Kanye West - Yeezus: All 10 Tracks Reviewed And Analysed

rating: 5

Kanye West is arguably the greatest pop star of the 21st Century. Yes, I'm deadly serious. That same petulant child who snatched an award from Taylor Swift has defined the last decade or so of music more than anyone else in his genre. He's not only churned out hit after hit, he's evolved as an artist, speeding away from all contemporaries as they play catch up. The face of pop music has changed because of him, and he's the kind of popstar that's disliked by the corporate side of the industry: he's more of a rockstar than most indie frontmen, and he's never far away from controversy or madness. But he gives us what we need, not what we want. This year's 'Yeezus' is confirmation of West's rockstar status; once just a middle-class Jay-Z producer, he's now a ferocious, swaggering force in music. Teenager festival goers and Pitchfork alike sit bolt upright at the scream of his singles, as 'Big Brother' Mr Carter becomes more of businessman and less of an artist with every new release: let's take a look back through 'Yeezus', track by track, and work out why exactly it could be Ye's finest record to date.

1. On Sight

And so the album begins with On Sight, a far cry to the past few openers of Kanye albums. It's not graceful like 'Dark Fantasy' or mysterious like 'No Church in the Wild'; it's cyborg-screaming industrial noise that breaks into a hymn, halfway through. Because why not? It's the first of many references to religion, but Kanye narrates the track with foul-mouthed fury throughout, to match the distorted electronics that squeal in the background. This is why he's the best: he's prepared to flip the script of his own career to deliver something that we wouldn't expect, and to agree with Zane Lowe, the only criticism of the song is that it's far too short.