Keeping up with Kanye West over the past few months has been kind of exhausting. In April, he trolled fans with a track that contained the lyrics “poopy-di-scoop”. Later that month, he posted a photograph of a Make America Great Again hat signed by the President. Early May, he love-bombed Trump on Twitter – “we are both dragon energy, We are brothers” – angering and upsetting many of his fans. He topped it all off that month in an interview with TMZ Live when he said that slavery “sounds like a choice”. When he announced a new release was imminent, one wondered if it would be the first alt-right rap album.

Until last night, it looked like Kanye was cancelled, so egregious were his recent outbursts. But Kanye is Kanye. His eighth album premiered in the mountains of Jackson Hole, Wyoming last night, with a star-studded audience, including Kanye and wife Kim Kardashian as well as 2Chainz, Nas, Ty Dolla $ign, Pusha T, Kid Cudi and others. The seven tracks were introduced by Chris Rock and live-streamed, though those who weren’t there had to wait until Friday afternoon to hear it properly.

Ye is Kanye’s on the couch album. The first couple of minutes of opening track, I Thought About Killing You, is spoken word. He talks of suicidal thoughts and confesses to thinking “really bad things, really, really bad things” over a treated, pretty backing vocal, before lurching into a darker, Danny Brown-esque coda propelled by a sample of a woman screaming.

In Yikes, he refers to his bipolar disorder directly, calling it a superpower, “no disability”. The chorus is the kind of melodic, emotional stanza you could imagine hearing in a Linkin Park song. “S--- could get menacin’, frightenin’, find help / Sometimes I scare myself, myself,” he says, presumably referring to his mental health (he was admitted to hospital in November 2017). It rolls on a tropical-style, meandering beat, veering between moods.

Kim Kardashian with her husband, Kanye West, in 2016 Credit: Invision

All Mine moves into more explicit territory in a track presumably about Kim Kardashian. It’s essentially a paean to her rear and the response it elicits in Kanye’s medulla oblongata. Ty Dolla $ign and Valee feature here, the first of several high profile guests. The beat crashes, it's dirty and mechanical, and feels like Life Of Pablo or Yeezus-era Kanye.

In Wouldn’t Leave, he refers to the controversy over his slavery comments, in a typically provocative manner: “just imagine if they caught me on a wild day.” He reveals that Kim screamed at him, saying “we ‘bout to lose it all!” Vocals provided by PARTYNEXTDOOR and Jeremih are lush and soulful. The whole thing has a Stevie Wonder, twinkling, sci-fi vibe and I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the track Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker produced.

Fans of early Graduation-era Kanye will be thrilled with what happens next. No Mistakes, which bounces on piano chords and a Slick Rick sample (“Believe it or not”), is old-school West. Ghost Town continues the theme with a mellifluous intro from John Legend before Kid Cudi comes in with a lethargic, hypnotic chorus. It’s accessible, sunny, and catchy with lyrics that concurrently reveal the dark avenues of Kanye’s psyche: “I put my hand on the stove, to see if I still bleed,” referencing Nine Inch Nails’s Hurt.

The final track is addressed to his daughter North. DeJLoaf’s celestial vocals kicks things off before Kanye explains why he’s worried about her growing up too soon in a sexualised society and hopes she’ll have his body rather than her mom’s. Even if you’re not really into the titty talk that appears earlier in the album, it’s a poignant and sweet moment that most Kanye fans will probably abhor for being too corny.

Ye is an album about Kanye’s state of mind, his family, and a narration of what’s been going on in his “shaky-ass year”. The beats are great. Lyrically, it’s fine. Whatever you think of his politics, his songwriting, sample-hunting and beat-making remain dynamic, surprising and ballsy.