Kanye West and his late mother Donda, who serves as the inspiration for his just-released tenth album (Vince Bucci/Getty Images) “It’d be hard to contend that an album that lasts nearly two hours exactly flies by, but until it gets to those last four completely superfluous remixes, it’s a collection that never comes close to wearing out its welcome, alternating the brooding and the banging with a well-honed sense of dynamics.” In a more positive write-up for Variety, Chris Willman wrote: “On a purely musical level, Donda is close to unassailable any time spent tarrying on its release has been time well-wasted.
“There are plenty of seeds of what could be good ideas here, and some legit great tracks, but had he taken a little more time to edit things, this could have been a classic – focussed, poignant and powerful.” There is no artist in the world capable of making a flawless record that spans nearly two hours – Kanye included. NME’s Rhian Daly gave the album three stars, arguing: “At one hour and 44 minutes, Donda is incredibly – and unnecessarily – long. Kanye West appears at a listening event for ‘Donda’ (Getty Images for Universal Music Group) A record that is a tribute to a powerful Black woman also lacks much female perspective, beyond old audio clips of speeches by Donda West and an eventual strong guest spot from Shenseea on ‘OK OK Pt 2’.” “It’s hard to tell a billionaire what to do, and the lack of a self-edit means Donda often sags.
#Kanye west my beautiful dark twisted fantasy banned tv#
“ coasts by with gospel fragments that don’t really go anywhere, something particularly evident on ‘Come to Life’, with a piano line that pulls the heartstrings in the manner of a cancer charity TV commercial,” wrote Thomas Hobbes.
The Guardian gave Donda two stars, claiming that despite the presence of “sustained brilliance”, the record was “in need of an edit”. “It’s unclear whether West is attempting some kind of comment on ‘cancel culture’ or using these men as a religious metaphor: neither is excusable.” “Manson joins West for the refrain – “Guess I’m going to jail tonight” – in a moment so flagrantly mocking it brings bile to my throat,” the review continued. She also noted that the inclusion of Manson and DaBaby on the album was “impossible to forget – or forgive”. But these resplendent moments – like a second’s burst of sunshine through dark storm clouds – are so rare that by the time you emerge on the other side, they’re all but forgotten.”
In a zero-star review for The Independent, Roisin O’Connor wrote: “There are brief glimpses of the ingenuity that propelled genre-defying, era-defining works such as 2007’s Graduation or 2010’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The 26-track album has a total cumulative runtime of 108 minutes, and features a number of collaborations with high-profile artists.Ĭontroversially, the list of collaborators on Donda included DaBaby, who was recently at the centre of a scandal over homophobic comments the rapper made at a gig, and Marilyn Manson, who is currently facing multiple lawsuits over allegations of sexual assault (he has denied all accusations against him). The rapper and producer’s latest release was repeatedly pushed back as the artist made last-minute changes to its content and held several listening parties. Kanye West’s long-delayed new album Donda has finally been released, and has been met with a mixed reaction from critics.
0 kommentar(er)
