‘Donda’ Does What It’s Supposed to Do
Kanye West’s new album is far from flawless, but it delivers on its mission nonetheless
Kanye West released his 10th solo studio album, Donda, on Sunday, August 29. It had been teased for weeks, with each listening event — two inside Atlanta’s Georgia Dome and one inside his hometown Chicago’s Soldier Field — building hype for what felt like a messianic scripture that would never come.
But then it was here. Nearly two hours of music, most of which had previously been heard with slight tweaks and a few notable omissions. Much has already been made of it — critics who’ve primarily judged the album on aesthetics (how it sounds), social politics (Marilyn Mansion and DaBaby, both recently canceled, make guest appearances), and whether, in sum total, the record is a return to form (i.e., is it better than his last two albums, Jesus Is King and Ye, both of which, to a casual listener, could feel slight and arguably inconsequential).
Personally, I believe this is the wrong criteria to judge Donda by as its purpose seems beyond the pale of simply making a record that sounds aesthetically interesting or getting back in the good graces of those who left Kanye for dead once he put on the Make America Great Again hat or even, for that matter, reclaiming some crown he seemed to have…
