So did anyone at the time think that 808’s and Heartbreak would change the direction of popular music?
I don’t this is that much of an exaggeration either. It’s not as though mainstream hip-hop artists had not shown their emotional and reflective sides before (from Kanye himself), but after the release of this album in 2008 we saw the rise in popularity of more moody and introspective acts in hip-hop and R&B. Artists like Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole and Frank Ocean had the precedent to move away from the machismo of the genres at the time, using the tools of modern day production to try new musical and thematic ideas. With the mainstream popularity of The Weeknd this year it’s clearer that we’re living in the house that 808’s and Heartbreak helped to build. Drake would not exist without this album. But I don’t think anybody would have made those kind of predictions at the time.
For all intents and purposes this was a strange project, in as much as it was a hip hop star making an R&B album (though Andre 3000’s The Love Below is a good precursor to this). It was as though the emotions Kanye was feeling at a tragic point his life couldn’t be expressed in the way he was used to. For those emotions he turned to a style that combined both the synthpop of the 80’s with Autotuned vocals, a practise that was in the height of backlash at the of this album’s release. Its primary use at the time was to keep almost every artist at perfect pitch and time, and its use for many was the sign of a lack of talent. But as much as that was true, it was also proving to be a tool for both developing a unique sound (T-Pain was synonymous with the practise) and presenting fractured and distant emotions. And although it’s also true that Kanye is not the strongest of singers, it seemed that the latter was definitely what appealed to him.
The production on 808’s and Heartbreak is minimal, created in the span of three weeks with deliberately limiting resources. As well as synth drones and pianos, there is the course the 808 drum machine that makes up the title. The result is music that is both of a piece, and as fractured feeling as his voice. In that fracturing Kanye also turns internally, with more cryptic tracks on dejection, existential crisis and of course heartbreak. The sheer focus of this made some critics to consider it a “pity party”, because god forbid he be sad about separating from his fiancé and his fucking mum dying. But others were put off by the minimalism, how some songs feel like sketches instead of full ideas and how disconnecting the Autotune is.
That was what I first thought too. In preparing for this run I believed that I had my feelings on 808’s and Heartbreak down: it was an album I appreciated in the abstract, and one that set the scene for albums I adore (including the next Kanye album), but one that I had never been able to connect to, because of the autotune and because of how minimal the production is. But then I listened to it again for this article, and for some reason elements of the record just clicked into place in a way that they never had before. It’s not consistently great – the minimal production can sometimes be repetitive, and like Graduation there is a second half drop off – but I felt like I finally had the key to understanding this record emotionally in a way I hadn’t done before, and it shot up drastically in my appreciation as a result. I think a big part of that was listening to a song that, on other listens, I had skipped because I had assumed it was superfluous (but more on that later).
The first song, “Say You Will”, throws us in to the sounds we should expect for the rest of the album. The beat feels very slow placed, with the bleeps and rumbling percussion making sounds like a life support machine. It also demonstrates Kanye’s gloomy autotuned voice for the first time, with the first line demonstrating the crypticness of the lyrics in how some lines are Michael Stipe levels of I don’t know what he is saying. He sings about a late night sex call that first feels sad because of how real the emotions feel. But with the line “I wish this song would really come true”, we see how much this encounter is the dejected working of his mind.
“Welcome to Heartbreak” brings a cello into the mix to give the song a more earthy and acoustic bass (along with the piano hooks), but the result when combined with the pulsing drums and bass is something feels just as cold. Provided with a great hook by Kid Cudi (man, how much has he gone off the rails of late?) that feels more oppressive as the album goes along, the song plays with the trappings of fame in a way that feels psychological and natural instead of the “woe is me” stuff that many an artist can be guilty of (including Kanye on occasion). It links his lifestyle and how it affects his life in as contrasting manner as that cello to the rest of the electronic instruments.
The first two songs were primarily cold and internal, and “Heartless” moves from that base to become much more bitter and angry. The autotune here is less fractured in the verses, only becoming pronounced when Kanye is crying out how his ex partner could have “been so heartless” in the chorus. This is pretty much a straight up synth pop song, with a hook that sounds like the woodwind settings on a keyboard, both something more forceful than most of the record and also something as “cold as the winter wind when it breeze”. In the end the song is as messy as the breakup itself, saying they should work things like adults one moment, and then lashing out and trying to avoid each other within a few lines of each other.
After songs full of self loathing, “Amazing” is the flip side of self confidence of narcissism. It is definitely a more exultant beat and rhythm, with this track focusing in particular on the 808 drums and the choral grunts of “Jeezy”; the piano and synth chords are very minimal, helping highlight just how many times Kanye says the word amazing. But with the monotone delivery of the autotune hook and the repetition of self assurance, in the context of the album it almost feels disingenuous. It’s like Kanye is trying to create a triumphant song in the vain of Graduation, and failing to convey that braggadocio and confidence that he did just a year ago.
As if more evidence that Kanye cannot escape this mindset, we then move on to the lead single from the album, “Love Lockdown”, which is like the mirror to “Heartless” in that it is a lash out in the means to stay or be in love with a person. Like the lead single “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” was the architectural blueprint for Graduation, this song seems the same for 808’s and Heartbreak. The beat here is intense, with almost militaristic marching coming from those 808 drums and bouncing piano chords. What the hell is a “Love Lockdown”? Is it saying not to lose love? Is it saying to keep it away? To keep love hidden? To keep it for the world to see? My answer: yes.
