Kanye West showcased his new album The Life of Pablo during his Yeezy Season 3 fashion show in Madison Square Garden on Feb. 11. It was expected, but to no avail, that he would then put out the album for wide release later that day. Fans were instead teased as to the album cover but nothing else. On the 13th West Tweeted out an alternate version of his album cover with the phrase “BLAME CHANCE” splattered across it. Apparently Chance the Rapper, a rapper and contributor to the album, wanted the song “Waves” to make it onto the album, so the two were working hard in the studio to complete it so the album could be released.

Finally, after West’s appearance on SNL on Feb 13, T.L.O.P. was finally released in the early morning of Valentine’s day. Yet this release was not as wide a release as most hoped. Instead of making his album available on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music or Google Play, West chose to release it exclusively on TIDAL, Jay Z’s music streaming service. This caused TIDAL to quickly jump to the most downloaded album on the iTunes app store. However, this also caused T.L.O.P. to yield over half a million illegal downloads in one day, causing it to go “Gold” yet yield little profit to Kanye West himself.

The only thing that may have been messier than the release of T.L.O.P. was the album itself. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing. While all over the place with its tone, lyrics and style, West effectively created a new combination of sounds that come together in a rather appealing, well composed way. The album opens up with the emotional and moving, gospel inspired track “Ultralight Beam,” which features the talents of Chance The Rapper, setting a high standard that some other songs in the album live up to, while others fall short of.

Never shy to blurt out something controversial, West said some of the most radical statements he has yet, claiming on the track “Famous” that he and Taylor Swift may still have sex and that he made her famous, in reference to when West interrupted Swift during her acceptance speech back at the 2009 VMA’s. West continued this offensive trend with a slew of misogynistic messages throughout the album along with his usual slur of inappropriate ideas.

However, if you can move past the controversy that followed most anything West said, you may find immense enjoyment in T.L.O.P. On Yeezus, West delved into experimental sounds, but now he has taken it to a new level, never sticking to one sound for long before moving onto the next. For those who enjoy experimental sounds and high quality production, T.L.O.P. is definitely worth listening to. For those who miss the old Kanye and prefer quality lyrics over aesthetic and overall sound, I cannot recommend giving West’s newest venture a listen.