808s & Heartbreak
Since his triumphant 2004 debut The College Dropout, Kanye West has been plying the same winning formula to steadily diminishing returns. That certainly can't be said of his frustrating, fascinating fourth solo album, 808s & Heartbreak, a radical departure that abandons much of what West does best—hyper-soulful…
Remember when Kanye West threatened to make an album where he would bear his heartbroken soul, align with T-Pain, sing on every song with the then inescapable Auto-Tune effect and, less problematically, lean on the common element -- the Roland TR-808 drum machine -- of classics like "Make It Last Forever," "Posse on Broadway," "808," and "Bossy"?
A grower to the point that you'll fall in love with it...With auto tuners coming under fire from hip-hop fans and artists alike, with acts such as T-Pain and Lil’ Wayne embracing the back-in-full-effect musical toy, it’s a big risk for someone of Kanye West’s stature to even contemplate experimenting with one of these so-called instruments.
<p>Introspection, techno and Eighties ballads: meet the revitalised rapper, says Gareth Grundy</p>
There must have been a moment when Kanye West was actually content with being the most potent and essential personality in hip-hop.
Kanye West’s first three albums, all with education-themed titles, have been cemented as a true trilogy, not just a nominal one, by the release of his...
<p>It is the stylised, minimal music that lends the album its power, and which helps West convince as a man beset by demons and femmes fatales</p>
Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak review: Everyone, I'd like you to meet the emotionally fragile and digitally enhanced Kanye West.