The Life of Pablo

It premiered at Madison Square Garden as part of a fashion show, with thousands watching Kanye press play off a laptop. Then it came out on streaming and he kept working on it for months, remixing songs and adding one, calling it a living breathing changing creative expression. The album itself swings between church and tabloid: a gospel choir and Chance the Rapper open it on Ultralight Beam, and a few minutes later he is making the crudest joke of his career about Taylor Swift. Both halves are him.