life of Pablo' Tracklist Analyzed in Three Acts by @NathanZed & @jonnysun

EditorialTransverso MediaComment

This is a guest post from @NathanZed and @jonnysun analyzing Kanye's original The Life of Pablo tracklist.

INTRO

"LOW LIGHTS" (Added Track) - Starts off with “I want to tell you a testimony about my life." This album, The Life of Pablo, is the testimony. See this as the introduction framing the entire album as Kanye’s testimony about his life. 

ACT 1

ACT 1 is Kanye on a crazy high off his fame, with excessive sex, drugs, money, and big egos. All the tracks from "Famous" to "Highlights" are upbeat and mostly bangers, indicating that he’s having the time of his life.

"FAMOUS" - He shows off his braggadocio side on "Famous." The very first verse shows how petty he is when it comes to fame with the infamous Taylor Swift line, "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous."
 
"FATHER STRETCH MY HANDS Pt. 1 / Pt. 2" - The line “I just wanna feel liberated” is mixed between lines describing excessive sex and drugs. Like that… ”bleached asshole” line…

"WAVES" - Lyrics describing his excessive ego, “Step up in this bitch like / I’m the one your bitch like / Yeah I’m the one your bitch like / And I be talkin' shit like / I ain’t scared to lose a fistfight / And she grabbin’ on my dick like / She wanna see if it’ll fit right / That’s just the wave”

"HIGHLIGHTS" - This is the highest point that Kanye is at, ending the song with “I need every bad bitch up in Equinox / I need to know right now if you a freak or not.”
 
"FEEDBACK" (Added Track) - The first track with a beat that sounds more distorted and less straight forward. Lyrics describe an obsession with money, “Wake up nigga wake up / We bout to get this paper," “I’ve been outta my mind, a long time." This transitions into Act 2.

ACT 2

ACT 2 is him coming down from the high and waking up, having a moment of clarity, and realizing for the first time what his life has become. 

"FREESTYLE 4" (Added Track) - Starts off with nightmarish production. This is the craziest that Kanye's high gets, and he’s mumbling through the track talking about sex. The end of the track you hear him “waking up."
 
"30 HOURS" - Kanye waking up from this nightmare / his high and having a moment of clarity. First lines are,
“I wake up assessin’ the damages / Checkin’ media takeout / Pictures of me drunk walkin’ out with a bitch / But it’s blurry enough to get the fakeout"

"NO MORE PARTIES IN LA" - He’s realizing for the first time what his life has become. He begs “please baby no more parties in LA”.
 
"FADE" - The lyrics speak from themselves, “Your love is fadin’ / I feel it’s fadin’ / When no one ain’t around / I feel it’s fadin' / I think I think too much / Ain’t nobody watchin'" Towards the end, the gospel song “I Get Lifted” is sampled, presenting more gospel themes.

ACT 3

ACT 3 is Kanye then renouncing this life, & turning to God and religion for redemption.

"FML (For My Lady)" - A story of the difficulties Kanye faces as he tries to control himself and stay truthful to his wife, Kim.
 
"REAL FRIENDS" - A look at Kanye’s relationship struggles with his friends and family, which he blames himself for in certain lyrics.
 
"WOLVES" - He compares himself and Kim to Mary and Joseph, presenting more biblical themes. Ends with Frank's verse, “Life is precious / We found out, we found out"
 
"ULTRALIGHT BEAM" - Kanye finally turns to God and religion for redemption. Kanye revealed in his tweets that the “Pablo” in the title is not Picasso or Escobar (or at least not only them), but rather “PAUL” from the bible.

According to his tweets,

Before Paul became who he was, he was “Saul”, a sinner and someone who was persecuting God. “Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.” (Acts 9:1)

In "Ultralight Beam," Kanye becomes redeemed for his sins across the album.  Take “The addict’s moment of clarity and redemption” and mirror that as a contemporary modern day version of "Saul the sinner turning into Paul." The song then ends with a prayer from Kirk Franklin, perhaps for anyone who can relate to the struggle shown in this album.
 

You can read our full The Life of Pablo album review here and "Closing Remarks of a Reformed Kanye Apologist" here.

'The Life of Pablo' Reaches Into the Backpack Days of the Life of Kanye

Music ReviewEzra CarpenterComment

The genius of The Life of Pablo is indiscernible from the album’s opening tracks, which boast intellectual assertions of the following quality: “Now if I fuck this model / And she just bleached her asshole / And I get bleach on my T-shirt / Imma feel like an asshole.”