Of all the songs on this album, “Paranoid” is the one that sounds like an actual hip hop song. Mainly in how Kanye is rapping his verses perfectly naturally in the first verse, but almost as a way to show his growing resent and detachment the autotune gets more obvious and pronounced in the next verses. Paranoid seems to be set in a night club, and the electronic beat suits that atmosphere maybe more than any other song on here. The song on the surface seems to be critiquing women paranoid about him talking to other women. But with the artificiality of the vocals and the growing passive aggressiveness of the hook by Kanye and Mr. Hudson, he is showing that her complaints are not unfounded.
“Robocop” to me is a great example of lots of late period Kanye, in that if you can pass the corniess of the some of the lyrics there is an absolutely great song here. I get the comparisons to Misery and Robocop in association with this relationship, but there is an element of that with the video game like intro that is a little ridiculous. Still, the cellos return here and they are absolutely gorgeous, with that combining with chime and chorals to create something as grand as the movie in its title. Apparently the orchestra backing is an interpolation of a score from The Island, and it really has that plain “big” nature you associate with a Bay film. If “Two Words” predicts the rock nature of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, “Robocop” is the biggest indication of the lushness in that production (more so even then songs on Late Registration).
Before I said I use to prefer this song conceptually rather than emotionally, and when I said that I would point to “Street Lights” as my example. But this time I disagreed with myself; it really worked for me this time, in both the repetitiveness and clear depression of the track. Also in how the autotune gradually fades out during the song before coming returning for the final “life’s just not fair”, showing both his battles and failures with his depression. The high synth is like the flashing light in the street that shine even in the darkest moments in the song, conveyed by those chorus violins, that repetition and how Kanye is continuously looking for a destination, but not finding it.
The depression of that song is brought to its absolute zenith/nadir in “Bad News”. Kanye has said in the past that he wrote this song from a female perspective, which is really interesting when you think of how locked in to his head this album feels throughout, that this is from the point of view of the woman whose heart Kanye is breaking. But, still, it’s hard not to read this song not just as the “Bad News” of Kanye and Alexis separation, but with the generalness of that news the death of his mother. It’s a harsh and cold song, with the pulsating synths, pianos and drums being like the blizzard to “Say You Will’s” icy chill.
As you would probably expect from the article yesterday, my least favourite song on the album is the one with Lil Wayne on it. But actually, apart from making “more” rhyme with “you” by saying moo, Weezy’s verse is so venomous it is delivery that it is pretty much perfect for the song in question; this is one of the instances where the gross sounding nature of his voice really pays off. My problem is more that the anger of this song is way more direct than anything from the album, which combined with the buzzy synth doesn’t fit in much with the tone of the album as a whole. Still, that string lines are strong, and Kanye’s verse is both bitter and fits with the light imagery he has been building throughout this second half.
If there was any bigger indication that Kanye wanted us to perceive 808’s and Heartbreak as cold and wintery, then the last official song being “Cold Winter” would have done the trick. As Kanye’s mother died in the November winter, I think that of all the songs on this album this is the one that is pretty much all about his mother (though you could also perceive it about his fiancé). This song is very short, a rendition of the Tears for Fears song “Memories Fade”, but each line packs an emotional punch, officially ending the album with a depiction of his deteriorating state amidst almost tribal drumming and synths that cascade out like waves or, more likely for this album, the cold breeze.
This is “officially” the end of the album, but like with Graduation the last bonus track is so clearly meant to be the finale of the album that I’m not entertaining the logic of it. At least, not again. Because “Pinocchio Story” was the song I use to skip thinking it was superfluous, but after listening to it this song – and how it has been presented – is one of my favourite Kanye songs, and the one that really helped me understand this album in an emotional context. It says this is a Freestyle, but even if this was in adverted commas this whole song encapsulates how he is feeling in a singular love. On the back of a quiet piano line, Kanye quietly sings about the feeling of money trapping him, the death of his mother making him lose all sense of direction, and ultimately feeling like a kind of puppet instead of a real boy. If this message of how oppressed Kanye feels couldn’t be clearer, the live environment adds to the emptiness of the situation, despite how much the crowds love him. In fact the shrieking audience is almost scary at points, ruining the quiet atmosphere of Kanye trying to make an intimate connection. To me this song is the key, not just of this album, but every album since the death of his mother: the emotions very much on the surface, locked inside his own head, feeling an image of himself projected onto himself by the media, and then feeling the need to follow that image until it becomes a self replicating loop. Song on his next two albums may present character’s with growing ids and ego, but ultimately, this is still a man who is just “insecurr”.
808’s and Heartbreak was not just an album I liked more upon more listening, it was one I continued to re-evaluate upon writing about the songs for this article. This was less a transitional album and more a sharp left turn, one that really reflected the sudden change of Kanye’s life and mindset. But not everyone could get on with this album initially, including me. And in the media this, combined with what we will call other “gaffes”, led to the backlash that reached its apex with his famous interruption of Taylor Swift at the VMA Awards. Pretty much ostracised from people ranging from MTV watchers to the fucking president, Kanye saw fit to but himself into exile (you know, in Hawaii, some place nice still). Two years later, he would come back with was his version of an apology; not very apologetic at all…
What did you think, though?
Kanye West Album Rankings
- Late Registration
- 808’s and Heartbreak
- Graduation
- The College Dropout