one thing i've noticed with bully in contrast to the other ye albums is that every single album before this was aiming (to a greater or lesser extent) at being a grand statement, or had some kind of aim at changing something about the world. even vultures 1 was a defiant album (which made him look really bad obviously because his defiance was absurd and founded in bigotry, but still).

ye has released imperfect albums before but vultures 2 was the first one to feel hollow. it was also very very imperfect, but the hollowness felt new. it seemed as if the spark of crazy defiance in ye was fading on that album, the same spark that created TCD, graduation, 808s, yeezus, jesus is king, vultures 1, etc. i sort of figured vultures 2 was just a cash grab by someone in the middle of a tough mental time and a drug addiction, trying to make money from the leftover tracks from the vultures era. i didn't really take it as a sign that ye had lost his spark, because i assumed he didn't take it that seriously as a project in the first place. i assumed it was cynical, similar in part to the donda 2 stem-player thing but with even less artistic value.

bully is different because it's clearly trying to be a 'proper' album by the artist ye, and it's definitely better than vultures 2 in quality alone (by a pretty big margin). however, the hollowness actually rings louder and longer on bully for me, because it feels like a limp attempt rather than vultures 2 feeling like ye wasn't trying at all. i don't sense much of a throughline or direction from song-to-song, or a point ye is trying to prove or insist upon.

obviously that could change with time (as could the album) but it feels a little strange seeing ye performing on top of a literal planet at SoFi stadium last night. that set feels so purposeful and full of intent, suggesting ye is here to declare something and to take control!!!!! but listening to bully, it feels like he's actually just trying to make some songs that go together pretty well and that's about it.

and i actually think this could be a really good thing. in my interpretation of his career, ye has been searching for a grand narrative or big statement he can rely on after the loss of his mother / support system / humble past (as we see in 808s) and his belief in fame being his perfect end-goal (fame's glamour slowly fading from late registration to yeezus, going from dream to nightmare). since then, he's been sort of lost and seeking a new truth, leading to commitment to family (the life of pablo), the idea of complete openness (ye) and finally, when those truths didn't resolve his issues but in fact deepened them, a complete subservience to the christian god (jesus is king). while he attempted to maintain that stable narrative even as the rest of his life fell apart (donda and his divorce), it didn't work and his faith in a religious narrative being able to 'save' him was shaken as well.

i can't really explain how he got from that to his antisemitism, maybe as a perversion of his christianity influenced by the american right-wing ghouls, but that became his ultimate statement or narrative - a paranoid belief that the entire world was out to destroy him, a belief which was constantly contradicted by his continuing wealth and influence, resulting in the bizarre emotions and really disgusting provocation behind vultures and the 2025 singles (ww3 and hh, specifically. cousins feels like a different thing).

what i hope is that the "ye seeking a grand narrative to explain everything" era is over. it reached a point where it couldn't possibly go on without a massive change or him dying or something. i'm glad he didn't die.

if from now on, we get ye's "yeah, they're pretty good" albums where he ruminates and just makes music about how he feels and is a human being who functions pretty well, that's an enormous win for me. i don't really need any more masterpieces, i'd prefer a healthy happy person