No, Kanye West’s seventh album does not impress early on with auto-tuned vocals, mumble-rap contributions from unknown Future impersonators, or with the trap percussions upon which both parts of “Father Stretch My Hands” build. On the contrary, they show West indulging in the contemporary hip-hop trends that are dissolving into cliché, demonstrating fad as opposed to the zeitgeist which West’s more ambitious works so precisely captured. The beginning of The Life of Pablo appears to confirm fans’ worst fears about an album whose title was only finalized hours before the songs premiered. It suggests a lack of censorship, slipshod compilation, the work of an artist whose ego has been fed to the point of complacency – a food coma in which the artist is too bloated to move towards innovation.

What innovation there is on The Life of Pablo is subtle: impressive use synth-feedback on “Feedback,” various samples’ distorting spatial effects. It is the first album in which West does not overtly challenge norms of culture (The College Dropout), genre (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy), or politics (Yeezus). But granting fairness to Kanye West in consideration of his past several releases beg the questions “How much more room for innovation (in music at least) is there for an artist who has already produced four albums in the seven years of the current decade?” “What reason is there to innovate when the most loyal sect of his fan base has fervently demanded the Kanye of old?” By the time the instrumental on “Famous” kicks in after Rihanna’s vocals, Kanye’s response to the predicament, along with his genius, becomes perfectly clear.

What validates Kanye West’s latest release is the effortlessness of its creation. The Life of Pablo is an album in which Kanye relies on his proven studio techniques and battle-tested ear for what captivates to produce an album that is easy to enjoy. The album is nostalgically reminiscent of Kanye’s rise in hip-hop, evidenced first by the resemblance between the instrumentals of “Famous” and “Get Em High” from The College Dropout. Everything from and between the percussion pattern, the vocal melody and cadence, and the arrogant bravado of the song’s opening line: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous,” harken back to Kanye’s idiosyncratic presence in the bling-era of hip-hop.

This reminiscence is not short-lived. “Highlights”’ instrumental arrangement is similar to “I Wonder” (Graduation), “Real Friends” is carried by the cadence of “Big Brother” (Graduation), the various interludes on TLoP reemploy Kanye’s early contextual framing techniques, and even the soliloquy on “30 Hours” reminds us of a young Kanye with a burgeoning desire to engage his listeners in dialogue, no matter how one-sided that dialogue would be or would become. While remaining faithful to his own tradition, Kanye also draws from the fundamentals of his art form. “No More Parties in LA,” which features a guest verse from Kendrick Lamar, is a quintessential boom-bap track and the drums on “30 Hours” are undeniably influenced by the most revered and most sampled drum track in hip-hop: James Brown’s “The Funky Drummer.”

Though The Life of Pablo embodies the classic standard of Kanye West production, it does not achieve greatness by tracing its artist’s laurels. The album does indeed suffer from a lack of editing. Kanye’s choices on what songs to include on the album sometimes enhance its rap appeal (“No More Parties in LA,” “30 Hours”), but other times degrade the album’s intellectual premise (“Freestyle 4,” “Facts”). What we gain from this excessive over-inclusion are glimpses of the genre-defying, experimental Kanye West of Yeezus alongside the hit-maker of his first three albums.

While the forty-four second lament/gloat of “I Love Kanye” may not seem like the most stimulating track to be featured on The Life of Pablo, it offers the album’s most profound truths. Yes, we did miss the old Kanye. Yes, we hate the new, always rude Kanye. Yes, every rapper to come after Kanye in some way derives his or her art from Kanye’s advancements. It is ironic, unexpected, and fortunate that we are given an album in which the old Kanye remerges. However, in typical Kanye fashion, he ignores pleas for decency and self-control. As far as personality is concerned, he is still very much the new Kanye. But can we blame him? We never hold him accountable anyway. Our praise has enabled the flamboyance we’ve grown to despise. We have fed his ego enough to assure him that he can do absolutely anything. Fortunately, a return to his old style lies within the parameters of what we have empowered Kanye to do.  He is, and has been for a long time, that much empowered.

Similarly, The Life of Pablo is music to feel empowered by, for the sake of self-esteem, self-exploration, or mere enjoyment. Its palate satisfies in nearly every way a Kanye West album should, in modes of both old and new. Reflect fondly on the pink polo you bought once upon a 2004, which is by now stashed somewhere deep in an old dresser or donated to a local thrift store. This album will offer you bittersweet memories. 

You can read "Kanye's Original The Life of Pablo Tracklist Analyzed in Three Acts by @NathanZed & @jonnysun" here and "Closing Remarks of a Reformed Kanye Apologist" here.

Has Father John Misty Lost His Humor With Lana Del Rey's "Freak"?

New MusicSean McHughComment

Grab the hotsauce from your nightstand and pour it down your throat, because Lana Del Rey has a banging new 10 minute music video / tour-de-farce. Hipster lore and teenage phantasm reach critical mass on Lana Del Rey’s “Freak,” off her 2015 release, Honeymoon.

