Welcome to LOST WEEKEND, VICE’S new Monday briefing.Black America, white America, and those of the Jewish faith. The Libs and anyone who’s against the use of AI. The ADL, Adidas, and Apple. The Kardashians. Drake, Jay-Z, and Kid Cudi. Taylor Swift fans and the cast of Saturday Night Live. These are just a few of the people Ye has offended, fallen out with, or otherwise upset in the last fifteen years, though an exhaustive list would take up the entirety of this article. The Swifties are probably a lost cause, but will any of the people he’s hurt and dismayed be won back around by the release of his 12th studio album BULLY? Ye’s career, which has often felt like a tireless campaign to test the limits of tolerance and adoration, reached a grim crescendo last year when he declared himself a Nazi on X and then released a song called “Heil Hitler.” This year, it seems the pendulum is beginning its predictable swing back in the other direction. In January, the artist formerly known as Kanye West took out a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal, in which he apologized for antisemitic remarks and generally chaotic behavior, citing his struggles with bipolar disorder and an undiagnosed brain injury following a car crash (the same one that inspired his debut single “Through the Wire”). For some, it’ll take more than a newspaper advert and an album campaign to regain their affections at this point. But for others, BULLY is regarded as a long-awaited return to form, and the start of Ye’s latest effort to have us forgive and forget his innumerable indiscretions.After a poorly received run of releases that traded dense, perfectionist production for campfire gospel music and rogue singles about sucking off his cousin, BULLY finally gives the people what they want. There have long been calls for Ye to return to the chopped soul samples with pitched up vocals with which he made his name, and there is an unmistakable throwback to the “chipmunk soul” here, as well as hints of the bleak eighties beat of 808s and Heartbreak; the orchestral maximalism of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy; the industrial aggression of Yeezus and The Life of Pablo’s conflicted spirituality. Ye has a unique ability to turn intolerable low points in his personal life into astounding creative highs, and there are flourishes of that on BULLY—opener “KING” is swaggering and defiant; on the almost theatrical-sounding “HIGHS and LOWS” he sounds as if he’s desperately clinging on to everything he’s built, and on closer “This One Here” he sings the line “I know dawn is upon us” in a way that it sounds like he’s saying the name of his late mother, Donda West, before, once again, promising to let go of that troublesome ego. Still, the timing here feels a little conspicuous. Perhaps it’s a strange form of fan service, deliberately echoing some of the most satisfying moments in his catalogue after prolonged efforts to confound our understanding of who he is as an artist.Despite the years of controversy, Ye obviously cares deeply what people think of him. One of the defining features of his artistry has always been this tension between his creative vision and our own expectations. To continue to listen to—and enjoy—his music is not without a certain measure of cognitive dissonance. Listening to BULLY, you end up asking yourself both ‘do I like this?’ and ‘should I like this?’ A lot seems to ride on the order in which you rank these questions. The tedious debate around separating the art from the artist has been reignited by Rosalía’s recent comments about Pablo Picasso—an artist Ye has frequently been compared to, not least by himself. If Ye seems like the most prominent contemporary test case then it’s because his entire career feels like commentary on the discussion. His apparent addiction to making people like and unlike him means that, for many, an appreciation of his music has gone hand in hand with a dilemma over if and when to publicly disavow him. As comedian Zachary Fox put it in an unfortunately prescient 2018 tweet: “Highly recommend getting off the Kanye train before it inevitably reaches the ‘Hitler was a good guy’ stop.” “Listening to BULLY, you end up asking yourself both ‘do I like this?’ and ‘should I like this?’”Obviously, it’s worth acknowledging that many music fans simply don’t care about the ethical implications of listening to Ye. They’re more interested in how his songs sound at a nightclub, or a school prom, or a wedding party. And those fans will find much to enjoy on BULLY, which often sounds like a personal greatest hits collection, chopping