kanye west 808s and heartbreak full album download

The songs cover fairly generic love/hate/make-ups-to-break-ups, which in turn throws the spotlight back on the production, that at times sounds almost like an unfinished version of a regular mid-tempo Kanye song.īut even the Kanye West Mid-Tempo Jam has taken on a lot more character in the past. That leaves mainly the lyrics, and it's hard to turn a clever, punchy phrase as an R&B robot. But it just doesn't make sense here, particularly given that Kanye's actually got a pretty good singing voice (the several times he sings sans digital assistance, he sounds just fine).īut on '808s,' with its already-spare soundscapes, his voice plays front and center, and all of the manipulation gives things a weird, plasticized feeling. Now, someone like Lil' Wayne, who has no discernible singing talent? I understand why HE would want to Auto-Tune himself into submission. The most mystifying part about all this is his album-long penchant for everybody's new favorite musical toy, the Auto-Tune. What I'm trying to say is that too many of the songs here seem overly, intentionally simplistic, like 'Ye is trying to drive the metaphor home with a sledgehammer and, unfortunately, it makes for a lot of sluggish songs during the course of '808's' 52 minutes (relatively short for a Kanye album). I understand the concept for the record, it's right there in the title: a juxtaposition of the intricacies of modern relationships with the simplistic sounds of the 808, which defined another of hip-hop's classic eras.

Modern rap fans will probably begin the hating here by attacking my well-documented fondness for classic boom-bap, mid-'90s-era hip-hop, and by all means, hate away. A driving piano melody provides the backbone for 'Welcome to Heartbreak,' but the part that SHOULD be driving it, the BEAT, has had all the treble removed and is playing the background. Unfortunately, that ambition is almost completely wasted on '808s & Heartbreaks.' In places where it has the potential to be interesting, the album seems to fall flat on its face, and the more-traditionally hip-hop moments are just sort of all right in terms of Kanye's past production quality.Ĭase in point: the opener, 'Say You Will,' which starts with a tom-tom paired up alongside a few digital bleeps. One Rolling Stone reviewer once wrote of the Chicago native's production, 'Give 'Ye a harpsichord and he will make it funky.'

It's easy to respect Kanye West's ambition.

But with too little in the way of soundscapes and too much when it comes to everyone's favorite new toy, the Auto-Tune, it largely fizzles when it should pop. Kanye West's '808s and Heartbreak' wants to juxtaposition the intricacies of the modern relationship with the simplicity of one of hip-hop's classic weapons, the 808 drum machine.

Kanye west 808s and heartbreak full album download