'The Life Of Pablo' Drops, West Drops New Album

© Dimitrios Kambouris, Getty Images for Yeezy Season 3

Review: Kanye West reaches peak on 'Pablo' - Three weeks ago, many Kanye West fans scratched their heads when the rap icon declared, in one of his typically scattershot Twitter rants, that his new album is "actually a gospel album."

But what seemed like a left-field pronouncement comes blatantly into focus in the opening pangs of Ultra Light Beams, the first song off West's intoxicating The Life of Pablo (***½ out of four). Backed by a church organ and choir, and sampling a devil-spurning prayer by 4-year-old Instagram personality @SheIsNatalie, Beam finds West in the midst of a "God dream," as he mulls his faith and asks for peace, serenity and prayers for Paris.

The-Dream and Kelly Price chime in with rousing vocals, but it's Chance the Rapper who walks away with an album-best verse, deftly dropping references to everything from Sia to Arthur in his fervent, freewheeling manner.

Beam sets the tone for the rest of Pablo, a loosely structured seventh album that encapsulates West at the peak of his powers. Marrying the soulful introspection of his 2010 masterpiece My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy with the taut production of his brash 2013 effort Yeezus, West has never been more reflective nor more cocksure.

On the deceptively catchy Father Stretch My Hands Pts. 1 and 2, West gets deeply personal singing over throbbing 808s: recalling failed relationships, his mother's death and how he won't make the same mistakes as his work-consumed father, who walked out on the family when West was 3.

The rapper is equally vulnerable on the wistful Real Friends, with Ty Dolla $ign, and mercurial FML, featuring The Weeknd. The latter is a gloomy ode in which he pledges his devotion to Kim Kardashian West and rails against a disparaging media ("They don't wanna see me love you," he warbles through a hazy wash of Auto-Tune).

He is also winningly self-aware. "I've been outta my mind a long time," he playfully announces on the wonky Feedback, calling himself "Steve Jobs mixed with Steve Austin" and the "ghetto Oprah," and heralds his own singularity as an artist on acoustic interlude I Miss the Old Kanye ("I love you like Kanye loves Kanye," he concludes with a laugh).

Rihanna (Famous), Frank Ocean (Wolves) and Chris Brown (Waves) deliver some of the most memorable spots on the 18-song album, padded with bonus tracks after its launch at Madison Square Garden, giving the record a more strung-together feel than his narratively cohesive Fantasy.

If Pablo stumbles, it's in West's tone-deaf digs at others: knocking Rob Kardashian for his weight; his wife's ex-boyfriend, Ray J, for his wealth (or lack thereof); and Taylor Swift, whom he suggests should have sex with him, after he "made that (expletive) famous" with his infamous stage crash at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. These particular jabs are lazy at best and misogynistic at worst — showing a less evolved artist than the rest of Pablo lets on.