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It was a rough year for Kanye West, though you may not have known that. Headlining Lollapalooza, selling oodles of albums, and skating through the stratosphere of superstars, it would be easy to claim the past year or so and a victory lap of sorts for West. However, underneath all of that lay two much darker events; the death of West's mother and the dissolution of his relationship with his fiance.
It's those two flashpoints that provide the overarching tone of West's newest disc, 808s & Heartbreak. Forget all of the egotistical braggadocio West throws around at award shows or spit out in interviews, the Auto-Tunes vocals he delivers on the slab of nuanced monochrome points more truthfully towards what drives the man. We can already see some who will find fault in the lack of tonal variety on the new album, but we think it succeeds in painting the barren Winter that seems to have settled over West's heart. The metronomic tempos on the album serve to seduce and lull, and creates the barren mood West has taken great pains to craft.
West's genius is in how he subtly tweaks his songs to deliver on the emotional charge he's feeling while still keeping things sonically interesting. Things like the stabbing and soaring strings that suddenly flourish amongst the power-tool rhythm base of "RoboCop" snap the listener back to attention and out of their fugue state. The distorted shimmer working behind "Street Lights" only underscores the sadness in West's delivery, and goes toward creating one of the most emotionally affecting songs we've heard all year. Throughout the disc, West creates bare bones masterpieces that take seemingly simple beats and noises and combines them into stark webs waiting to ensnare the listener.
808s & Heartbreak is going to piss a lot of people off, only it's not West's ego that's going to stir up controversy. This time it's West's naked honesty that folks are going to find hard to process, but we think if you take the time to really submerge yourself in this album you'll find it's both complex and emotionally satisfying.
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As Editor-in-Chief, I will fully admit that Chicagoist is in the tank for Kanye. Sign me up!
I'm just going to put this down as a reference:
http://www.mamapop.com/mamapop/2008/11/the-top-ten-rea.html?cid=1
It's not the emotion that pisses me off about this album, it's the Autotune.
It's everywhere (not necessarily everywhere on the album, but everywhere on the urban music scene) and I don't understand it's appeal. I mean, there HAS to be a way to fix the sound of your singing voice without making you sound like a rap-bot. Blah, blah, future sound of music, blah.
It seems like a crutch and a cop-out and a really good excuse for singers to not have to bother with singing lessons. Kanye's better than that and it makes me mad that he's going the way of T-Pain to sell records.
Actually you need a pretty good voice and strong control of your range in order to use Auto-Tune and make it work, so it's not quite the cop-out it gets blamed as.
And yes, it is used WAY too much in most recent pop songs, but here it makes absolute sense and underscores the emotional wounds West's songs are trying to convey.
That explains why Cher could make it work, I suppose. I'm just over it.
But, you know me, Tankboy. I want every singer to sound like Ann Wilson and Al Green had a baby. And Robert Plant and Tina Turner are it's god-parents.
heartless is the only decent tune on this album. its way too much 'auto-tuning'. its terrible. you can show way more emotion without sounding like a robot. as a huge fan of college drop out, i say thumbs down Mr West. this isnt even worth downloading for free.
this is a love it/hate it album. it seems like those who have enjoyed kanye's older stuff are very turned off by 808's. I was not a big fan of his previous stuff and I absolutely love this album. the autotune is employed brilliantly.
I like that the autotune is an artistic expression of his loneliness. Good to see that even millionaire artists can still make art.
I can't stand autotone. This is the way hip-hop is supposed to sound:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTyfqJEH6_w
I like the KAWS version of the cover (same as shown, but with KAWS hands ripping the heart).