Sarcasm aside, the video features the misanthropic matrimony between two of music’s most aloof artists - Lana Del Rey and Father John Misty. A video sure to be misinterpreted by throngs of YouTube-ing teenyboppers, “Freak,” offers a glimpse into the pseudo-story of a cult chieftain (Lana Del Rey) and her ardent disciple (Josh Tillman AKA Father John Misty ) as they blur the lines between liturgy and carnal desire.

An unwarranted combination, the pairing represents a potentially troublesome career choice for the Father, whose career prior to his “star” turn in “Freak” was predicated mostly on skewering the life of the pseudo-ultra-apathy of “indie” pop queens such as Del Rey. Its perplexing as to why Misty would agree to involve himself in something that seems so ludicrously serious – not in the sense of importance, but rather self-perception – though, perhaps the ambiguity of Misty’s tenure throughout the video is his ultimate act of satire.

There are scenes of sacramental exchanges of acid tabs, a presumably unholy red concoction, and sultry corporeal cavorting, as doyen and disciple traipse through a hallucinatory spectacle that is Topanga, California. Supposedly inspired by Tillman’s past experience with acid (purportedly, at a Taylor Swift concert in Australia), the music video portion ends with Tillman and Del Rey dancing in thick smoke, holding hands and walking into the void.

Following the music video portion, the remaining 5-ish minutes are filled with the aforementioned harem of women swimming in a pool while “Clair de Lune” plays, eventually joined by Del Rey and Misty. Is there a more divine purpose to the video? Who knows? Is wild speculation and purveying ones own inaccurate notions abound likely? Yes. Either way, the video is a spectacle in and of itself, much to its own bemusement, and 10-minute time allotment. Here's hoping Father John Misty has reached peak prankster and not descended to half-assing apathist like his newfound contemporary. 

With 'Hail, Caesar!' the Coens Don't Want You to Get the Point of Hollywood, and That's the Point

TV/Film ReviewDanny BittmanComment

When I saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens in December I also saw the trailer for Hail, Caesar! and remember thinking that this could be one of the Coen Brothers’ best films. That first trailer portrays so many different movie genres, and something about the title screamed classic to me. I pictured future electronic textbooks saying, “The Coen Brothers dominated story telling with their chameleon-like tastes, but once they released Hail, Caesar!, the world simultaneously bowed down in awe of their skills.”

Well, I can’t say I’m not still bowing down to the duo, but at the same time I have no idea what I just watched. The entire film seemed to have been made just to make fun of itself and the film industry. It was like watching a well-produced Adult Swim movie.  But it’s elusive point can be summed up in one of the beginning scenes, where producer Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) asks men of multiple faiths whether the movie he’s creating, Hail, Caesar!, will offend anyone religiously. Instantly, one of the men states that a scene in the film where one person jumps from one chariot to the other is not realistic, which leads to the men arguing over who or what God is, and whether Jesus was the son of God. No resolution to Eddie’s question is given, and that’s the point.

Stars such as Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum give us truly impressive introductions to their fictional movie star characters as they dance and swim on fake sound stages. But after that they disappear from the plot entirely, only to be given extremely outlandish conclusions at the end of the film that we the audience just have to accept actually happened. There’s not a solid plot to the entire story, and it’s all in the name of the Christian film that Eddie Mannix is producing with the clueless actor Baird Whitlock, played with ease as always by George Clooney. It’s Just so comical to watch though, because every character seems to have no idea how anything truly works, and yet the point of Eddie’s film is to try and explain who runs the universe to the masses.

But I doubt that this movie will offend people religiously, because the Coen Brothers are literally telling us that films shouldn’t try explaining religion, by simply giving us the story of the incompetent filmmakers who try. 

The reason I really enjoyed this film was because I left the theater with a better understanding about society that has illuminated aspects of spirituality for me more than any religious film I’ve seen before. This is also why I love the Coen brothers. Their “point” is elusive, but it still exists. Overall it’s a fun ride of a film, but if you have absolutely no idea what happens behind and around the camera in order to make a movie, some of the key jokes will go right over your head. It wasn’t the classic that I thought it would be, but as long as you don’t take anything in this film seriously, (seriously anything), you will enjoy Hail, Caesar!.

Hail, Caesar! In Theaters February 5. http://www.hailcaesarmovie.com Four-time Oscar®-winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men, True Grit, Fargo) write and direct Hail, Caesar!, an all-star comedy set during the latter years of Hollywood's Golden Age. Starring Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Jonah Hill, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and Channing Tatum, Hail, Caesar!

Starfucker Drops Single "Never Ever" Ahead of New Tour, Hints to Transverso About New Record

New Music, Music NewsWeston PaganoComment

To kick off their impending tour with Com Truise and Fake Drugs, Starfucker have released a single title "Never Ever."

Bursting with their signature danceability and the repeated question "What would I lie for," the Portland group are as upfront as ever. Hopefully this is a sign of new music to come soon, as it's now been almost exactly three years since their last LP, pop masterpiece Miracle Mile, hit shelves.

