I first listened to JIK on lower volume at work and reading others opinions. I have to admit I had the lowest opinion of any Kanye album on first listen.

Then I laid down with headphones in evening and listened to it twice, in addition to again this morning.

Overall I think this is his best release since Yeezus. Is it as big of a 180 as 808’s, no, he’ll never do that again. While JIK is a big 180, it’s less surprising because of the year we’ve had and less impactful to culture overall because he’s not coming off of the career high status from Graduation. That doesn’t take away from this album, but saying this is 808’s is just not very truthful. What Kanye did in that era blew a lot of minds. This was before people really understood how impactful Kanye would be as well, he changed on his albums but he was just a rap superstar for pop radio at this point, not the full blown influential artist he became known for.

Is this better than MBDTF. No of course not, and Kanye will never make another album like this. It’s hard to describe just how good this album is, but if you’ve never listened to the full season of the dissect podcast on this album, do yourself a favor and listen to this immediately. The 3 acts, the chords, the hidden meanings, this is one of the greatest albums ever made and it took a team of professionals, a very embattled and depressed Kanye, and a stress that the album had to be perfect to achieve.

That is not JIK. This is an album of a superstar starting to accept they will no longer be on top of the mountain of superstardom. This is the album of a person starting to accept their mistakes in life, and their early journey in following God. Sonically, it’s very solid. Lyrically, he’s avoiding all the b and n words we are so use to in rap and music these days, yet there is still a hard edginess to it on multiple listens. It’s catchier we’re Kanye would likely have not have dropped songs in the past couple of years for fear it would be too popular. Speaking specifically of Follow God here. It has elements of his past and future. Follow God ends in him talking reminding of his early music talking about meeting Oprah. Selah has sound vibes similar to Yeezus.

It’s short, but I think this is new Kanye, and frankly, the new era of music. Artists are either going very long fully knowing you’ll skip songs and pick favorites, or going short which will get more full listens. Truth be told, this is the first Kanye album since Yeezus I see myself listening to in full, which makes me happy.

I may write more thoughts responding to other posts later on, but with all the negativity, I thought I would post my positive thoughts. I genuinely like it, may be the album I spin the most since 808’s which was my previous favorite for years.