up many of the most beloved elements from across the breadth of his discography.It’s almost been 10 years since Ye explicitly acknowledged the yearning for a return to “the old Kanye” on The Life of Pablo—a record whose hyper self-awareness and fragmented songwriting set the tone for much of Ye’s later output. My personal suspicion is that the relatively negative critical reception to Ye and Jesus is King—skewed by a reaction to Ye’s increasingly divisive public persona and political statements—fed a belligerent desire to offend and aggravate everyone he could. Either way, I feared there had been a terminal fall off in his nearly superhuman curatorial powers. Yet, while BULLY certainly skews towards the shorter songs and loose, associative feel he’s favored in recent years, the overall focus and consistency is higher than anything we’ve seen over the last decade.Crucially, it also makes amends for one of the major criticisms of Donda—the lack of drums. Ye without a beat is like Usain Bolt without shoelaces, so you can only assume that it was a creative choice for one the greatest producers of our time to hold himself back in this way (another affront to our ideas of how his music should sound). Though many argue Donda would’ve benefited from an edit, each track feels like a splash of paint on a canvas that eventually coheres into a single beautiful portrait—and the same is true of BULLY. The record has a sophistication that was lacking from the Vulture albums, which featured many of the broad-brush strokes that Ye seems to lean on in his collaborative releases, for better and worse. “Ye without a beat is like Usain Bolt without shoelaces”A part of that includes the outlandish repurposing of familiar songs (“You Can’t Hurry Love” in this case)—a hallmark of Ye’s production style. Though initially disconcerting on BULLY, it quickly comes to feel like it always does: a sublime form of musical pop art, collaging entire chunks of culture in one go. Those who objected to the seemingly extensive use of AI when the original demos were released more than a year ago will be pleased to learn that the version available for streaming seems to have more or less been made without evident use of this technology – though unfortunately this doesn’t seem to be the case for the physical release, with many fans left disappointed by the BULLY vinyl. Despite the string arrangements and wild operatic use of the vocoder, reminiscent of some of his unassailable creative peaks, BULLY lacks a stroke of genius that defines his most memorable work (the outros of “Runaway” and “New Slaves” come to mind). But it should be recognized as his most coherent, satisfying project in 10 years. That is, if it’s still possible to consider it on artistic merit alone. BARROOM GOSSIPThere’s plans to turn Kieran Saint Leonard’s novel A Muse into a movie. There’s an American filmmaker working on it and the idea is to shoot in Europe and the U.S. A number of musicians are set for supporting parts and cameos. Our sources say it’s expected to provide total entertainment forever.The UK’s Green Party leader Zack Polanski “shut down Trafalgar Square” on Saturday. Joining a march against the far right that drew over half a million people, the future probable PM candidate was seen leading an “oggy oggy oggy” chant on stage with Hannah Spencer and dancers in fetishwear. Not quite “I Had A Dream,” but still more coherent than most statements made by Joe Biden towards the end of his tenure in fairness.Reporters covering Southwark Crown Court in London were looking forward to a meeting of minds between comedian Russell Brand and DJ Tim Westwood. Both were due in court over separate sexual offense cases. However, Westwood was excused from attending, so we’ll never get to know what scintillating conversations they might have shared. ONE PREDICTION FOR THE WEEK AHEADSomeone went viral over the weekend for vibe coding an app that makes your MacBook “moan” when you slap it. It made $5K in 3 days and everyone is jealous, so we’ll probably see an uptick in dumb apps for morons in the coming weeks. Next up: an app that gurgles and splutters like a murder victim when you drop it drunkenly in the toilet.BRAND NEW SENTENCE“The trend didn’t start with baby carrots begging for their lives. It also won’t end there.”WHAT WILL YE DO NEXT?An art exhibition to raise awareness of CTE. The private gallery show features fine art by Ye depicting Chris Benoit’s most brutal headshots. Stone Cold Steve Austin is absolutely furious.Follow Adam on Instagram: @yungtolstoiThe post Can Ye Win People Back with ‘BULLY’? appeared first on VICE.