Review Summary: Chapter 4: Grief
If there had to be one person that Kanye loves more than himself, it would’ve been his mother. She raised him by herself sine he was three, he went to college just to make her proud, and the Late Registration track “Hey Mama” is dedicated to her, making one of his most heartfelt songs to date. So it makes sense that he was destroyed when she sadly passed away. That, and his separation with his long-time fiancé Alexis Phifer, left West at one of the darkest times in his life. This led him to studio to create 808s and Heartbreaks, easily the biggest departure of his sound ever. Almost no rapping, little to no samples, and most of the vocals were provided by West himself through autotune. He thought that rapping had its own limitations that he thought couldn’t express what he was trying to say on this album. All these elements should’ve caused it to crash and burn. But it didn't…for the most part.
808s carries over the electronic influences that West began with on Graduation, his previous album. However, you wouldn’t be able to tell that these two had the same influences, as they are almost the polar opposite. While Graduation was full of catchy hooks, and an overall upbeat feel, this record is drenched in sorrow and takes a very minimalistic approach, which works wonders on here. If West had tried to stuff every second with more and more elements, the project would feel too crowded and give no room for any emotion. But the tracks are able to be just as powerful, even with almost every track consisting only droning synths, with a very welcome visit from the occasional strings and drums. Tracks like “Street Lights”, “Robocop”, and “Welcome To Heartbreak” will pull at your heartstrings based on the instrumentation alone.
Now, probably the most polarizing aspect of 808s: Kanye. However, it’s not the lyrics that will set people off, as they are one of the strong points of the album. You can tell that West is indeed emotionally destroyed, as the lyrics show a man that understands pain and is speaking form the heart. Also, even though has far less hooks than his previous records, that’s the point. Kanye’s not trying to get you singing along to every track; he wants you to listen to him as he pours his soul out about lost loves, moral breakdowns, and heartbreaks, hence the title. The emotional peak is easily “Coldest Winter”, where West longs for his late mother, and the genuine emotion that comes out of his performance will most likely get you choking up at least a little bit. This would be the case with more songs if it wasn’t for one thing: autotune. The effectiveness of this technique differs from each song. “Welcome To Heartbreak” and “Bad News” use it to its fullest potential, treating Kanye’s autotuned voice as an instrument instead of trying to pull off regular singing. This results in exactly what West aimed for: emotion to be surprisingly felt from such a robotic voice. But mega-smash “Heartless”, is the biggest sign of lost potential. Even though it contains some of the best lyrics content and the production is up to par with the other tracks, West trying use autotune just like his regular singing voice just kills the somber mood 808s is trying to bring. This type of problem keeps some songs from being amazing and leaves them at being just pretty good.
But honestly, “lost potential” is what encompasses the album. It’s not bad, don’t get me wrong. But the 1st two tracks promised a heartbreaking, emotional journey that would’ve been a career highlight for Kanye if it stayed as strong. But duds peppered in, like, “Amazing” and “See You In My Nightmares” just pull the album down. The biggest component that causes these two to stick out like a sore thumb are the guest artists. Young Jeezy and Lil Wayne just don’t belong here. Both of them, while showing a little effort at trying to fit in with the mood, just kill the song by doing their regular shtick. An album as personal as this one needs to have everyone on the same wavelength or else that person will kill the entire mood, which exactly happens with these two.
Like I said earlier, this album could’ve been amazing, and honestly it’s unbelievable that it’s as good as it is. There were so many thing that could’ve absolutely killed this album. From the constant use of autotune, to the lack of much rapping, to almost no sign of Kanye’s signature production style, and so many other things. But this shows that when someone has enough passion and emotion towards something, that alone will be able to prevail almost anything. That fact, partially, came true.
