Album Review
Kanye West "808s & Heartbreak"
Just when I was wishing that hip-hop would get T-Pain's annoying signature sound off of the air waves, Kanye West releases an album with 12 songs that is based on use of the cliché vocorder.
A year after his mother's death, a bad break-up with his fiancée, and dealing with becoming subject of media scrutiny, West found his inspiration behind 808s & Heartbreak.
This record strays away from his three previous college-themed albums. West boldly decides to completely reinvent his sound into electro-pop. Rapping over his typical brand of brilliant sampling and hip-hop beats couldn't convey the emotional time in his life. Using the Roland TR-808 drum machine and simple instrumentation, West accomplishes his intention to pour out his heart and show his troubles.
No wonder he uses the African tribal dancers in his video for the first single, "Love Lockdown." That's exactly what the drum beats sound similar to in most of the tracks.
Some of the songs grab your attention immediately, like the throbbing "Amazing" assisted by Atlanta rapper, Young Jeezy. He conceitedly sings," I'm a monster, I'm a killer, I know I'm wrong, yeah." Even through his sentimental journey, he reminds you that he is still the arrogant celebrity that knows he's on top.
Lyrically, his second single, "Heartless" and the sobering, "Street Lights" are the best written songs on the album. The gloomy tracks are placed over dinky keyboard cords and pulsating drum patterns. They give you incite into West's fragile state of mind and don't fall flat compared to "Bad News" or the badly free-styled "Pinocchio Story."
The upbeat "Paranoid" is probably my favorite track. The 80s throwback has a catchy chorus and is the only obvious bit of fun on the album. He tries to convey that same concept for "Robocop," but the over-possessive woman concept is so cynical, I can't enjoy it as much.
Lil Wayne couldn't save the lackluster "See You in My Nightmares." The most irritating tracks are the first two songs, "Say You Will" and "Welcome to Heartbreak." I cringe a little as he uses the auto-tune to sing the hook, "hey-hey-hey-hey, don't say you will, unless you will."
Overall, I missed West's rapping and his ability to move you in his oldies like, "All Falls Down," "Can't Tell Me Nothing," or "Two Words." 808s & Heartbreak displays some of his best work, and maybe some of his worst.
I have a feeling he might leave even his hardcore fans a little stale—hoping this is his version of Coca- Cola changing its taste to New Coke. Hopefully like the company's brand transformation failure, West will quickly change his product back to the original.
Check it
Check it
Kanye West - Paranoid
Kanye West - Heartless
Kanye West - Heartless
4 comments:
Good review and I agree totally. Kanye's older albums were better, these two songs posted here just suck. I like how I can listen to it here rather than having to search for it as well. You hit the nail right on the head with this review. At least in my opinion.
"The gloomy tracks are placed over dinky keyboard cords..."
When I read "dinky keyboard cords" I could not help but giggle. Such a good description! I agree that this album sounds very different than Kanye's former ones..but I've kind of thought for awhile that every time I hear something new of his it sounds different (and normally takes me awhile to like it). I guess it's a good and bad thing. Shows he's trying new things, but where will he stop? Imagine if his next inspiration comes from country..that would be interesting.
Moderators: don't forget to change "feeback" to "feedback"
I'm really starting to dislike the amount of vocoding hip-hop artists are using these days; I was always under the impression that you were supposed to have a good voice in order to get involved in the music industry. And not that Kanye has a bad voice (or T-Pain, or Lil Wayne, or basically any male artist played on 95.5 the Beat), so why obscure it so much? This technique is being really overused and the "cool factor" of vocoding is wearing off; I want to hear people, not robots. I think you are spot on in your review of this album!
I think in this case the vocoding was a great choice on his part. In order to make a completely different album, he had to adopt a completely different voice. I overall thought it was a bold choice for him to break away from the things that made him famous (literate rapping, snappy sampling of vintage r and b) and to really right a confessional album. Its kind of like the hip-hop equivalent of Bruce Springsteen leaving the E Street Band behind to record a spare acoustic album on a 4-track in his basement. In a few years, we might look back and call this Kanye's most important album, just saying....
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