What, no Shaznay? This is not the All Saints’ Day we were hoping for…
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[3.83]
Tim de Reuse: Ego and drama can no longer sustain this haphazard production; it just doesn’t dazzle like it did in ’13. The fever dream collapsed years ago. The half-baked indignation of the Christ-is-the-real-counterculture movement is a perfect fit for this new Kanye era, and it’s all the more dull for it. The music is paper-thin; if you get distracted for a minute it might vanish altogether.
[3]
Jackie Powell: Here’s the good news: Kanye West still has the ability to make my head bob, foot tap and allow cleaning my kitchen to be a bit more enjoyable. (Yes I was putting away my dishes with enthusiasm while listening to Jesus Is King. Wild.) This cut ends and begins with a shout out to Pi’erre Bourne, whose video-game-quick synths allow for the beat to click and boom. Similar to “Yikes,” which Bourne also worked on, “On God” gets the ball rolling right at the jump. West doesn’t hesitate with a consistently ardent flow. But I view this less as a song and more as a two-minute soliloquy put to a beat. It fits best on the stage rather than on an LP. Maybe Ye should go see Jeremy O’Harris’ “Slave Play” if he’d like to discuss the 13th Amendment further. He does say that his mistake of saying that “slavery is a choice” is on him, right? And while West wrote “On God” in couplets, which I do appreciate, what do not couple are the Bible verses and life experiences that he juxtaposes. I do happen to believe in some sort of fate, but Yeezy struggles to communicate the way in which he works with God. The concept of this track could have revealed something more about his spirituality. How does he get to and from “some lows and some highs”? What exactly is on God? What is on us? Before I completely explode into existential smithereens, I’m elated to report that we will never have to see Mr. West in a neon green fluffy blouse attempting to salsa to the Spice Girls’ “Spice Up Your Life.”
[6]
Oliver Maier: Utterly, utterly tedious. When Pi’erre Bourne beats are great it is because they are murky and disorienting, not dazzlingly sterile. When Kanye West songs are great it is because his instinct to behave like a douchebag clashes with an undercurrent of conscience, even self-awareness. The tension vanishes, then, when he is satisfied that his moral compass is unimpeachable, handed down directly from the man upstairs. All that’s left after that is the bragging, the shallow evangelising, the justifications for selling ugly hoodies for $250. It’s hard to care.
[0]
Kylo Nocom: You can do a lot worse than microwaved Cadence Weapon.
[6]
Hannah Jocelyn: This beat suggests Turbo Grafix 16 did, in fact, exist at one point, and maybe it’s better off unreleased. Over those Action 52 synths, Kanye West enters his “Smart Girls” phase, reciting past glories (“in ’03 they told me not to drive!”) with the subtext that this is a victory lap. “I Love It” was fascinating because it seemed like Ye was going after edgy middle schoolers, but this is not going after anyone. It’s just for Kanye to thank God and also Jesus.
[5]
Katherine St Asaph: It’s so slight! Like, imagine nothing from the past couple of years happened — no God, no MAGA, no tabloids, no fixing “Wolves” — and Kanye was still enjoying peak goodwill as a creator, which I guess puts you sometime around My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Now convince yourself to puncture this wonderful imaginary world of not-2019 by imagining Kanye’s next single was “On God.” Pretend it’s totally secular, if you have to, and Kanye was rapping about finding a simple Persian rug with cherub imagery or whatever. Would it sound exciting? Would it sound ambitious? Would it sound like it has any energy at all? Part of me wonders if “[That’s] On God” is so titled as a way, if Kanye ever needs to disown this album, to re-assign the blame.
[3]