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The resounding verdict is that it’s a surprising, but bold and brave progression from last year’s confused ‘Graduation’. The Mr Hudson collabs ‘Paranoid’ and ‘Say You Will’ fail to distract from their flaky hooks and backpack-rap-style beats with Frenchie-coffee-table-lektro blips and Enya-brand flute toots, respectively. Aside from being the only track on which he actually raps, its cathedral organs and lava-lamp rhythmic thuds underscore a dancehall-style tormented chorus that impacts with flooring intensity.Įlsewhere, ‘Street Lights’ is an endearingly broken-sounding ‘where am I in life?’ cold-soul heel-scuffer, and Young Jeezy cranks out some much-needed gruff machismo on sizzurp-addled juggernaut closer, ‘Amazing’. New single ‘Heartless’ fulfils the promise of its predecessor. The planet’s under attack from scowling hip-hop androids and Kanye’s leading the assault. Still, though, there’s a cold, metallic bleakness at play from the get-go, invoking cinematic flashes à la Arnie’s The Running Man, that empowers the woe-is-me slush. “My friend shows me pictures of his kids/All I can show him is pictures of my cribs”. Those that didn’t buy into this fanfared rebirth will be trampling their shutter-shades at this absurd album concept.īut from the tortured opening cello groans of ‘Welcome To Heartbreak’, it’s clear the man is still in possession of his marbles.
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A brooding, dulcet elegy of quivering emotion without a single spoken couplet, it painstakingly arches from sub-bass ‘pooms’ to tribal fills over five minutes of melancholic digital-warped crooning. Lead single ‘Love Lockdown’ was a scare for many Kanye-watchers.
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The latter however, is what he’s gone and done (yup, every track).Īs the title foretells, there are two themes powering the college drop-out’s fourth full-length studio album: ’80s tech-nostalgia (the Roland TR-808 is the iconic, tinny drum machine that drove proto-hip hop), and erm, being well sad. Although one might argue it’s just as perplexing for him to take epiphany-type inspiration from a track by British cod-hop also-rans Mr Hudson And The Library (the forthcoming ‘There Will Be Tears’), decide to quit rapping, and record an 11-track album entirely sung through vocoder-esque auto-tune. It’d be odd then, for him to follow this with, say, a reggae-themed party album.
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I loved this album back in 2008 but ,compared to Wests subsequent albums, 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' and 'Yeezus', this album is ordinary and seems designed for radio. The album is really uneven and has innovative moments and plain boring moments. Then a split from fiancée Alexis sent him into something of an early-30s meltdown. 808s and Heartbreak was Kanye Wests first real attempt at a concept album. His ma, Donda, with whom he vocally shared an inseparable bond, passed away late last year. It certainly won't do his reputation as one of the top figures in popular music today any harm.Kanye’s 2008 has been a shitter. And somehow this makes 808s & Heartbreak even more affecting. But it's kind of reassuring to see that an ego so huge is as susceptible to heartache as the rest of us mere mortals. With another album already in the pipeline for next year one suspects that this may be a sideline that proves to be more cathartic for him than the rest of us. He hasn't entirely denied his heritage - there's a duet with Lil' Wayne (See You In My Nightmare), but overall what is apparent is that Kanye has a gift for melody that extends his forte beyond mere bragging and busting rhymes. But what WILL be interesting is how this album divides his fans. Bless his modesty, it's not as radical as that. West himself claims this to be the birth of a new genre: 'Pop Art' (someone may want to tell him about Andy Warhol, but never mind.). After about five tracks it can be a little like being locked in a padded cell with Sparky's magic piano, but it certainly gets across the sad little robot feel which marks this album as personal. The autotune IS liable to drag over the entire album. It's polished, perfect, mechanical like the soul's been ripped out and replaced with something utterly efficient but devoid of hope. Listen to the mechanical grind of Robo Cop or single Love Lockdown where he may be toughing it out, but the solitary voice does have a deeply bleak effect on the senses. Yes, in years to come this album will be known as 'that one with the drum machine and all the songs about his ex'. The man obviously had something to get off his chest in a hurry. Insisting on a minimalism, with the titular drum machine providing the motorised beats, a wash of synth strings and some other keys and a voice that SINGS (not raps) through an autotuner, West completed this album in record time. Thankfully it's emerged as something that does exactly what it says on the tin. Recorded in Hawaii, 808s & Heartbreak was originally pencilled in as having the wonderful title of A Good A** Job. When is a rapper not a rapper? When he's Kanye West! It's been a busy year for Mr West touring his Glow In The Dark show as well as producing a host of talent.