You have probably heard of Kanye West’s newest album, but if  not, it is an extremely controversial album. The point of this article is to guide you through some of the perceived pros and cons of the album, through the eyes of professional critics. Specifically, Paul Thompson from the Rolling Stone and Dylan Green from Pitchfork. The reason I picked these two critics is that Thompson is not a fan of the album while Green is. 

 One thing that both of these critics agree on is the pacing of the album, pacing is a vital part of any album, making sure the songs work well together and each song doesn’t only work well alone. This requires connective tissue to bring the songs together but the album also can’t be too long or there just won’t be enough connection. With good pacing, listening to an album can be like watching a movie, while the scenes are separate, they all come together to create something greater than the sum of its parts. Unfortunately “DONDA” fails in its pacing. It has virtually no connective tissue, and it is much too long.  

Another agreement between these two opposing viewpoints is in the peaks and valleys of this album. Green claims that, “Its 1 hour and 48-minute runtime includes euphoric highs” white Thompson states that, “West’s 10th album is an overlong mess, dotted with moments of sincerity and some spectacular music” Both of these critics agree in one main aspect, euphoric highs and dotted with spectacular music. This shows the author’s belief that while of course the album isn’t perfect, when it hits the mark, it does it perfectly. 

Overall, despite the wildly different opinions of these two critics, there are some similarities. Obviously there’s no such thing as an objective review of art, but I believe that you can get pretty close with this method. “DONDA” is a messy, unfinished album, but it does have some true talent behind it.