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808s & Heartbreak - Kanye West

November 26, 2008 | Author: Rhydian H.M.

“808s & Heartbreak” is multi Grammy Award-winning producer, rapper and reinvented pop vocalist Kanye West’s his fourth album, as he aims to live up to the huge success of his previous multi-award winning album “Graduation” (2007).

“808s & Heartbreak” brings together several tracks by Kanye in which he uses Auto-Tune technology to electronically adjust his voice to produce pop-like vocals; and several tracks that set a trend of using the emotive Roland TR-808 drum machine. The album features only a few collaborations with guests, including Kid Cudi, Young Jeezy, Mr. Hudson and Lil Wayne. The album expresses a range of strong emotions felt by Kanye throughout the lyrics and rhythms, originating from the tumultuous period he has been through recently.

In “Welcome To Heartbreak”, featuring Kid Cudi, Kanye sets the emotional level of the album as he sings personal lyrics about his inability to stop having visions of an unfulfilled life, one in which he compromises and misses out on opportunities to enjoy the best non-celebrity experiences.

On top of an emotive and instrumentally rich melody Kanye reflects several events, such as in comparing his life with a normal one “My friend showed me pictures of his kids and all I could show him were pictures of my cribs”, in repenting “Look back on my life, all my life gone”, in asking “Where did I go wrong?”, in telling “My good sister getting married by the lake” with ”I had to leave before they even cut the cake” and Kanye iterates several times “I can’t stop” (having the visions of the life continuing). Seemingly this subject is his biggest heartbreak.

In “Paranoid”, featuring Mr. Hudson, Kanye sings about an overly worried girl, constantly causing fights. It has an up tempo, heavily synthesized 80s beat over which West energetically rhymes “Why are you so paranoid”, “You’re worried bout’ the wrong things”. Mr. Hudson contributes to the chorus saying “Anyway they don’t know you (Never Know) like I do”.

“See You In My Knightmares” is a “cold” track with a somewhat ominous electronic melody, as Kanye is joined by fellow Auto-Tune vocalist Lil Wayne, in saying “farewell” to a woman he once loved. In contrast to “Heartless”, where Kanye is on the receiving end of a dispassionate break-up from “a woman so heartless”, in “See You in my nightmares” Kayne is the one who expresses his detachment towards the closure of a relationship, bluntly singing “After tonight, there will be no return” and “Tell everybody that you know that I don’t love you no more”.

Lil Wayne provides further Auto-Tuned vocals on the chorus, spelling out the nightmare referred to in the song title as a decline from the once unbelievably good relationship “See you in my nightmare, oh how did you get there, cause we were once a fairytale”.

Somewhere between “Heartless” and “See You In My Nightmares”, lays “Love Lockdown”, the first single of the album. Kanye sings of his problems in love, on top of a piano rhythm and numbed bass before heavy drums burst in for the chorus. The theme of love coming to an end is further materialized in the track “Coldest Winter”.

“Amazing”, featuring Young Jeezy, has a slow, tranquil beat before Young Jeezy ups the aggression and tempo in his verses. The track is a self-dedication, as Kayne accredits himself as “the reason everybody’s fired up this evening”, with his “reign is as far as your eyes can see” and calling himself “a monster” and “a maven”. He also touches on some of his struggles in life, mentioning “I’m exhausted, barely breathing, holding onto what I believe in”.

“808 & Heartbreak” was released on iTunes on November 25 (get it here) and is sure to be hugely popular as it brings the new sound from Kanye West using the Auto-Tune technology that so exemplifies 2008 with T-Pain and Lil Wayne’s contributions throughout the year.

So after reading this review and listening to Kanye’s “808s & Heartbreak”, was the album everything you thought it would be? Let us know by leaving a comment below!

“808 & Heartbreak” track listing: