808s & Heartbreak

Performer: Kanye West
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Following a 2008 of misfortune (the death of his mother, the dissolution of his engagement), hip-hop's enigmatic impresario Kanye West returns, a bit more somber, slightly more urgent, but still pushing boundaries, on his fourth record, 808S & HEARTBREAK. From the first track, the sprawling, drum-n-bass-propelled "Say You Will," and from the ubiquitous lead single, the propulsive "Love's Lockdown," it is clear that West is venturing further into the electronic sound he explored on GRADUATION. West has decreed that all beats on 808S be derived from the Roland TR-808 for a more "tribal feel," and he distorts his voice at will, producing a surreal sound, one bordering on a robot having a mental breakdown. On this adventurous album, West is King Lear's Edgar, a sharp-minded philosopher lost in the forest of despair, unsure how to react, how to perceive reality. That's not to say that he's simply wallowing, even on the most despondent "Welcome to Heartbreak," a tribute to his mother. While 808S is an album that may be challenging at times, it's also often hypnotic and unquestionably catchy--basically, everything one might want from a Kanye West album. Remember when Kanye West threatened to make an album where he would bear his heartbroken soul, align with T-Pain, sing on every song with the then inescapable Auto-Tune effect and, less problematically, lean on the common element -- the Roland TR-808 drum machine -- of classics like "Make It Last Forever," "Posse on Broadway," "808," and "Bossy"? It could have been a wreck, a case of an artist working through paralyzing heartache while loose in a toy store. Except West wasn't joking. Not only did he go through with it, but Roc-A-Fella released the result in time for the 2008 Christmas shopping season. In various spots across 808s & Heartbreak, the constant flutter of West's processed voice is enlivened by the disarming manner in which despair and dejection are conveyed. When, in "Welcome to Heartbreak," he dispassionately recounts sitting alone on a flight, ahead of a laughing family, he makes first class sound like Siberia; he'd swap lives with the father in an instant. The majority of the lyrics, however, are directed at an ex who evidently did some damage; in "RoboCop" alone, she gets compared to the antagonist in Misery and is called a "spoiled little L.A. girl." Earlier in the album, the number she did on him is called "the coldest story ever told," yet he admits he still fantasizes about her. All the blocky drums, dragging strings, droning synths, and joyless pianos lead to a bleak set of productions -- even the synthetic calliope in "Heartless" is unnerved, and the relative pep of "Paranoid" provides no respite, its bitter lyrics subverting a boisterous beat. Several tracks have almost as much in common with irrefutably bleak post-punk albums, such as New Order's Movement and the Cure's Pornography, as contemporary rap and R&B. ("Coldest Winter," where West longs for his departed mother, samples the most desolate song from the first Tears for Fears album.) For anyone sifting through a broken relationship and self-letdown, this could all be therapeutic. ~ Andy Kellman Remember when Kanye West threatened to make an album where he would bear his heartbroken soul, align with T-Pain, sing on every song with the then inescapable Auto-Tune effect and, less problematically, lean on the common element -- the Roland TR-808 drum machine -- of classics like "Make It Last Forever," "Posse on Broadway," "808," and "Bossy"? It would have been a wreck, a case of an artist working through paralyzing heartache while loose in a toy store. Except West wasn't joking. Not only did he go through with it, but Roc-A-Fella released the result in time for the 2008 Christmas shopping season. It was indeed a wreck, if a kind of fascinating one, which helped make the material -- voiced by someone who could not really sing, whose substantial shortcomings were not made less obvious by a polarizing studio device -- seem a little less difficult on the ears. In various spots across 808s & Heartbreak, the constant flutter of West's processed voice, along with a seldom interrupted sluggish march of aching sounds, is enlivened by the disarming manner in which despair and dejection are conveyed. When, in "Welcome to Heartbreak," he dispassionately recounts sitting alone on a flight, ahead of a laughing family, he makes first class sound like Siberia; he'd swap lives with the father in an instant. The majority of the lyrics, however, are directed at an ex who evidently did some damage; in "RoboCop" alone, she gets compared to the antagonist in Misery and is called a "spoiled little L.A. girl." Earlier in the album, the number she did on him is called "the coldest story ever told," yet he admits he still fantasizes about her. All the blocky drums, dragging strings, droning synths, and joyless pianos lead to a bleak set of productions -- even the synthetic calliope in "Heartless" is unnerved, and the relative pep of "Paranoid" provides no respite, its bitter lyrics subverting a boisterous beat. Several tracks have almost as much in common with irrefutably bleak post-punk albums, such as New Order's Movement and the Cure's Pornography, as contemporary rap and R&B. ("Coldest Winter," where West longs for his departed mother, samples the most desolate song from the first Tears for Fears album.) For anyone sifting through a broken relationship and self-letdown, this could all be therapeutic. Otherwise, no matter its commendable fearlessness, the album is a listless, bleary trudge along West's permafrost. ~ Andy Kellman

Rolling Stone (p.92) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Thankfully, there are those 808s. Kanye constructed the songs using a classic Roland TR-808 drum machine, and the results are a pleasant shock: stark, spacey tracks, which owe far more to Eighties electro and synth pop than anything on hip-hop radio." Entertainment Weekly (p.71) - "[H]is flair for wordplay remains gratifyingly intact....He offers this glimpse of the soul beneath the swagger, and we like him better for it." -- Grade: A- The Wire (p.66) - "[H]is lyrics he tempers with humour, and these enormous tracks, built like New Orleans blues-like dirges, have the soft touches of piano and chords given the full sustain." Billboard (p.41) - "Sonically, West pushes the envelope by relying on the drum machine from which the album takes its title, as well as the ever-popular vocoder." Mojo (Publisher) (p.104) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "808S AND HEARTBREAKS' bravery makes it compelling...it feels honest....It is his most fascinating, and bewildering, record to date." Blender (Magazine) (p.82) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] chunk of emotional permafrost -- a beautiful soundtrack for a long, harsh winter....He's found a way to turn numbness into art." Clash (magazine) (p.102) - "Given the reduced palette with which Kanye is working, it's amazing there is such a spectrum of styles and influences covered."

Kanye West first gained fame as an acclaimed hip-hop producer, working with Jay-Z, Foxy Brown, Mase, and others. West's solo debut was delayed due to a serious car accident, but when THE COLLEGE DROPOUT finally appeared in 2004, it took the hip-hop world by storm with its combination of old-school R&B samples, inventive contemporary production, and clever rhymes. And while West continued to churn out hot tracks for a bevy of artists, popping up in the credits of what seemed to be an impossible number of CDs, he was still able to continue his run of critically and commercially successful releases, 2005's LATE REGISTRATION and 2007's GRADUATION, and become the undisputed King of Hip-Hop in the '00s.

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