Album review: Jesus is King
Kanye West returns with his most recent studio album release: Jesus Is King, which has sparked waves of mixed opinions from casual listeners and critics alike. After releasing Ye in 2018, Kanye promised that he would finally release the heavily rumoured Yhandi a year later but as he states in the 2nd track on Jesus Is King, ‘Everybody wanted Yhandi; But Jesus Christ did the laundry’. Buckle in as we dive into the gospel rap extravaganza that is Jesus Is King.
If you are an avid Kanye fan, the first thing you would notice on the album is that West has uses several of his trademark components over the last 15 years in this one album. The heart, gospel-soul production on songs like God Is harken back to the College Dropout Kanye and his time at Roc-A-Fella studios. The explosive, progressive soundscapes in Use This Gospel and On God reminds of the galactic synth overtones used on Graduation. Even the industrial, confrontational themes of Yeezus make an appearance in the pounding drums that drive the track Selah forward. All of these components are woven together intricately by Kanye’s always impeccable production skills, making the full, dense sound synonymous to West, but with gospel vocals filling in the gaps.
Although I think the introduction of gospel choirs as samples was fantastically refreshing with stellar vocal performances, around midway through the album it definitely starts to become oversaturated.
In fact, this album has a balancing problem. The songs on the top half are substantially better than the bottom half, with 1 or 2 exceptions. I feel that, excluding the intro track, Kanye takes everything out on the first 4 tracks. Whilst the other half has some highlights, like the killer saxophone solo on Use This Gospel, and the cleansing aura of Water, the album begins to become redundant halfway through, which is a crippling problem.
The most influential factor is that this is one of the rare times that Kanye truly has nothing innovative and special to say in this album’s music. The main theme of the album is based on Kanye’s newfound belief in Christianity, and he aims to convert his audience.
Brilliant, all for that aim, it’s something he has never done and I was excited for how it would turn out before it came out. However, Kanye does not explore worshipping Christ, or even give insight on what it feels, or how it has changed him.
We know he is capable of painting marvellous imagery with his lyrics, and this was one of his prime opportunities to use it, but this album just consists of superficial references to religious texts and American capitalism, nothing on what it really means to worship Jesus.
This album lacks the soul searching dedication his other work champions, and this could have been when he used it best.
Summary
Favourite Tracks: Selah, Use This Gospel, Closed On Sunday, On God
Final Rating: 5.5/10 – Lots of good, but overpowered by faults, slightly above indifference. A lot of stuff I enjoy but crippled by the redundancy problems of the album, lack of lyrical depth and lack of the deep meaning we know Kanye can deliver.
Image by © Premeditated [CC BY-SA 3.0]
