A track-by-track first listen review of Kanye's "Donda"

1. Donda Chant: this is dumb

2. Jail: I like this. Also thinking: what exactly is hip hop these days? This is a rock song. It shouldn’t be called hip hop just because the artist is Black. It’s just a rock song. I like the way Kanye does like… choral/church vocal arrangement stuff. It’s very dramatic. Guess who’s going to jail tonight? God gone post my bail tonight. Oh, Jay-Z just started rapping. This is a rap song. (I don’t say this out loud much, but I think Jay-Z is overrated. I’ve never enjoyed his rap music.) Now with him on the track this reminds me more of the “99 Problems” style of hip hop.

3. God Breathed: Sonically, I think Kanye is a very interesting producer. This song has weird little interjectory sounds in it, distorted vocals and cryings out. It also has that thing he’s done for a decade now where he completely changes the vibe of a song that is probably interesting to him but also makes it hard to listen to/enjoy.

4. Off the Grid: Hey it’s a more standard hip hop song. Triplets. Boring. (Neat bass sounds though)

5. Hurricane: You know what this album reminds me of so far? Later Prince albums where he was off of his Warner contract and had no restrictions (and started writing about God a lot more) and the songs become esoteric and less fun and then I stopped buying Prince albums. Made the best tracks, still went off the rails indeed.

6. Praise God: Oh man am I just going to shrug my way through the rest of this? This is whatever. While we’re here, my favorite Kanye album is 808s and Heartbreak.

7. Jonah: This stretch of songs has been more like what you hear on the charts, I guess. But I think what I liked about Kanye before was it didn’t sound like the charts, it sounded like “Here’s a new way to make a song”. Even when the subjects were super serious, the music was innovative and most importantly, fun and cool to listen to. This is not.

8. Ok Ok: Each individual track is quite internally repetitive. Just like the title of this song! Man, if there is one word I can think of to describe this album so far: dreary.

9. Junya: dreary

10. Believe What I Say: The most fun groove so far because it samples “That Thing” by Lauryn Hill. Again, fun bass lines!

11. 24: the … R&B bedroom ballad? When you write a lot of things about God, I, as an agnostic, feel kind of like I do when watching a TV show with a lot of MCU references… I sort of comprehend what you are talking about but I don’t really get it.

12. Remote Control: Maybe the concept of “Donda” is like a meditation thing? Since the album started with a chant? Because there is a drone-like effect to the sonic palette of this album.

My cat Peanut pooped and the Roomba ran over it. So I missed tracks 13-16. They sounded boring from the other room. But that is an unfair judgment. So I have no idea, maybe the greatest songs on the record are tracks 13 through 16.

17. Jesus Lord: I liked the guest verse on this one, so I looked it up… it’s Jay Electronica. Good job! This song is quite long. Produced by Gesaffelstein who apparently produced “No Child Left Behind” which is coming up later.

18. New Again: I got a phone call during this.

19. Lord I Need You: I can relate to this. Three hours to get back from Palm Springs. What a nightmare! Seriously, this is a more chill listenable relaxing song. Probably won’t be a hit. But one of the grooves I would listen to again. Pleasant.

20. Pure Souls: These songs are so samey I have no new responses. I will say, if you want the best version of this type of gospel-y Kanye song I love “Ultralight Beam”. It felt fresh at the time.

21. Come to Life: Starts out feeling like the same song but then turns into “Chromalume No 7” as heard by Kanye’s ears! As George Seurat’s great grandchild would say, “It has to come to life!”

22. No Child Left Behind: I think sometime soon there will be some radical move to vocals sounding extremely raw, including being off-pitch. Maybe it will take a push by the children of today’s Zoomers to have this. Something to get away from the warbly autotune sound, which I have enjoyed in the past, but is just kind of hack at this point. (This song is… not much of a song.)

Tracks 24-27 are “pt 2” versions of “Jail”, “Ok Ok”, “Junya”, and “Jesus Lord”. They’re fine? They’re like the mid-credits scene. Lagniappe and extra bits. Again, echoes of Prince! He had so many little snippets of his music that he loved, more than we could ever hear. Now Kanye gets to throw them at the end of the album. WAIT: I’m listening to Jesus Lord pt 2 and it’s the same guest verse from the main version? What is happening here?

If you aren’t a Kanye fan I would not recommend this album. Check out 808s and Heartbreak or Yeezus, and particularly listen to the latter and read Lou Reed’s glowing review of it. If you are a Kanye fan, I guess give it a stream. I didn’t enjoy this album. I’d maybe listen to three songs again.

Have a great day.