I thought about giving this album a lower rating, but then I thought that that would be unfair because if it was from any other artist I would probably hand out 4 stars or more. Talk about great expectations. In comparison to his previous albums, track for track I'd say it's the most reliable Kanye album. I find that there are one or two skippable tracks on his past two, (however this has the least amount of tracks). No pointless skits also help the album flow better. In saying this though, it doesn't have the real standouts like 'Jesus Walks' and 'Diamonds From Sierra Leone' to name a couple from his previous albums. While Kanye is not the best rapper and the subject matter is less enthralling than before, he has clever wordplay and the production is still mostly great and diverse as we've come to expect from Kanye. A very different record than before, but most Kanye fans should enjoy it. Best Tracks: Good Morning, I Wonder, Flashing Lights, Barry Bonds, The Glory

1 No Church in the Wild (feat. Frank Ocean) ★★★☆ Pretty likeable opening beat and verse from Jay, marred by Kanye singing over autotune, and never recovers. 2 Light Off (feat. Beyoncé) ★★☆ Not feeling this one too much, again ruined more so by Kanye singing. "You can't sing bro". The worst track here 3 Niggas in Paris ★★★☆ A hard beat for sure. Not bad, not great. The choir change up that occurs at about three minutes is enjoyable that leads into Otis. 4 Otis (feat. Otis Redding) ★★★ I feel I could've really like this one, but there is a gross overuse of the sample, it's overpowering and becomes annoying. 5 Gotta Have It ★★★ Again the sample in the hook is annoying, otherwise it's a solid tune. 6 New Day ★★★★ The best track of the opening half a dozen. A nice soulful emotional beat. 7 That's My Bitch ★★★★☆ Finally a real banger. Good variety from the verses to the hook. Southern-influenced and funky. 8 Welcome to the Jungle ★★★☆ I'm not surprised Swizz Beatz produced this, the fast keys are very him, and perhaps become a tad monotonous. Fairly solid though. 9 Who's Gon Stop Me? ★★★ Okay... 10 Murder to Excellence ★★★★☆/★★★☆ Swizz provides another solid beat. Again Kanye is singing on the hook..... One of the better tracks though, talking about the African-American murder rate. Should have been longer../The track then changes to Excellence with Jay rapping about black achievement 11 Made in America (feat. Frank Ocean) ★★★★ I don't know why Jay-Z needs to be "egghing" after every bar, it gets on my nerves, but nevertheless, this is one of the strongest tunes, with Kanye and Jay rapping about their rise to fame. Frank Ocean provides good vocals. 12 Why I Love You (feat. Mr Hudson) ★★★☆ Solid... 13 Illest Motherfucker Alive ★★★★☆ I'm not feeling the first three minutes, not much is happening, but the rest of it is head boppin' stuff. A more kind of simple hard hip hop tune. Lacking the subject matter but probably the best banger here. 14 H•A•M ★★★★ A definite grower from when I first heard this. 15 Primetime ★★★☆ 16 The Joy (feat. Curtis Mayfield) ★★★ A bit boring, particular on the hook, lacks that extra punch. Overall after a slow start, the album improves with some tracks to go back to, and this isn't too far from a 3.5/5. However, many just lack that something extra to take it to the next level, or, there is something I don't like about them. As you can see above, about four tracks annoy in some way. If I could give some advice to Kanye before his next album, it's stop singing and overusing samples and I'll love you again.

