Poor ol' Kanye. Despite his monumental worldwide success over the past 18 months, the Chicagoan rapper hasn't had an easy ride; the death of his mother in November 2007 and the break-up of his long-term relationship earlier this year surely comprise a good deal of his fourth album title's 'heartbreak'.
Without a doubt, this is certainly West's most personal album to date, lyrically; songs like Welcome to Heartbreak (which deals with his fear of a loss of direction in life), Heartless ("You got a new friend? Well I got homies / But in the end, it's still so lonely") and Bad News ("Waiting on a dream that'll never come true") all augment the bleak, downbeat tone that permeates '808s & Heartbreak'.
The other half of the title, however (referring to the drum machine that these songs are based around) is what people will be most bewildered by. Furthering his reputation as an innovator of hip-hop, most of these tracks forgo West's usual ice-cool word-slinging in favour of a silky croon, and most importantly, one filtered through AutoTune. The studio function is usually dismissed as the last resort of the tone-deaf pop star, but West uses it masterfully here - particularly on stripped-down single Love Lockdown (hugely reliant on the aforementioned 808), the satisfyingly rhythmic Street Lights, and the lighter, synth-rich Paranoid.
The downside of using both devices consistently - as well as the gloomy ambience - is that it all becomes slightly invariable after half an hour. Still, like him or lump him, Kanye West is a musician that demands your admiration: he's pushing boundaries, adding his own singular dashes of colour to the genre and is an incisive figure in the rejuvenation of mainstream hip-hop. Above all else, though, the man simply has an innate sense of style - and with every album, that becomes more apparent.
