Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak (a J!-ENT World Groove Album Review)

November 26, 2008 by Dennis Amith 

“Kanye West’s ’808s & Heartbreak’ comes from the soul, using his creative genius to release a painful and personal album that yet manages to capture the listener’s attention and demonstrating this electronic side with dark overtones, but yet continue to be creative and successful at doing so.  West called his fourth full-length album ‘therapeutic’, I call it a ‘masterpiece’.”

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ARTIST: Kanye West

ALBUM: 808s & Heartbreak (Digital Version)

LABEL: Roc-a-Fella Records

DURATION: 52:06

RELEASE DATE: November 24, 2008

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

1. Say You Will
2. Welcome to Heartbreak
3. Heartless
4. Amazing
5. Love Lockdown
6. Paranoid
7. RoboCop
8. Street Lights
9. Bad News
10. See You in My Nightmares
11. Coldest Winter
12. Pinocchio Story (Freestyle Live from Singapore)

When you think of Kanye West, you think about his hip hop music, his well-written lyrics and literally a genius at what he does best.

But West has gone through a lot of pain since the death of his mother last fall, the ending of his engagement and relationship and he’s often under media scrutiny.

In Nov. 2008, it was time for the highly anticipated release of Kanye West’s fourth full-length album “808s & Heartbreak”, a direction which West wanted to effectively put his emotions into his own music and also show off his creative side outside of hip hop through a musical genre he describes as “pop art”.

So, with “808′s & Heartbreak” which features the Roland TR-808 drum machine and the heartbreak described in an interview with MTV, West said, “It’s a little bit of autotune and a whole lot of f*cked up life. This album was therapeutic- it’s lonely at the top.”

As for the “Auto-Tune”, many familiar with T-Pain’s music can identify with his use of the voice audio processor technology which he has enjoyed using and both the TR-808 and auto-tune are showcased throughout the album.  But the biggest surprise to many is that this album is not hip-hop, it’s about music that West enjoys and doing the music that he feels like doing.

The album starts off with “Say you Will”, it has a dark undertone but with a ray of sunlight peaking through the darkness.  With lyrics of “I wish this song would really come true, I admit I still fantasize about you” and “When I grab your neck, I touch your soul”, touching lyrics.

The second tack “Welcome to Heartbreak” is West showcasing lyrics that hit you hard and showcasing the side of him not feeling to content with his life.  The lyrics start out “My friend showed me pictures of his kids and all I can do is show him picture of my cribs.  He said his daughter got a brand-new report card,
And all I got was a brand-new sportscar.”  While singing, you get the deep beats but your mind is so tuned into the West’s personal lyrics.   Another well done track!

The third track “Heartless” is the second single from the album and is absolutely fantastic.  Dig the beat and dig the vocals.   Catchy melody and overall an awesome track!

The fourth track “Amazing” features a collaboration with Young Jeezy.  The style of the track was just awesome how it starts of with cool beats and then West breaks out with this vocal style that was deep.  Overall an awesome collaboration.  I felt this track was just brilliant!

The fifth track “Love Lockdown” features the first single from the album.  Awesome drum transitions from the TR-808 to the tribal drums.  Awesome!  West has since released (on Nov. 8th) another fuller version of “Love Lockdown” on his blog a few weeks before the release of the album.

The sixth track “Paranoid” was a pretty cool track because it has an 80′s vibe and compared to the other tracks, West is singing and rhyming and overall the song is just fun, happy, catchy and one of my favorites on the album!

The seventh track “RoboCop” was leaked online and features a string arrangement with the TR-808 drums going on the background.  I dig the musical arrangement and fun vocals towards the end of the track.

Whereas the eighth track “Street Lights” seems as a song of self-reflection, the ninth track “Bad News” happens to be West’s favorite track on the album.  Featuring deep beats, a cool string arrangement that comes towards the middle of the track and is from a perspective of a woman who broke up with a guy and the guy found a new woman and not having that second chance.  The Audio-Tune is utilized throughout the track.  I dig the drum arrangement on this track.

The tenth track “See You Nightmares” features a collaboration with Lil Wayne and no hip hop in this track, Wayne does Auto-Tune vocal work.  And another track that beautifully incorporates a string arrangement.

The eleventh track “Coldest Winter” is a personal track that West created for his mother.   West sings “Goodbye my friend, I won’t ever love again.  Never again.”  The drums plays another significant part for this sad song.  This strikes really deep into the heart since West was interviewed by British media not long ago and said he partially blames himself for his mother’s death.  The strong bond between West and his mother have been well-documented and as a listener, you can’t help but feel the pain when he sings this song.

The final track on this album is “Pinocchio Story”, a live freestyle track which I’ve read that Beyonce recommended for him to keep on this album.  A song that showcases West’s brilliance as a music artist.  A song that is personal in which West sings about his fame and how he feel’s that he’s not living a real life and that like Pinocchio’s story of wanting to be a real boy.

I’ve listened to this album on repeat over and over again and it may a bit dark for some.  In fact, for him to stepping away from hip hop on this album, personally it didn’t bother me because West is a musical genius.

He’s one of those artists that can probably do whatever he wants and still have people appreciate him for his well-written lyrics, his ability to take his music and almost like a painter, creatively paint these visions onto canvas and have it translated to music.

I tend to view “808s & Heartbreak” like an adventure. Starting off in darkness and walking the field alone and with a track like “Welcome to Heartbreak” being a song of just letting out how one feels about one’s life.  Where Michael Jackson can sing a song “Man in the Mirror” and singing “take a look at yourself and make that change”, I can’t help but listening to these songs and feel that West is just using music as a way to figure out these emotions and self-reflect.

But as the adventure continues, there is that light that West has walked towards and he’s able to laugh again with humorous tracks such as “Paranoid” and “RoboCop”.

But then knowing that you can find happiness towards the light, knowing that there is some more pain that he needs to deal with, such as tracks like “Coldest Winter”.

And obviously, there are some deep words that he sings about in his freestyle live track “Pinocchio Story”.

Kanye West has said that “808s & Heartbreak” was “therapeutic”.  As a listener, I probably looked at these songs as a continual paint stroke on canvas and pop art was successfully achieved.  Sure, the album I’m sure for West was called “therapeutic” but I am more inclined to also call the album a “masterpiece”.

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