808s & Heartbreak
Kanye West
808s & Heartbreak
(Roc-A-Fella Records)
By Cheryl Leong
Choice Cut : Heartless, Amazing, Street Lights, See You In My Nightmares
Official website: http://www.kanyeuniversecity.com/
Kanye West is a tortured soul, he is, as evident from his latest release 808s & Heartbreak. The album is fuelled by the painful double-whammy of his mother's demise, and the breakup of his engagement to Alexis Phifer. Yet it is because of his predicament that he has churned out something much bolder, and much better than his previous records.
Needless to say, the two central themes of 808s is the use of the iconic Roland TR-808 drum machine and err... heartbreak. The tinny drum sounds combine well with digital vocal alteration (thanks to the magic of Autotune) to produce a hollow, robotic electro beat. It is surprisingly good for evoking pathos, and what you have is a compulsively dark, but absolutely brilliant joyride.
Sinking immediately into the sedate pulse of album-opener "Say You Will," get lulled into a doze with West's drone, as well as the much-too-lengthy ending arrangement. Without knowing it, you're taken right into "Welcome To Heartbreak," as the mellow cello breaks out into a light, vibrating thrum of drums and spacey keyboards. "Heartless" thuds along, with West fusing fizzy synth and organs to create quite a catchy result.
Anthemic-worthy is "Amazing," as rapid claps contrast nicely with the slow Autotune, but it kicks into a growly hip-hop gear as Young Jeezy cranks it up with a blustering rap segue. Monster smash "Love Lockdown" takes a tribal beat and drives to a thunderous frenzy. "Paranoid" has the overall feel of an '80s disco number. Strange, but not necessarily a bad thing. Exploding flashfire and ominous drums lay the groundwork for "RoboCop" which quickly does a 360 degree turn into a cheerful violin melody.
Vocally-layered and heavily mixed, "Street Lights" is a somber reflection of life, morose and brooding. With a tear-stained edge to his voice and strings to add a further tinge of despair, "Bad News" is downright mournful." See You In My Nightmare" is a bitter kiss-off, pulling Lil Wayne in for a much-needed dose of gritty swagger. Written in memory of his mother, "Coldest Winter" is interspersed with bouts of distortion, and has a more penetrating and frosty (pardon the pun) impact.
If nothing else, 'Ye must surely be applauded for his musical ingenuity, for constantly pushing the creative boundaries. While he's lost much of the lyrical quality that has characterized his career thus far, this is infinitely a softer, more introspective side to West that we should be glad to get a look at.
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