Kanye West’s 808s and Heartbreak Excedes Expectations

Kanye West

808s & Heartbreak

(Roc-A-Fella)

Despite what’s been written, Kanye West’s new style on his fourth
album 808s & Heartbreak — which incorporates “tribal”-style drum
machines and auto-tuned vocals – doesn’t sound especially shocking to
the ears. Immediately satisfying singles like “Robocop” and “Love
Lockdown” make Yeezy’s much-discussed crooning and his T-Pain-assisted
use of vocoder non-issues here. Kanye was never much of a rapper
anyway, but he’s always found away to stay cutting edge. Young Jeezy,
on the other hand, sounds dated and stale when he drops his usual
braggadocio rhymes on the song “Amazing,” while Kanye zooms past him
stylistically.

It’s no shocker that the album plunges deeper into
Kayne’s typical neuroses–insecurity, spiritual unease, and the
difficulties of celebrity–and the death of his mother and a
relationship failure have brought these concerns into sharper focus. As
a whole, Heartbreak’s tracks avoid many specific details about Kanye’s
losses, and instead deal in generalities. On “Coldest Winter” he sings:
“Goodbye my friend/ Will I ever love again?” The move from slang-heavy
rap particulars to clearly-articulated pop universals completes a
transition he started with his last album Graduation; the idea is to
enable crowds worldwide to sing along at his shows like they do at U2
concerts. Heartbreak’s strict commitment to its aesthetics help Kanye
achieve what he’s set out to create, an immediately-gelling, singular
testament to indescribable suffering.

— Ben Westhoff