LOS ANGELES: Kanye West’s new album “Yeezus” leaked online Friday, four days before its official release, but the US rapper appeared unconcerned as the Internet went crazy over his latest record.
The much-anticipated album — due to be officially released Tuesday — immediately became a top Twitter trending subject, while instant reviews were largely positive.
It was not immediately clear if the leak was part of a marketing strategy or was a genuine non-deliberate release. The album includes contributions from French electro artists Daft Punk, Frank Ocean, Justin Vernon and Kid Cudi.
The 36-year-old held a public listening session for media in New York on Monday for the new album recorded in Paris and Los Angeles, his sixth solo record, without preventing anyone from recording what they heard.
Pop culture and technology website Mashable said its representative was among 100 or so people at the session, and that West’s record company staff appeared to have no qualms about the music leaking.
Mashable quoted the rapper himself as telling those present: “I have this new strategy. It’s called no strategy,” adding with expletive accompaniment: “This album is all about giving.”
Rolling Stone called the album “the darkest, most extreme music Kanye has ever cooked up, an extravagantly abrasive album full of grinding electro, pummeling minimalist hip-hop, drone-y wooz and industrial gear-grind.
“Every mad genius has to make a record like this at least once in his career,” the music bible added, giving the album 4.5 stars out of five.
The New York Daily News gave it a five-star review, saying: “Everything about the album ups the ante of its advance press: It presents Kanye as nothing less than the Johnny Rotten of his generation.”
“The entire disc rethinks industrial rock of the early ‘90s for both a new era and genre,” the newspaper’s critic added.
In the past, West has taken extreme precautions to prevent pirating of his music, limiting the number of people involved to reduce the risk of files leaking by e-mail or other means.
New Kanye West album leaks, creating online buzz
New Kanye West album leaks, creating online buzz
Fans bid farewell to Japan’s only pandas
TOKYO: Panda lovers in Tokyo said goodbye on Sunday to a hugely popular pair of the bears that are set to return to China, leaving Japan without the beloved animals for the first time in half a century.
Loaned out as part of China’s “panda diplomacy” program, the distinctive black-and-white animals have symbolized friendship between Beijing and Tokyo since the normalization of diplomatic ties in 1972.
Some visitors at Ueno Zoological Gardens were left teary-eyed as they watched Japan’s only two pandas Lei Lei and Xiao Xiao munch on bamboo.
The animals are expected to leave for China on Tuesday following a souring of relations between Asia’s two largest economies.
“I feel like seeing pandas can help create a connection with China too, so in that sense I really would like pandas to come back to Japan again,” said Gen Takahashi, 39, a Tokyo resident who visited the zoo with his wife and their two-year-old daughter.
“Kids love pandas as well, so if we could see them with our own eyes in Japan, I’d definitely want to go.”
The pandas’ abrupt return was announced last month after Japan’s conservative premier Sanae Takaichi hinted Tokyo could intervene militarily in the event of any attack on Taiwan.
Her comment provoked the ire of Beijing, which regards the island as its own territory.
The 4,400 lucky winners of an online lottery took turns viewing the four-year-old twins at Ueno zoo while others gathered nearby, many sporting panda-themed shirts, bags and dolls to celebrate the moment.
Mayuko Sumida traveled several hours from the central Aichi region in the hope of seeing them despite not winning the lottery.
“Even though it’s so big, its movements are really funny-sometimes it even acts kind of like a person,” she said, adding that she was “totally hooked.”
“Japan’s going to be left with zero pandas. It feels kind of sad,” she said.
Their departure might not be politically motivated, but if pandas return to Japan in the future it would symbolize warming relations, said Masaki Ienaga, a professor at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University and expert in East Asian international relations.
“In the future...if there are intentions of improving bilateral ties on both sides, it’s possible that (the return of) pandas will be on the table,” he told AFP.
