Listen Your Heart Out: Jesus Is King

Kanye West finally released the long-awaited albumn, “Jesus Is King,” on Oct. 25.

The album runs 38 minutes long and features 11 songs. The album was released through GOOD Music and Def Jam.

“Jesus Is King” is the first from Kanye to fall into the genre of Christian hip-hop.

The album boasts incredible beats and instrumentals. The production quality and sound mixing of the hip-hop beats on each track prove West’s experience and expertise when it comes to creating music.

Every track is different, yet the album seems to cohesively work as one.

The tracks are influenced by traditional black gospel music, and West seamlessly blends the sounds of this tradition into his hip-hop beats. This is an area that is new to West, but he handles it with grace.

The lyrics, on the other hand, leave much to be desired. The already infamous song “Closed on Sunday” has found itself the target of much online ridicule, especially for it’s cheesy chorus. West compares the subject of the song to Chick-fil-A: “My number one / With a lemonade.”

Recently, West has publicly embraced Christianity and has become more involved in the church and his religion. Because of his recent spiritual awakening, the lyrics to his songs could have been much deeper, much richer, and more personal.

They could have told the stories of the Bible, or they could have explained why West thinks that Jesus and religion are so important him now.

Instead, the lyrics seem shallow and generic.

The album is overall fun to listen to and would definitely be your grandmother’s favorite Kanye West album.

However, some of the lyrics are sonically jarring and make it difficult to enjoy songs that otherwise would sound extremely good.