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It’s possible that we didn’t, in fact, want the old Kanye. Bully, the 12th studio album from Ye, né Kanye West, feels in some ways like a greatest-hits compilation: There are soul samples flipped with the alchemic acumen that made Ye one of the main architects of the past 20 years of popular music. There are crisp, stadium-ready melodies and polished, albeit just serviceable, hooks. Yet the project feels lifeless overall, as though the Ye whom fans might remember, like the times he represents, is indeed never coming back.

Bully arrives after the much embattled Vultures, which Ye struggled to get on streaming platforms while still managing to deliver a Number One song in “Carnival.” Vultures saw Ye fully on the defensive, following his setting fire to every personal and professional bridge he had with a spree of antisemitic tirades and antics — all of which is documented in the documentary In Whose Name?, no less. After going on to release a song with the hook “Heil Hitler” (which incidentally played a role in the recent viral fame of “looksmaxxing” proponent Clavicular), and getting booted from Shopify for selling merch with swastikas, Ye had successfully shut himself out of mainstream conversation. He continued touring internationally to muted fanfare, and existed as something of a pariah in the States.