Although his latest album has (as expected) been split between (politically motivated) derision and praise, Kanye West has successfully delivered the sanctified gospel project he has been promising all year.
Jesus is King has arrived, and as dogmatic and rushed some of the lyrics are, sounds like another fine example of how inventive the Chicago artist is when it comes to composition and structure. With the transcendental harmonies that characterise gospel used to great effect, and the drama perfectly captured on tracks like “Selah” and “Use This Gospel”, it makes good on all the Sunday Service clips that have gone viral over the past few months.
“Follow God” has shot to the top of the short project to become its most digestible single, sounding like something that would play right off of The Life of Pablo with Kanye’s slick rhymes set against the artist’s exceptional production. Ambling over a sample of Whole Truth’s “Can You Lose by Following God”, ‘Ye explores the tension between his new-found Christian zeal and society’s standards.
Jesus is King, given an ‘F’ by totes sincere website Consequence of Sound and marked with a fair 7.2 by music website Pitchfork, is out now and is currently on track to top the charts.
