‘Judgment is the price of being creative’
Sometimes doing the same thing and doing it well is the best form of reinvention
Kanye west
Sunday
Wednesday
The case against re-recording albums
In 2012, Jeff Lynne released Mr Blue Sky: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra. Except it wasn’t. It was 11 new re-recordings of classic ELO songs – which isn’t the same thing at all. Lynne, bless him, believed that having gained more experience as a producer, he could now improve the songs that made him famous. ‘You know how to make it sound better than it did before,’ he said, ‘Because I have more knowledge… and technology.’ Sheesh. How wrong can one man be? Pop music is all about the definitivearticle. Not only the bold prefix attached to its greatest practitioners – Beatles, Byrds, Wailers, Temptations, Fall, et al
Thursday
Lizzo and the problem with Fat Activism
If fat women are told repeatedly how wonderful they are just for being fat, they aren’t going to bother to work on their character
Wednesday
What is the point of another Trump presidential campaign?
To set out merely to assuage an ego is not going to be enough
Thursday
Is Kanye West really out to derail Trump?
The former president somehow ended up hosting Ye, Fuentes and Milo at Mar-a-Lago. The fallout has been spectacular
Monday
In the studio with presidential candidate Kanye West
He stormed out after twenty minutes
Monday
Cancelled Kanye West buys cancelled free speech platform Parler
Hear Ye Hear Ye! The news today has broken that Kanye West – who calls himself Ye – has bought Parler, the Trumpist social media platform. The news was announced earlier by Parler CEO George Farmer, the son of Lord Farmer, the Conservative peer. ‘This deal will change the world and change the way the world thinks about free speech,’ said George. Farmer is also the husband of Candace Owens, the American MAGA celebrity, who appears to have been an important influence – is muse the right word? – in Ye’s conversion away from Hollywood La La Land and towards Trump-infused right-nationalist populism. Candace and Kanye both recently appeared together wearing ‘White
Saturday
Enthralling and unusual – even if you don't care about Kanye: Netflix's Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy reviewed
Even if you don’t care about Kanye West
Thursday
Repetitive, spiritless, god-bothering music: Kanye West's Donda reviewed
Grade: C– The nicest thing one can say is that this is a marginally better album than we would have got from either of the other two presidential candidates. Just about. But sheesh, it’s still nearly two hours of the most repetitive, spiritless, god-bothering music you will ever hear, full of portentousness and self-pity and utterly devoid of any insight or humour. Rap, trap, snap, all the tiresome bases covered. Decent tunes and memorable rhythms are few and far between. I like West, the man, for his stoic refusal to kowtow to the stupid liberal orthodoxies demanded by the music business. But his self-importance is now so bloated he resembles
Repetitive, spiritless, god-bothering music: Kanye West's Donda reviewed
There are one or two moments worth savoring but most of the time the music is stuck in the dullest monotone frequency
Thursday
The art of Dolly Parton’s bra
New York I hope this is my last week in the Bagel. I plan to fly first to Switzerland and then on to London. There’s the annual Pugs Club lunch I cannot afford to miss, but now that Boris is married I don’t suppose he gives a damn about the poor little Greek boy and his club lunches. Incidentally, the little bird has answered my last week’s query about The Spectator bash: the sainted editor is waiting to hear what, yes you guessed it, the new bridegroom premier will allow this summer. Boris doesn’t seem to be able to make up his mind whether the magazine he headed for close
