Many may want to dismiss "Only One," which arrived Jan. 1 and is the first track released from a collaboration between Kanye West and none other than Sir Paul McCartney, for reasons such as:
- It's typical of the Chicago-raised, self-proclaimed genius West to release a song as a new year begins and try to claim 2015 as his.
- The track is heavily Auto-Tuned, something that, "808s and Heartbreak" notwithstanding, still wouldn't seem to mesh with an intimate ballad.
- It's a collaboration between West and a Beatle. What? Why? Just to prove that they can?
- Kim Kardashian grumble grumble.
Anyone who actually listens to the song should feel differently, though. Atop a basic, sweet keyboard played by McCartney (who I think I hear singing for a second, but maybe not), Yeezus sings to both himself and his daughter, North, from the perspective of his late mother, Dr. Donda West. Perhaps it actually wouldn't be more moving without the Auto-Tune, since the rapper, for all his talents, wouldn't (shouldn't) cite singing as No. 1, and the distortion syncs with the sense of the words coming from beyond this world.
Multiple layers and generations of love shine through the track ("You're not perfect, but you're not your mistakes," West, more vulnerable than usual, has his mom advise, later requesting, "Tell Nori about me"), reinforcing that West will do pretty much whatever he wants and, most of the time, make it work better than expected.
Listen to the track as West's website.