“Watch the Throne,” one of the year’s most anticipated albums from Jay-Z and Kanye West, was released Monday, and the reviews are pouring in.

Speakeasy, the WSJ music blog, collected some reviews:

• “When two of the biggest names in hip-hop – Jay-Z and Kanye West — collaborate on an album, is there any way it can live up to the hype? Likely not, and that’s the burden ‘Watch the Throne’ faces…it rarely takes the kind of chances West routinely takes on his solo albums. Instead, the idea is to create an album that lives up to its royal billing, a gilded collection of potential hits with lots of hooks and plenty of branding opportunities.” [Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune]

• “The deluxe edition of ‘Watch the Throne,’ Jay-Z and Kanye West’s long-awaited collaboration is an hour and seven minutes of gold-plated social commentary…dig deep into ‘Throne,’ past the bacchanal celebration of the finer things in life, and you’ll find the album’s heart: two men grappling with what it means to be successful and black in a nation that still thinks of them as second class.” [Claire Suddath,Time]

• “Celebration of the high life is undercut by regrets, loneliness, and snatches of mournful social commentary. Like West’s acclaimed solo effort last year, the album title reveals itself as both boastful and paranoid, proud and furtive…this type of intimacy and honesty doesn’t come easy — or often enough — in commercial hip-hop.” [Ryan Pearson, Associated Press]

• “The result is a cocksure, fiery, smart, if problematic, collaboration that showcases the pair’s distinct lyrical skills, their way around a metaphor and an ability to execute both a grand narrative and the details that turn it into truth…on ‘Watch the Throne,’ the two kings prove much more nimble and disciplined, displaying a confidence that suggests they’re not going anywhere.” [Randall Roberts, Los Angeles Times]
• Rolling Stone offers a track-by-track breakdown:
• (more…)