Kanye West's undying genius as a producer and rap innovator has been enough for some fans to overlook even his most egregious outbursts and offensive behavior as a public figure. His art crystallized into dense musical opulence on his 2010 magnum opus, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and remained fascinating as it mutated from there, with moments of ugly brilliance surfacing even in the crude vulgarity of 2016's The Life of Pablo or the somehow simultaneously overstuffed and fragmental chapters of his Donda series. There's a sort of trainwreck appeal to watching the pieces of Kanye's music fall away and reconfigure themselves into strange new forms, captivating even when observed apart from the ongoing controversies that have long surrounded him. Vultures 1, West's collaborative album with Ty Dolla $ign, is strange in that it's a far cleaner, less-damaged listening experience than audiences would reasonably expect at this point in the Kanye saga. The production is the star of the show here, with the spare and distortion-inclined "Carnival," the sterile ghostly funk of "PAID," or the bounding, orchestra-meets-old-school fun of "Do It" all exhibiting the same electric inventiveness that put West on a map as a beatmaker. After years of albums that rambled, meandered, and struggled to complete their sentences, the simple pop structure of a song like "Keys to My Life" is refreshing. A robust verse from Freddie Gibbs comes close to salvaging the otherwise uncalled-for filler of "Back to Me," and Playboi Carti and Travis Scott add personality to the eerie, nocturnal bump of "FUK SUMN." There's no spark between West and Ty Dolla $ign anywhere on the album, with their interactions feeling less like collaborations and more like pre-recorded segments arranged alongside one other. The unlikeable ranting of Kanye's public persona infiltrates his once bitingly funny and self-aware lyricism, leaving most of what he raps about on Vultures blustering noise with all the magic and vulnerability of talk radio. Breaking a run of projects from West that have felt somehow incomplete, Vultures 1 succeeds in terms of cohesion and presentation. Kanye has shown the world his unfiltered megalomania, heartbreak, self-obsession, self-contempt, and confusion, and even at its most ghastly, it's always been at least a little bit exciting or provocative. On Vultures 1, he struggles to show much of anything, crafting songs that are loud and shiny, but still largely blank.
- Fred Thomas - allmusic.com
