808s & Heartbreak - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Album Description
The ten-time Grammy Award winning musical phenomenon, rapper, producer, and now singer embarks on a new musical journey taking his audience to new heights. Kanye West returns with his fourth album 808s & HEARTBREAK. His highly anticipated new album set for release on November 25th, featuring the heart pounding first single LOVE LOCKDOWN which premiered live for the first time on the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. LOVE LOCKDOWN quickly exploded at radio with the video premiering nationwide on the Ellen Degeneres show. "Heartless," the second single, is next up to hit the airwaves further amplifying the story behind the musical direction for 808s & HEARTBREAK.

Album Description
The ten time Grammy Award winning musical phenomenon, Rapper, producer and singer embarks on a new musical journey taking his audience to new heights. Kanye West returns with his fourth album 808s & Heartbreak. His highly anticipated 2008 album features the heart pounding first single, 'Love Lockdown' which premiered live for the first time on the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards.

Customer Reviews: Read 256 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Completely Different Kanye - Haunting, Raw, and Minimalist November 25, 2008
49 out of 70 found this review helpful

This is very different Kanye. You'll know that within the first two seconds, and if you've heard Love Lockdown, you've already got the basic idea. Kanye sings, using heavy Auto-Tune, often with a vocoded or heavily distorted slap-back echo. The sound of the classic (and very distinctive) Roland TR-808 features very prominently on the album, backed by minimal keyboard-synth sounds.

Subjectwise, the album deals prominently with loss, specifically of his mother and his long-time girlfriend. The Auto-Tuned vocals and minimalist beats underscore the painful lyrics, creating a haunting, soul-wrenching soundscape.

It all adds up to a painfully honest Kanye, sad and alone - a Kanye we haven't seen on his previous 3 albums. Both lyrically and musically, Kanye strips off his flash and shows us the part of the man who can't always live "The Good Life."

1 out of 5 stars

Garbage November 24, 2008
39 out of 61 found this review helpful

I don't know what Kanye was thinking when he was creating this album. To say it is a detour from his traditional releases is an understatement. 808s & Heartbreak more closely resembles a "detour" the wrong way down a one way street followed by a horrible collision. While a noble attempt to stray outside the genre, it is ultimately a failure and more or less, a gimmick. The autotune sounds awful and was already done to death by T Pain. Kanye's voice is not strong enough for traditional "singing." Perhaps it is sore from the hissy fit he threw at the Grammys.

Look, people don't expect Kanye West to sing, they expect him to perform, and he's not going that on this album. 808s & Heartbreak is a failed attempt to come off as an actual artist rather than just a showman. Kanye actually said that this change in style is an attempt to challenge the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Paul McCartney. Do you really think you are on par with McCartney or Hendrix as an artist?!

Kanye recently said he will go down in history as the "voice of this generation" and compared himself to Michael Jordan. He also said if the bible was written today he would be in it. If 808s and Heartbreak is anything to say for that, Jordan must have really sucked toward the end of his career.

5 out of 5 stars

Simplicity over pretense, style over substance November 24, 2008
18 out of 33 found this review helpful

Kanye West has never exploited his own artistic genius. When he found success in the sped up samples of his early production work and "The College Dropout," he dropped them to grace his fans with the Jon Brion helmed "Late Registration," a masterpiece of strings and horns that recalibrated the sound of hip-hop itself. Just as abruptly he transitioned to the sharper production of "Graduation," his most intensely raw album to date. In "808s & Heartbreak," Kanye once again goes back to the drawing board and unleashes a piece that can hardly be defined as hip-hop and offers 12 emotions amid a harmony of 808s and heartbreak.

The most striking aspect of "808s & Heartbreak" is the album's sheer simplicity. Whenever reviewing an album any credible critic must make a point of listening to every lyric and drawing out the themes and undertones of every track, in this instance Kanye West has done observers a great service by recording 12 tracks whose meanings can be deciphered in seconds and that can be comprehensively defined in just a few words. "Heartless" is a story of heartbreak and "Amazing" a celebration of swagger."Streetlights" chronicles a journey where "Robocop" is a plea for autonomy. "Coldest Winter" is a lucid window into Kanye's loss of his mother while "Welcome to Heartbreak" recounts the trials of success. These are 12 pure, unadulterated concepts and any extrapolation on those ideas would be nothing more than critical self-indulgence.

Ultimately, the simplicity of "808s & Heartbreak" is not a vice but rather a refreshing change of pace from an artist who has often lost himself in his own metaphors and pretense. The corollary to this is that the joy gleaned from discovering another insightful thought or clever Kanye-ism on each successive listen is now gone. Musically, the booming 808 drums and appropriately auto-tuned vocals ensure that the album will be remembered as one of the most inspired albums of 2008.

To sum: Simply outstanding.

2 out of 5 stars

2 stars - Quite disappointing after the first few tracks. November 24, 2008
17 out of 27 found this review helpful

Ironically, even though Kanye's voice is almost always processed via auto-tune throughout the duration of 808's & Heartbreak, it is here that he sounds most genuine and vulnerable. Possibly, the program was used to stop the album from feeling so unbearably personal and intrusive. Either way, it is clear that the death of his mother and calling off an engagement has changed his music. The eerie and introspective "Welcome to Heartbreak"--clearly the best song off the album--begins with West confessing, "my friend showed me pictures of his kids/ and all I could show him was some pictures of my cribs/ he said his daughter got a brand new report card/ and all I got was a brand new sports car." While these are not the most genius lyrics, they are extremely effective and as the wonderfully crafted track chugs along, the message truly comes across. The catchy "Heartless" bounces along with a background of violent guitar strums and bouncy choo-choo-whistles. "Amazing" is the most hip-hop you'll get on the disc; it's dark and fierce. It's simple, but very enjoyable. "Paranoid" is the most upbeat thing here, and it provides some relief from the darker material. And it took a while, but the dramatic first single, "Love Lockdown," has definitely grown on me. Unfortunately, the second half of the album slumps into a very tired formula, in vain of the tiresome opening track, "Say You Will:" self-indulgently depressing lyrics over a molasses-slow, minimalist, outdated beats. It could quite possibly be the perfect soundtrack for a pity party, but not much else, really. It's a shame that the first few songs are the only shining moments.

1 out of 5 stars

A Hasbeen that is now ripping off other artist... so much for originality Mr. West November 25, 2008
12 out of 20 found this review helpful

This album is the culmination of what has been happening to Hip-Hop gradually over the past few years. It started with record labels signing every single person who could rhyme a few words. Kanye I had respect for earlier in his career. This album shows he is nothing more than a has been wanna be Lil' Wayne / Cher. The entire album is electronically altering kanye's voice to sound like he is singing under water. This was an ORIGINAL technique Cher did way back in the 70's. Other artists like Lil' Wayne in his crappy lollipop junk tried to modernize and failed horribly looking like a total tool bag. Now Kanye, being a second hand tool bag tries to do an entire album based off of this noisy nonsensical homo crap. I wish I could tell Kanye to his face.. "thank you for destroying hip-hop even more". NaS was right, Hip-Hop IS dead.... you should have retired kanye... when you USED to be good....AND ORIGINAL!!!!!!

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