While the parallels between the two may seem few and far between, blending music with contemporary art has proven to be a winning formula. Murakami, on the other hand, found success by utilizing “superflat” theory within his contemporary art style. Kanye’s rise in popularity during the 2000s obviously derives from his music, which included critically acclaimed album after album. A typically ambitious and painfully honest album that veers, like its creator, between tortured and rapturous.”ĭonda can be streamed now on services including Spotify and Apple Music.Digital Librarian and Instagram Creative contributed information for this story.ĭespite hailing from two different sides of the artistic landscape, the paths of Kanye West and Takashi Murakami have crossed during their respective careers in the form of a myriad of collaborations from the duo. “When it’s good, however, it’s very, very good. In a four-star review for The Times, Ed Potton averred: “ Donda’s hour-and-a-half running time is excessive, and there are moments when you feel as if you have been kept for slightly too long on the doorstep by a Jehovah’s Witness. “Donda is not earth-shatteringly terrible and it’s not the amazing, transcendental experience that many hoped it would be.”
It’s a long and frustrating listen, a warning to all about the dangers of focus grouping and overthinking. But these moments of wonder are dragged down by a mire of intentionally difficult tracks, be that musically or thematically.
The i’s Kate Solomon gave the album three stars, writing: “Some of the collaborations are gorgeously done, in particular Houston singer Vory shines on ‘Jonah’ and West gives him the space to do so. Kanye West and his late mother Donda, who serves as the inspiration for his just-released tenth album (Vince Bucci/Getty Images) “It’d be hard to contend that an album that lasts nearly two hours exactly flies by, but until it gets to those last four completely superfluous remixes, it’s a collection that never comes close to wearing out its welcome, alternating the brooding and the banging with a well-honed sense of dynamics.” In a more positive write-up for Variety, Chris Willman wrote: “On a purely musical level, Donda is close to unassailable any time spent tarrying on its release has been time well-wasted. “There are plenty of seeds of what could be good ideas here, and some legit great tracks, but had he taken a little more time to edit things, this could have been a classic – focussed, poignant and powerful.” There is no artist in the world capable of making a flawless record that spans nearly two hours – Kanye included. NME’s Rhian Daly gave the album three stars, arguing: “At one hour and 44 minutes, Donda is incredibly – and unnecessarily – long. Kanye West appears at a listening event for ‘Donda’ (Getty Images for Universal Music Group) A record that is a tribute to a powerful Black woman also lacks much female perspective, beyond old audio clips of speeches by Donda West and an eventual strong guest spot from Shenseea on ‘OK OK Pt 2’.” “It’s hard to tell a billionaire what to do, and the lack of a self-edit means Donda often sags.
“ coasts by with gospel fragments that don’t really go anywhere, something particularly evident on ‘Come to Life’, with a piano line that pulls the heartstrings in the manner of a cancer charity TV commercial,” wrote Thomas Hobbes. The Guardian gave Donda two stars, claiming that despite the presence of “sustained brilliance”, the record was “in need of an edit”. “It’s unclear whether West is attempting some kind of comment on ‘cancel culture’ or using these men as a religious metaphor: neither is excusable.” “Manson joins West for the refrain – “Guess I’m going to jail tonight” – in a moment so flagrantly mocking it brings bile to my throat,” the review continued. She also noted that the inclusion of Manson and DaBaby on the album was “impossible to forget – or forgive”.
But these resplendent moments – like a second’s burst of sunshine through dark storm clouds – are so rare that by the time you emerge on the other side, they’re all but forgotten.” In a zero-star review for The Independent, Roisin O’Connor wrote: “There are brief glimpses of the ingenuity that propelled genre-defying, era-defining works such as 2007’s Graduation or 2010’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Controversially, the list of collaborators on Donda included DaBaby, who was recently at the centre of a scandal over homophobic comments the rapper made at a gig, and Marilyn Manson, who is currently facing multiple lawsuits over allegations of sexual assault (he has denied all accusations against him).