EDIT: Starfucker have hinted to Transverso that this may be the first of more to come after all:

Check out the track and tour dates below.

Take a Bizarre Trip Through Yeasayer's 'Amen & Goodbye' Album Art in New "Prophecy Gun" Music Video

New MusicWeston PaganoComment

Following Amen & Goodbye's lead single "I Am Chemistry," Brooklyn trio Yeasayer have invited us deeper into their twisted world with a new music video for previously unheard single "Prophecy Gun" that gives life to the album art that had - up until now - been still.

Turning the full gatefold into a performance piece, the film explores the eclectic landscape created by sculptor and New York-based Canadian artist David Altmejd. Yeasayer describe it in a press release as "Sgt Pepper meets Hieronymous Bosch meets Dali meets PeeWee's Playhouse."

Opening with miniaturized Pyramids of Giza and a pool of blood turned watermelon puree, the bizarre trip through Amen & Goodbye's mise-en-scène carries you past Caitlyn Jenner animorphing into a butterfly, a severed and lacerated Donald Trump head (which was also visible in the background of "I Am Chemistry" as Yeasayer happily confirmed to Transverso), Mark Twain, an amusing heavy metal parody band poster for Yayslayer, and even the beloved alien from past classic "Madder Red," may he rest in peace.

Altmejd explains,

“I’m not very comfortable thinking about image and graphic design. I decided to offer them a sort of landscape filled with as many details as possible. I thought about a series of objects that would be inspired by characters that came from Yeasayer’s albums... but also characters that come from the news. There’s really fake looking sculptures, there’s printouts representing cartoony characters, there’s naked people… For me what’s very important is that the image offers enough visually for people to be really absorbed in the observation of details.”

As for the song itself, it opens with a lightly frenetic beat and ominously pulsing bass before vocals almost reminiscent of Paul Simon at his most soothing and twitching space synth are gently layered on.

Amen & Goodbye is due out April Fool's Day via Mute. You can revisit past teasers and preorder the record here.

'Amen & Goodbye' is the new album from Yeasayer. Released April Fools' Day, 2016.

Catch Some "New Psych" From Ladada

New Music, Music NewsWeston PaganoComment

Virginia Beach-based Josiah Schlater's project Ladada (pronounced "luh-DAH-duh") released a self-titled debut back in 2014 that was quietly one of the best records floating around the indie lane of the information superhighway that year.

Ladada's most recent release, "New Psych," is just that, expanding upon Schlater's rich surf rock riffs and lazy vocals with a louder, punchier effort demanding to be heard. Purveying a self-described "soda pop" genre, the sound energetically ricochets between psych rock and shoegaze.

The track is the lead single from Ladada's forthcoming EP, Hi Five, which will hit hands everywhere 4/1 via Gold Robot. Hi Five will take physical form as a curious limited edition "transparent coke bottle green" 12" with Ladada on the flipside, which you can pre-order here.

Lead single off the forthcoming Hi Five EP, available as a limited edition 12" on transparent coke bottle green. Pre-order now: http://goldrobotrecords.bigcartel.com/product/ladada-hi-five

Bernie Sanders Ends Iowa Caucus Celebration Speech With David Bowie's "Starman"

Music NewsWeston PaganoComment

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has already collaborated with artists from Run The Jewels' Killer Mike to Vampire Weekend, and last night he kept the political revolution musical by signing off his post-Iowa caucus speech with a nice nod to the late, great David Bowie's classic "Starman."

The septuagenarian's song choice may harken back to past generations of rock 'n' roll, but after winning 86% of the votes from ages 17-24 the lines "Let the children lose it / Let the children use it / Let all the children boogie" seem perfectly appropriate.

And that's not all, Sanders plans to keep the tunes going and will be joined by Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, Killer Mike, and Red Hot Chili Peppers at the “Feel the Bern” benefit concert at Los Angeles' The Theatre at Ace Hotel this February 5.

"Starman" kicks in at about the 16:30 mark.

Read our review of Bowie's ★ (Blackstar).

Youth Lagoon Is No More

Music NewsWeston PaganoComment

It seems we must take a break from celebrating LCD Soundsystem's long-awaited reunion, for just as the Music Gods giveth they also taketh away.

Only a few short months after releasing his 3rd album, Savage Hills Ballroom, Trevor Powers has announced in a tweet that he is disbanding the beloved Youth Lagoon moniker, but will set out to begin different projects in the future.

Youth Lagoon's impressive trilogy of records, The Year of Hibernation, Wondrous Bughouse, and Savage Hills Ballroom will live on forever, but if you wish to catch a final fleeting glimpse of the original performer live and preserved on his aforementioned farewell tour the dates below are your last chances: