BULLY2025

Undoubtedly his best work in roughly the last decade. The first half of the album is much stronger than the second half, while the second half still has many solid tracks it just doesn’t feel as seamless as the first half maybe some filler tracks or leftovers from other projects. Really glad to hear Kanye return to something more grounded with the sampling which he is so good at. The album cover depicts the grit of the mix well. The sonic direction of the album I think is pretty good with a tasteful balance of clean and static distortion from just having no compression or clipper/limiter where some channels have clipping distortion which sounds like they turned down in post which add to the atmosphere of the project and set a nice tone. Listened to this over 3 times and really want to rate it higher but just can’t get past some of my less liked tracks in the second half.

Really exciting if you are a Kanye west fan. Unfortunately predicting if Kanye will continue to make good music is anyone’s guess. There are many songs which sound like he borrowed inspiration from his older albums which is funny since he loves himself so much. The lyrical content is surprisingly not as self indulgent as I was expecting and some of it is actually really nicely directed in a more positive light which makes me think Kanye is probably in a much better place than he once was. If that is any indication of stability then I have hope for future music.

Ceelo Greens feature in BULLY and many of the features are really great too and I assume they are likely heavily directed by Kanye which tells you he hasn’t lost his touch.

Favourite tracks:
This a must
All the love*
Whatever works
Highs and lows
I can’t wait
White lines
Preacher man*
Last breath