Since Kanye West's previous album, "Graduation," his mother has passed away (the only parental figure in his life) and he has parted ways with his fiance.
This sequence of events is reflected in his recently released album, "808s & Heartbreak," where life events have inspired him to create a sound completely different than what we have ever heard from Kanye.To truly appreciate "808s & Heartbreak," you must first understand the meaning behind the title. "808s" refers to the classic Roland TR-808 synthesizer drum machine, which is used on every track and infuses a 1980's-sounding electronic beat. Additionally, the record was produced in the 808 area code, located in Hawaii. "Heartbreak" refers to multiple elements of the record, including Kanye's vocals recorded through the T-Pain-popularized Auto-Tune, which gives the tracks a raw feel that expresses heartbreak more effectively than simply singing or rapping, the chest thumping taiko drums and trance from the choir monks.
The tone of the album is set from the moment the listener hits play. "Say You Will" begins with the monk choir. pulling the listener in. The deep and introspective lyrics engage the listener into contemplating the emotions that Kanye is conveying, and the chorus of him singing, "Hey, hey, hey, hey," will be stuck in the listener's head for days. Quite possibly the deepest lyrics of the record are found in this first song when Kanye states, "When I grab your neck, I touch your soul."
The second track builds on the first with an unbelievably layered song that includes stringed instruments, an electronic TR-808 beat, even more prevalent tribal drums and a superb chorus sung by featured artist Kid Cudi. Kanye's phenomenal lyrics come to a climax when he states, "Welcome To Heartbreak." And Kanye could not have said it better; "Welcome To Heartbreak" is the best track on the album and absolutely expresses the sadness and instability felt after a break-up. It is the turning point on the record where the listener realizes that this album is like none ever heard in this genre before; this experience will be something deeper than a common rapper's day-to-day trials and tribulations."Love Lockdown" is the first single off of "808s & Heartbreak," which is a more traditional sound from Kanye. He clearly takes a page out of Nina Simone's book by adding methodical light claps to go along with the beat (similar to Simone's "Sinnerman"). The chords played on the piano provide a nice background component to complement the overpowering drums. "Love Lockdown" is a good track -- it will be the most popular song from this album -- yet it is not nearly one of the top three songs on the album.
"Heartless" is the second single to be released off of Kanye's album, and it definitely adds a great element to the story behind the emptiness left by his ex-fiance. The tone of Kanye's voice during each verse expresses a sense of hate, sadness and determination to prove that his ex-fiance will never find anyone better than him.
Yet again the chorus sung by Kanye is catchy, and the other components of the song are very simple in order to allow the listener to focus more on the vocal components of the track.The album progresses to "Robocop," which is an 'I'm over you' type of song rather than heartbreak, and a nice departure from Kanye's concept. "Robocop" is a great transition track to boost the listener into the final five songs of the album. Kanye resorts to what he does best and samples Patrick Doyle's song "Kissing in the Rain," which provides an uplifting symphony to complement what seems to be Kanye's revival track where he disses his ex-fiance by claiming, "You spoiled little L.A. girl, you're just an L.A. girl."Previous musical artists have attempted to take the same leap of faith by altering their sound drastically, most notably Neil Young's solo record "Trans" and Radiohead's "Kid A," but neither did it as well as Kanye West. Kanye took a risk by putting out a conceptual album such as this, but "808s & Heartbreak" does exactly what it claims: It exhibits the sense of loneliness that accompanies personal loss and heartbreak.
This record is the perfect music to listen to after losing a loved one, feeling heartbroken or just having a bad day. I believe this album will be least memorable to most listeners of Kanye because of the departure he has made from his typical style of sampling classic songs and rapping of college themes, but this should be considered a classic compilation to add to your library of music. I recommend "808s & Heartbreak" to any listener; it is genuinely a moving record.