808’s and Heartbreak Revisit

In my initial review of Kanye West’s 808’s and Heartbreak, I was too quickly turned off by Auto-Tune that I didn’t give the album an opportunity to grow on me. After many revisits, I am starting to convince that Kanye has made a good use out of the tool. He can’t sing, yet he didn’t use Auto-Tune to enhance his vocals. His pitch and breath issues could be heard all over the tracks; however, he used the program to create a unique voice.

On the contagious “Love Lockdown,” Kanye starts off singing over the thumping bass. The best use of Auto-Tune is on the high register where he distorts his voice into a screeching alien. Of course the catchy chorus is highlight of the track. The drum loop is just irresistible. “Coldest Winter” is another highly addictive track with the banging beat. Lyrically, Kanye still has his witty moment. On “Welcome to Heartbreak” he rhymes, “My friend showed me pictures of his kids / All I could show was pictures of my cribs / He said that his daughter got a brand new report card / All I go was a brand new sports car.”

The album has quite a share of its dull tracks, but there are a still a number of outstanding ones including “Say You Will,” “Heartless” and “Amazing” featuring Young Jeezy. The most accomplishment of 808’s and Heartbreak is that Kanye has proved his originality, talent and fearlessness in taking his music to a higher level.