As usual, the second chapter of the collaborative trilogy by Ye/Kanye West with Ty Dolla $ign arrives unexpectedly at the beginning of this torrid August.
Sixteen songs that are the second step of the project that the two announced in January and which saw its first release in February.
This second volume had been somewhat lost track of. Very little has leaked out from the two and of course, when Kanye is involved, the scheduling and release dates are always a rare hypothesis rather than a certainty.
The impression we've always had is that there was a mountain of material to work on (demos, scraps from previous albums and songs already tested live) and that the choice of assembly depended more on mere marketing operations rather than on artistic and conceptual will.
The first chapter was not bad but without peaks. An album that did not leave an important mark in the discography of the two and even less in that of the urban world.
“Vultures 2” despite the discouraging premises starts well, with a successful triptych: Slide, Time Moving Slow and Field Tripthey are songs that work.
Well structured beats with lots of piano house in Time Moving Slow and a wonder team with Don Toliver, Kodak Black & Playboi Carti in Field Trip that give support to the two, a song where there is also a Portishead “unauthorized” sample.
Fried it's a stadium chant already heard, the next one Promotion sees Future on the field, while Husband it's just Kanye in something intimate but pretty boring.
In Lifestyle there's Lil Wayne moving elegantly on a smooth beat. Forever It is produced by James Blake and you can feel it, while Bomb It's pretty pointless as a track, a nursery rhyme and a divertissement featuring Kanye's two daughters.
River it's dark with Young Thug and it doesn't convince me, I feel it's disconnected without head or tail.
530 It's supposed to be a discarded demo of “Donda 2,” a track with a masterful instrumental and a punchy Kanye introspection that Ty fits in well.
In Dead Future returns this time with Lil Durk and Ty effectively disappears. The instrumental part is good, even if a little boring. Forever Rolling It has a trap cut with Lil Baby and a passable instrumental that doesn't take off. Sky City comes from the past. A jewel at the time of “Yandhi” now it has been fixed but has lost its charm.
Close the disc My Soul, song that doesn't add anything more and I can't understand the role of Todd Rundgren who is in the credits.
Ultimately “Vultures 2” is similar to “Vultures 1” and will be similar to “Vultures 3”.
Once again I ask myself why not just make one album with the best of the three!
Ty does not disappoint and does his part but there remains a bitter taste in the mouth and sadness in seeing Kanye increasingly distant from his creative and musical state of grace that had characterized his past glories.
TRACK BY TRACK SCORE: Score 7.00
SLIDE – RATING 7.25
TIME MOVING SLOW – RATING 7.00
FIELD TRIP (Ft. Don Toliver, Kodak Black & Playboi Carti) – RATING 7.25
FRIED – RATING 6.50
ISABELLA —
PROMOTION (Ft. Future) – RATING 7.00
HUSBAND – RATING 7.00
LIFESTYLE (Ft. Lil Wayne) – RATING 7.25
FOREVER – RATING 7.00
BOMB (Ft. Chicago West & North West) RATING 6.00
RIVER (Ft. Young Thug) – RATING 6.50
530 – VOTE 7.25
DEAD (Ft. Future & Lil Durk) RATING 7.00
FOREVER ROLLING (Ft. Lil Baby) – RATING 6.50
SKY CITY (Ft. 070 Shake, CyHi & Desiigner) RATING 7.00
MY SOUL (Ft. Big TC & Todd Rundgren) – RATING 6.50
MUST LISTEN NOW
Slide – Field Trap – Lifestyle
MUST SKIPP NOW
To be listened in pair with volume 1
