Review: Kanye West

As the hip-hop superstar took off in his ‘spaceship’ at the end of the final leg on these shores of his Glow in the Dark tour at Manchester’s M.E.N Arena, the utterly exhilarated crown were left in doubt they had just witnessed the greatest showman on earth at his vainglorious best.

Who else bases his whole set on a moon-like landscape, wears a wrist splint, is swallowed whole by an alien, and has recently proclaimed he intends to make music that more resembles Phil Collins than Dr Dre?

West has long eschewed the normal hip-hop fayre of guns and gangsters, for a slicker form of social commentary – epitomised by a rousing version of Diamonds from Sierra Leone – but if his new album 808s & Heartbreak, released next week, is a departure from his previous three, then Monday night’s performance was a fitting farewell.

From the moment he burst into Good Morning until a thunderous climax of new single Love Lockdown, an exhuberant West ripped through his back catalogue to leave any of the haters that so dominate his thoughts in little doubt why he is the self-proclaimed hip-hop messiah.

All the old favourites were there: Gold Digger, Through the Wire, Jesus Walks and a brilliant Touch the Sky, as well as most of Graduation, last year’s third album which sent him into another stratosphere, including Stronger, Good Life and a riotous Can’t Tell Me Nothing – just after being spat out of dragon-cum-alien. Amazing.

The 31-year-old, looking more rotund than usual, barely paused for breath, with the exception of Hey Mama - a poignant ode to his departed mother Donda who dies a little over a year ago during cosmetic surgery - as he bounced across stage in a unique Elvis-meets-robot style dance.

Before jetting off, West apologised ‘If I make it hard for you to ever go to another concert again’ and repeated his mantra he was the ‘brightest star in the universe’.

From his native Cha City to Manchester, St Tropez to San Hose, on this showing, it would be difficult to find anyone to disagree.