THANK GOD FOR FREE TRIALS: Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo" and the TIDAL paywall...

The self-proclaimed "god" of rap Kanye West is back with his seventh studio album which finally dropped on Valentine's Day, strings attached, those strings firmly tied to the premium streaming service TIDAL...

Leading up to the eventually titled "The Life of Pablo"'s release, one thing was certainly well-established: Kanye knows exactly how to build up overwhelming amounts of hype and saturated expectations with the several name changes and constant track list restructures that were scattered across social media. From "So Help Me God", to "Swish", to "Waves" before finally settling with what we have now, it gave numerous outlets and subsequently people reason to keep talking about this new release; word-of-mouth being one of the most powerful tools to generate interest.

Then the bombshell drops, Mr. West, supposedly in a whole $53 million in "debt" decides to make Pablo exclusive to TIDAL, the aforementioned premium music streaming service that promises to provide high-fidelity music in an age where most listen to their music for free on YouTube before taking your money without actually providing the album in return. But even past the technical issues that can come from any service such as TIDAL, it only just narrows down the audience that could potentially purchase and listen to Pablo, with two options being present to those who aren't: abuse the option for a free trial by signing up, listening to the album and cancelling said trial, or if you don't have or don't want to use your credit card, resort to piracy. In that case, it's a lose/lose scenario as either way, no one gets paid. It's baffling to me personally as to why you would deliberately restrict the target audience of a product that was clearly intended for the masses to something that is nothing more than an a niche, unless you're the Wu-Tang Clan of course.

Bizarre release and marketing choices aside, is the album worth it? Yes and no. It's honestly a mixed bag - with more meaningful or at least intriguing tracks such as "Ultralight Beams", "30 Hours" or my own favourite, "Real Friends", as well as a couple other exceptions, everything else in between feels out-of-place or simply just filler. While its all well-produced as you'd come to expect from Kanye (well, for the most part, here's looking at you, "Father Stretch My Hands"), the lyrics are just weak - providing no insight or themes, it's literally just Kanye talking about getting bleach from a bleached asshole on his t-shirt (no joke) or him spinning yet another verse about how Nike should feel sorry that they didn't make a deal to sell some ridiculously overpriced trainers.

It really makes you think, this album could benefit so greatly by simply just focusing the track list instead of just throwing it around incoherently just so it can be posted on Twitter every other week. The one track that stands out sorely amongst its following tracks is the opener, the previously mentioned "Ultralight Beam", which would have worked perfectly as an outro to reflect on the song's major theme of religion and eventual closure. But as it stands, the song that comes straight after is just about how Kanye wants to fuck a model, the consequence seen in the previous paragraph. Just to clarify - I have no qualms about the content, I honestly don't care about being "offended" by explicit lyrics, but when you have such a mindless song stand straight after what is one of the highlights of the album, it just diminishes the effect that the first track had.

That is just one example of how the track list just feels like a tug-of-war between two differing themes of vanity and introspection, it doesn't transition from one to the other, it just juxtaposes between the two from track to track and it is honestly frustrating. There is a good album in here, it just desperately needs to be rearranged in a manner that actually makes sense instead of the mess that its currently sold as.

The connection is clearly there; tracks like "30 Hours" make direct references in title to "Ultralight Beam" but they're both split by what is a full album's length apart. What happened? Instead of doing a logical transition from basking in the self-indulgent fame-driven lifestyle heard in tracks like "Famous" or "Father Stretch My Hands", then tiring of said lifestyle referenced in the notable "No More Parties in L.A." before reflecting on his own thoughts and feelings in "Real Friends", "30 Hours" and "Ultralight Beam", they're just scatter shot - it's almost as if this was how they were arranged but at the last minute Kanye just decided to pick the order out of a hat. But who knows, it's honest speculation, but speculation that needs to be made when its the difference between what makes a missed opportunity what could have been one of the best releases in 2016 so far.

I'M THE MAN WHO LOVES YOU: Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and it's troubled release...

There's no question that "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" is a god's honest classic, remaining the stand out album from Wilco's long and established discography. What is often not known however to most passive listeners is the trouble behind this album in its production and delayed release and how the military-lingo filled title came to be.

The advent of Yankee comes shortly after the second Billy Bragg collaboration "Mermaid Avenue Vol. II", which was not to be the last of their collaborations. While touring to promote the album, Wilco's main man - the wry humoured Jeff Tweedy was offered the opportunity of a further collaboration with other musicians which eventually stemmed into the relatively short-lived side project Loose Fur. It was because of this association that drummer Glenn Kotche became what is still a key piece of Wilco, after his predecessor was dismissed due to significant differences in what the next step should be, a recurring theme in this album's production, with a similar fate happening to former guitarist the late Jay Bennett. However, this still wasn't the end their troubles.

After recording finished in what was early 2001, the deal was struck for a September 11, 2001 release. This was until the major merger between AOL and Time Warner was made, causing the loss of several hundred jobs, such as those of the Time Warner-owned Reprise Records - including the band's main seconder, the president of the company. His replacement tasked with the choice as whether or not to release the completed project, which was stemming to one option as a result of merged business' subsequent financial woes: unlikely. A buyout was made shortly after by the band, which ended up being a penniless departure with Reprise being admirably accommodating. That is, before a certain article came along and stirred up some unnecessary controversy, with the new-found president of Reprise alleged to have stated that "the record was so bad it would kill Wilco's career," oh, the irony. Even if the album was to go ahead with its intended release, the significance of their chosen date wouldn't exactly have been too kind to the album in more ways than one.

To spite what would be a heavy delay to its physical release, the band decided to stream the full album only a week after its intended release, opting to tour afterwards which was successful and even regardless of its limited release, fans still knew the words to their what were officially unreleased tracks.

In the mean time, the big release was still almost a whole year away, with Wilco opening bids for rights to distribute their album, two of which were the now-defunct Artemis Records and the long-standing Nonesuch Records. There were numerous other record labels teething for the album, their bids all dismissed by the spearhead: if the label did not have a roster of artists that matched his taste, they were put by the way side. Pushing November 2001, Wilco collectively signed with Nonesuch Records. Funny thing about that, scratching past the surface reveals that Nonesuch is owned by AOL Time Warner. The irony continues. Thus, in a twist of fate that not even a Wikipedia article could present without cracking a cynical grin, Wilco recorded and produced an album with a company that thought of their work as a career-killer, before reverting their rights and continuing to sell said rights to the same affiliate.

But, it finally came out, and to great fanfare: widespread commercial and critical success.

And all it took was 2 band members, 2 record labels and a self-titled documentary for it to reach that point. A small price to pay for what is, in my opinion, one of the greatest albums of all time. From the moment you hear those introductory piercing notes that will indeed break your heart to the reflective ambience in reservations, it will keep you in it's lo-fi, almost psychedelic trance. There aren't really any words to describe it further than that, it can be a slow grower, but once it's there it never lets go. Something you do truly have to experience for yourself.