The announcement came just days after West released a photo of the album’s 10-song tracklist including the name of the album — then called Swish — on his social media accounts. Interestingly, a song called Waves was listed on his original post as track three, typically the lead single spot on a full-length release.
The name change announcement came in tandem with a new photo of the same list, with Swish crossed out and replaced by Waves as the album title, along with one added song, called Ultra Light Beam, at the very end as track eleven. The musician also indicated in ink that the record would take place in three acts, and in-studio collaborators like Swizz Beats, A$AP Rocky, and The-Dream appeared to have signed the scribbled-over track list, along with wife Kim Kardashian and others.
So happy to be finished with the best album of all time pic.twitter.com/JBWa8OWvqw
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) January 25, 2016
#waves pic.twitter.com/fyER7NH8DC
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) January 27, 2016
The new record, about which Kanye also tweeted, “This is not album of the year. This is album of the life,” will premiere at New York’s Madison Square Garden during the musician’s presentation at New York Fashion Week in February.
Waves, the first studio release from West since 2013’s Yeezus, is set to hit streaming services and record stores the same day as the fashion week show, but where exactly it will stream remains to be seen.
The musician has been slowly leaking tracks via what he calls the G.O.O.D. Friday series — tracks that typically, but not always, come out on the musician’s Soundcloud every Friday — and says that a new song will appear each week until the album hits stores everywhere.
