It's a good album, and its density will give it a lot of replay value. I think it's easily his best production since The Cool. The lyrics are so tough to keep up with though, just because of how dense it is. There were times where I'd listen to a song multiple times in a row and still have no idea what the song was about. Reading the lyrics on paper (more specifically, on Rap Genius) made them a lot easier to digest. As the Pitchfork review said, "his way with language has always felt painterly rather than writerly, more concerned with how one word shades the next than with literal coherence." That's a perfect way to describe it. I do wish there were more easy to digest songs; while I can respect that writing style, I think the straightforwardness of songs like He Say She Say and Hip Hop Saved My Life were strong spots because he was still able to add subtleties like inflection instead of making them overly complicated.

I spent all night falling in the rabbit hole of disambiguation threads about the album's theme, how it works when played backwards, gems like the hook of Adoration of Magi, etc. Shit is Annotation Rap, for real.

Shit's a dope album, and I plan to buy it because it's quality and because I respect the effort that went into it. Not sure how much I'll be listening to it though beacuse it's a pretty intense listen - despite his best production in nearly a decade, it's not a casual listen at all. I feel like I need to be doing absolutely nothing while listening to truly appreciate it.