After an entire year of us asking: “Where’s Yandhi?”, Kanye West’s 9th solo album is finally here. But it’s, um, not Yandhi. Enter JESUS IS KING.
Here it is folks.
Every Hour
Every Hour really reminds us that Kanye might actually be played in churches from here on out. The Sunday Service Choir, as has already been established, is damn talented, which makes Every Hour a reall good song despite the lack of Kanye, as in Kanye’s voice, on it. Yeah, there’s no intricate production or complexity to the song, and the lyrics are pretty repetitive (it’s just “Sing ‘til the power of the Lord comes down”, but it’s a certified riding-to-church-with-Grandma™ kind of bop.
Selah
The self awareness is on point on this one. Kanye, a quarter of the way through the track, says “Everybody wanted Yandhi”, which is true. The lyrics on this track (save for the aforementioned one, and a moment in the song where Kanye mentions screaming at his chauffeur) are kind of boring. The Sunday Service Choir’s hallelujah’s are pretty on point, though — they start off slow and then escalate into this insane immersive experience that, with headphones on, sounds as if a million angels are circling around you while chanting praises of God. The outro is also reminiscent of chanting, but with more primitive chants, (the published lyrics are “Wah, woo, wah, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo”) that build up anticipation for the next song. All in all, it’s a good Kanye song.
Follow God
The intro that Kanye samples:
Father, I stretch
Stretch my hands to You
from the 1974 song “Can You Lose by Following God” is fire and refreshing and very Classic Kanye. It’s intermittent appearance throughout the verse in the rest of the song is really, really nice as well. Kanye repeats a quickly spliced single-syllable (“Yeah”) over and over along with a fast-paced beat and you can’t help but bop your head along with it even though you’re not 100% sure what exactly he’s actually saying. The lyric that stands out the most: “Arguing with my dad, and he said ‘It ain’t Christ-like’” (and variants thereof) are like—fine. But the way Kanye delivers them, quick and aggressive and with a defined emphasis on the last syllable works really well with the beat, so it’s a solid head-banger.
Closed on Sunday
Never thought it’d come to this, but yeah a Kanye song sucks. Closed on Sunday sucks, it’s trash, it’s the Hot Shower of The Big Day with shittier lyrics, it’s probably what Shawn Mendes would sound like if Shawn Mendes went into rap. Like, look at this:
Closed on Sunday, you’re my Chick-fil-A
Closed on Sunday, you my Chick-fil-A
Hold the selfies, put the ’Gram away
Get your family, y’all hold hands and pray
Is this the greatest living human artist of all time? Is this this generation’s closest thing to Einstein? Nah, it’s just a straight up disappointment. Unless you want to hear Kanye murmur-rapping the same annoying line over and over again while a generic beat loops in the background, don’t bother with this one.
On God
The beat is so good—very reminiscent of Watch the Throne era stuff that you want to blast on full volume while you’re driving on the freeway to like, Mendocino. Except that you haven’t driven a car in straight months because college! But the song is also really really frustrating, because it feels like such a missed opportunity. Kanye doesn’t really seem to put as much emphasis on his lyrics anymore—everything is a near freestyle—which on ye generated iconic, hilarious one-liners like “None of us would be here without come” and “I don’t take advice from people less successful than me.” Here, though, the verses fall a little more flat. There’s the talk about God, which is cool (we loved Coloring Book), but the crucial difference is now it seems to not have as much…narrative? If that makes sense. The Production™ is still mad hype though.
Everything We Need
A version of Everything We Need was originally on Yandhi as “The Storm”. See this leak. Ty Dolla $ign’s chorus (“We began after the storm inside…”) and the refrain “We have everything we need”, is like—fine, but I just can’t take the ad-libs. The high-pitched “woo”s and “ooh”s, liberally applied in the background, spark some deep-seated sense of cringe and stress and displeasure within. I’m sorry, but it’s literally enough to ruin the entire song.
Water
If this song was a color, it’d be the bright blue of a hotel swimming pool. Water’s beat is super summery, and if I still lived in California and it was more than 70º outside, this baby would be on repeat.
Kanye does go the whole God is Great™, Jesus Is Our Saviour™, I Have No Narrative or Complexity in my Lyrics™ route, but the production of the song more than makes up for it. Weirdly enough, Water is reminiscent of Frank Ocean – with the shadow voices, the sound of waves crashing in the background and the synth-pop beat, the song lies somewhere between Channel Orange and Blonde, which is obviously a good spot to be in.
God Is
The sample in the background with the choir is really freaking nice. The melody is pretty sweet, and honestly we do vibe with some of the Jesus-centered lyrics, like:
You won’t ever be the same when you call on Jesus name
and:
I know God is the force that pick me up
I know Christ is the fountain that fill my cup
I know God is alive
Super not sold on Kanye’s falsetto and hoarsed-out voice on the track—it just feels like he’s singing through a sore throat and reduces the strength of the Jesus Revelation Emotions you get from the track. It does it’s job, though.
Hands On
Nah. It’s sub-par lyrics over a semi-cool but repetitive sci-fi-esque background, and it’s way too long for a song with no real musical or lyrical substance.
Use This Gospel
The beat of this song is primarily based on a repetitive chiming sound, with distorted choir vocals and Kanye’s singing layered over it. It’s—like, it’s fine, you know? Definitely improves throughout the song as it builds on itself a bit more and the vibe of the song grows more powerful, but Kanye has done better. There’s a Kenny G sax solo towards the end, which is cool, and after that fades out Kanye goes back to the old chiming and distorted harmonizing beat, except this time there is an actual like, drumline added to it and someone (not sure who) ad-libbing “work” in the background—would’ve liked if this “fully realized” beat was used throughout the entire song and not just in the last 25 seconds or so.
“Use this gospel for protection.”
Jesus is Lord
It’s only 49 seconds, but the horns in the background are fire and Kanye’s “Only One” reminiscent vocals actually add quite a sweetness to it. Would’ve been more interesting to see it developed as a full song, but it’s not a bad outro at all.
Overall Thoughts:
It’s not that it’s bad. If you compare it on an absolute scale to most of the music that’s released, it’s like, fairly solid and it has its moments. Hell, if some other artist we hadn’t heard of before released this we’d be impressed. But I mean, this is Kanye West we’re talking about. He made My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. We have higher standards for him. And this just isn’t up to par.