![808s and heartbreak review youtube 808s and heartbreak review youtube](https://i.etsystatic.com/28734371/r/il/b751f2/3414943227/il_340x270.3414943227_ozio.jpg)
Kanye sings of heartache, but it's a frigid, passionless despair.
![808s and heartbreak review youtube 808s and heartbreak review youtube](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/UDZeeN0cmSE/maxresdefault.jpg)
This isn't Otis crying out a lover's prayer or Marvin wailing the inner-city blues. By sounding inhuman, his pain sounds detached, distant. But the Auto-Tune creates a strange dissonance here. It's impossible not to read his constant verses about lost love and romantic distress as a thinly veiled transference of filial grief. He devoted several songs explicitly to her when she was alive, but here, he conspicuously avoids mentioning his mother at all. The unspoken presence haunting the album is the unexpected death of Kanye's mother a year ago. But for now, Kanye's Auto-Tune vocals are schtick with a strategy as his ghostly, mechanical vocals enhance the album's already despondent atmosphere. Skeptics predicted Kanye's indulgence in a gimmick like Auto-Tune would result in an artistic train wreck - perhaps, one day, we'll look back on this as Kanye's equivalent to The Ethel Merman Disco Album.
![808s and heartbreak review youtube 808s and heartbreak review youtube](http://landonbuford.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/PcUgVBL.jpg)
Rappers including Lil Wayne and Snoop Dogg have played with Auto-Tune, too, but no rapper has taken things as far as Kanye West on 808s and Heartbreak. What began as a little-known production tool has exploded into pop music with artists such as T-Pain and Demarco recording entire albums with the program's strange, quasi-robotic sound. The result is a melancholy, intimate and decidedly quirky effort.Īs a friend recently joked, "Who knew 10 years ago that Cher would predict the future sound of hip-hop?" Her "Believe" was the first major hit featuring Auto-Tune, which corrects off-pitch notes, but when pushed to the extremes, leaves behind a telltale electronic signature.
Not only does he sing on the entire album instead of rapping, but he's filtered his vocals through the voice processing system known as Auto-Tune, an increasingly popular trend among pop artists. Kanye West's new album, 808s and Heartbreak, is a departure for the Chicago rapper. recruit Kid Cudi hops on "Welcome To Heartbreak" and the breezy "Paranoid." The album isn't concerned with guest spots or the usual Kanye chipmunk breaks, but Jeezy turns in a quick verse on "Amazing," and "Bad News" features a sample of Nina Simone's "See Line Woman.'Paranoid (Featuring Mr. It's also crazy to hear Fool's Gold's young gun on the come-up as newly inked G.O.O.D. Personality aside, the thumping lead single "Love Lockdown" and follow-up "Heartless" are just solid joints by any standards. What's so compelling about Kanye West that makes everyone clamor for anything new the man drops? Four albums deep and I'm still not quite sure - but I do know that if you told me about some other rando artist who whipped up an album in a month using mainly Auto-Tune and a TR-808, I probably wouldn't care this much. Here's our original Lab review from 2008: Now all we need is the Graduation reissue. With the original pressing going for anywhere from $50-200, you either love or hate this reissue. As far as we can tell, this official reissue has identical specs to the 2008 release: Kaws artwork, inserts, triple gatefold, double vinyl and bonus CD.