Official Album art from Youtube

VULTURES 1 was an album released on streaming platforms on Feb. 10. Released by Kanye West’s YZY brand, the album debuted the duo of Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign, along with various features from a roster of big-name artists. This album was highly praised by some and left others frustrated with its sound or upset with its lyrics; my personal opinion is the album is honestly hit-or-miss, and I only walked away liking three songs.

Overall, looking at the album sonically, it is another showcase of the experimental and precise production that listeners expect from Kanye. Some songs boast grandiose levels of production, like the tracks “CARNIVAL” and “VULTURES.” Others have minimalistic but still complex production, like “BEG FORGIVENESS” or “STARS.” The sounds of this album are beautifully juxtaposed with intricate drum patterns, powerful vocal samples, lowkey basslines, and gut-wrenching 808s to give us an album with multiple sides to it, much like West himself.

Moving on to a few specific tracks, I want to look at the track “CARNIVAL,” my personal favorite. This is one of the more grand productions, in which for the chorus Kanye used a chant done by Italian football club Inter Milan’s Ultras. The chant is loud and in-your-face; being recorded in the team’s locker room, it gives the feeling of being in the circle before the game. The chant, along with the rest of the song, is backed by a stadium crowd chanting “woooooh ooooh aaah ooooh.” Overall, the song is the embodiment of big music, with heavy instrumentals consisting of hard kicks, deep, rumbling 808s, features from Playboi Carti and Rich the Kid, and a very loud stylophone sample that gives almost electrical feedback sounds. One of the best songs on the album, “CARNIVAL” makes the listener feel like they’re in the stadium chanting along while their team has just taken home the trophy.

In opposition to that song, there’s one of the more simple tracks—sonically speaking—”BEG FORGIVENESS.” This track uses very quiet, airy chords, which serve as the background to the focus of the instrumentals, which is a simple bassline played over most of the song. Over most of the instrumental is a vocal performance done by Chris Brown, which is pitched up and warped to the point where it’s difficult to tell who’s actually singing. 

Kanye punches in one small verse where the instrumental changes and picks up a little but still stays very simple with just a few echoey plucks of the bass playing repeatedly and the strings completely left out of the mix. After that, a cult-like chant of “beg forgiveness” loops until Ty Dolla $ign sings his verse and the outro. Then, the song ends with the same “beg forgiveness” chant. Overall, it’s a very mellow, laid-back instrumental leaving room for the intricate vocal performances and unsettling chants to be the focus. This is the complete opposite of the previous track, but it’s just as good, as it’s one of the best on the album. This track gives the feeling of disdain and makes the listener feel like they’ve had their heart broken and are being asked for forgiveness that they refuse to provide; this is shown by lyrics like “Sum of all the parts that you have taken / Are fractions of the parts that make me whole.” And of course, the chorus asks the mystery person to beg forgiveness of them. 

Overall, VULTURES 1 is a very back-and-forth album, with loud grandiose songs displaying lyrics of triumph and independence, claiming victory and power over emotions, enemies, and past pain. These are followed by songs that admit their wounds have not healed completely, and the game hasn’t been won yet. It is an album full of wild, questionable lyrics, but the talent of the music speaks for itself, and it still proves itself to be an album that’s worth listening to.