Overall, this is not as bad as I expected it to be as I didn't enjoy the first couple of singles I heard from this. There are some tracks I like, but more that I don't, whereas I have found his past three albums to be fairly easy to play from beginning to end. This isn't something that I will play in the future. The biggest problem is that you have a man singing, who cannot, autotune or not, making for a number of boring songs. Enjoyable: Welcome to Heartbreak, Amazing, Streetlights Okay: Say You Will, Paranoid, See You in My Nightmares, Coldest Winter Bad: Heartless, Love Lockdown, Robocop, Bad News, Pinocchio Story

The first half of this is decent. The second half has some of the most boring songs Kanye has been involved in. I haven't liked a lot of what he has made of late, but I haven't often been just straight up bored. For such a legendary producer, some of the production on songs go nowhere. 'Use This Gospel' gets a little hype, but with 20 seconds to go... While I'm on that song, in a recent interview Kanye criticised rappers who rap about things that send you to prison. Clipse? The best moments are the higher tempo songs where Kanye spits with more vigor. See 'Follow God' and 'On God'. Some of the worst are where he is trying to sing. Disappointing. I was looking forward to this as I generally like the musical themes gospel can bring when combined with hip hop. 'Lord Give Me a Sign' and 'Jesus Walks' are two of my favourite songs, but it hasn't done it for me here. It just doesn't feel like the amount of care goes into crafting albums that used to. Best Tracks: Selah, Follow God, On God

First and foremost let me say that I am a Kanye fan, his first three solo albums have an average rating of 4.33/5 from me, so that being so, and this being so well received by most, I have tried to enjoy this album more, giving it forced listens after being vastly underwhelmed upon my early ventures to get through the disc. This thought takes me back to 2004 when I first heard Jesus Walks on TV and immediate loved it, nothing on this evokes that emotion. There are four or five tracks I enjoy such as 'Dark Fantasy', 'Power', 'Hell of a Life', ‘So Appalled’ and 'Monster' but not much if any I love enough to see myself going back to in a week or two. What's more is that everything is fairly new to the ear as I purposely stayed away from the tracks he had been releasing every Friday. As for the tracks not mentioned, I find 'Gorgeous' dull, featuring the extremely vapid Kid Cudi. 'All of the Lights' is extremely overproduced - there is too much going on. ‘Devil in a New Dress’ and 'Runaway' feature Kanye singing for some reason, they are too long, and while the beats are heralded for not being loops like most hip hop, they don't change up enough for me to wanna listen for 10 minutes., and the sample is annoying on DIAND. Likewise with 'Blame Glame', particularly with Chris Rock's two minutes of rambling. And finally, 'Lost in the World' is almost up there with the aforementioned tracks in the last paragraph, but again I think it's overproduced, particularly during the chorus and toward the end of the song - you've got the drums, Kanye singing, the background chants and the synthy deep vocal thing, etc. It's all too much! Sometimes less is more. Kanye is without a shadow of a doubt a better producer than rapper, so when I'm not enjoying the beats, I don't enjoy Kanye. He ain't a Rakim and the like that can turn an unlikable beat into a good song. Not enjoying the beats as much as previous work from him leads the lyrics to be more of focus, which I don't find very interesting. The whole thing seems egotistical/whinny and the overemphasising Kanye does can become annoying. People have said to me they have found Kanye hard to listen to since he blew up in 2004, and I could understand why, but I still loved the music. With this album though, I myself do find him annoying at times. Also when Kanye could no doubt get anyone he wanted on his albums, I'm not sure why he has to hop on the current 'in rappers' and get the uninteresting Rick Ross (twice) and Nicki Minaj, who while I think has some talent, I can't help but find her annoying in most, if not every featuring verse I've heard from her, so that brings 'Monster' down a notch - she is much more tolerable though on most of her new solo album. While I have compared this album to Kanye's previous material in this review, the rating is based on the album itself. Overall, as mentioned, I just can’t see myself going back to much if any of this and I am very surprised by the almost unanimous praise this has received from critics and fans alike. The best tracks are good, but not outstanding, and with every song I enjoy I could pick something that I don't like about it. Even 'Power' to me at times sounds overproduced. Lastly, the whole overall mood and feeling Kanye has tried to portray here does little for me, and on every listen unfortunately too much of me wants to hit skip too often. On to the next one! Best Tracks: Dark Fantasy, Power, Monster, Hell of a Life, Lost in the World