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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. 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. Then a split from fiancée Alexis sent him into something of an early-30s meltdown. His ma, Donda, with whom he vocally shared an inseparable bond, passed away late last year. Elsewhere, the jack-knifed beats and epic strings of ‘Robocop’ are the perfect juxtaposition to West’s ranty pants ‘Amazing’ grafts clicking rhythms to a fuzzy vocal of “I’m a monster, I’m amazing”, whilst ‘Paranoid’ leans heavily on the Kanye of yore – proving that being miserable doesn’t necessitate an embargo on instantly catchy pop songs.Kanye’s 2008 has been a shitter. Whether it’s ‘Say You Will’’s Bola / Enya collision, the Basic Channel fingerprints throughout ‘Coldest Winter’ (dedicated to his mother) or the gorgeous Moroder flourishes on ‘Street Lights’, West has distilled an astonishing amount of ideas down into such a concise package. The haters will point to the predominance of ‘auto-croon’ and West’s unswerving reliance on an electro skeleton but fuck me, they’re relatively minor gripes when compared with the portmanteau on offer.
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Given the reduced palette with which Kanye is working, it’s amazing there is such a spectrum of styles and influences covered. The answer, since you ask, is a resounding yes.
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Yet for all its honesty, ‘808s & Heartbreak’ must still be judged on broader terms chiefly whether it holds together as an album. Gone are the trademarked neon boasts and sample rich compositions that have characterised his first three albums to be replaced by a bleak treatise on the nature of heartbreak and loss. As such, Kanye West’s decision to spill his emotional load is about as rebellious as you can get in what has become a bafflingly conformist genre. Anything beyond chatting shit over some perceived infidelity sees you labelled a right old pejorative. Whilst misogyny and crude bragging are actively encouraged, dealing with tacit emotions is all but outlawed. Within the world of hip-hop, few subjects are considered taboo. ‘808s and Heartbreak’ otherwise known as Kanye West’s ‘Kid A’. Read our review of The Killers – ‘Day & Age’