Kanye West

Kanye West

Album: “The Life of Pablo”

Grade: B+

Kanye West raps and sings on “The Life of Pablo,” released online over the weekend, about sex, betrayal and a higher purpose.

West’s seventh solo album isn’t as instantly catchy or cohesive as his earlier work. But it’s consistently interesting and full of feeling, with off-kilter hip-hop soundscapes and lyrics that pivot suddenly from generous spirituality to crass insults.

This 18-track collection feels impressively personal, and warm, compared to the aggressively glitchy “Yeezus,” West’s pre-fatherhood primal scream of an album from three years ago. He repeatedly references his family and reveals wryly humorous self-awareness that’s often missing in those famed Twitter rants and TV appearances. “I guess I get what I deserve, don’t I?” he laments about an absence of “Real Friends.” On “Feedback,” he acknowledges, “I’ve been out of my mind a long time.” Rhyming as a fan at the album’s halfway point,” West raps “I miss the old Kanye ... I hate the new Kanye.”

Among mainstream hip-hop artists, West stands out for his commitment to continually evolving and expanding both his own sound and the genre as a whole. That’s evident even in the weakest sections of “Pablo.” West sounds both rejuvenated and challenged by young musicians like Chance the Rapper and Future soundalike Desiigner, whose song “Panda,” released just months ago, is sampled alongside a 1970s gospel recording on the dense two-parter “Father Stretch My Hands.”

Compared to West’s 2010 masterpiece “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” there’s too much lyrical sloppiness on “Pablo.”

Still, “Pablo” finds our most provocative modern hip-hop star evolving yet again, flexing his nerdy crate-digging bona fides alongside tabloid-ready call-outs and relentless ambition. He refuses to sell what’s already been sold.

—Ryan Pearson, Associated Press