“I miss the old Kanye. .. . I hate the new Kanye,” West freestyles in “I Miss the Old Kanye,” a tongue-in-cheek response to critics who miss the “easygoing” Kanye of his early career; the Kanye of shutter shades and pink polos. This new Kanye is an angry Kanye who calls himself a god. “The Life of Pablo” combines the self-awareness and occasional self-pitying of “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” with the high-octane, righteously angry “Yeezus.” TLOP is a new Kanye. This Kanye makes overt references to the role he believes God has played in his career. In “Ultralight Beam,” the album’s opening song, a choir sings that they are on an ultralight beam. However, instead of the choir in “Dark Fantasy,” this choir is singing about more than just getting higher. The old, angry Kanye of “Yeezus” is not present on this album. In truth, I’ll miss him quite a bit. However, I think I can make room for this new Kanye in my life.
