808s & Heartbreak, Kanye West's new album is nicely crafted glimpse into his life of loss and love. Who cares about Auto-tuning, it fits well.
If a musicians' album is thought of as an audio journal into their life, that truly conveys their inner most thoughts, then Kanye West is doing exactly what he's suppose to be doing, crafting an album that represents the events of his life as it currently stands, or at least when it was recorded. West's latest CD '808s & Heartbreaks' continues in the direction of testing the hip hop genre, with it's multi-layered sound, and catchy personal 'real' tracks we've come to expect from the artist. Listeners are given a chance to look at his life, his loss, and loves with beats that are hard, not to like.
I've always found West's music to be intricately crafted, and this album is no exception. People consider it experimental, but if anything, it's Kanye. He's always experimenting, so in that sense all his albums are experimental. His Daft Punk, influences have been integrated with the orchestral classical sound, violins, pianos, with drum beats, rhythms, that are inherently hip hop but with electronic 80's syth pop on tracks like 'Paranoid'. Experimental doesn't have to be negative, or mean bad music.
What surprised me the most was listening to Robocop track 7 on the album for the first time after having heard the leaked unfinished version on youtube.com. Wow, this track sounds amazing. Here I thought it would remain relatively unchanged, but I was definitely mistaken, as the finished Robocop track is completely on another level. Track 6 'Paranoid', really jumped out at me as well, as track 4 'Amazing', and track 2 'Welcome to Heartbreak', track 8 'Street Lights', track 9 'Bad News.' Overall from start to finish, the album is consistent in delivering the moody Kanye, electronic vocals, and all. It's an interesting listening experience, that fans could appreciate, but it's still radio friendly for all fans of music.
The album art is a definite change as well. No more Murakami Kanye Bear, super flat style or College themed title. It's personal for sure, with a touching picture of Kanye and his mother, the late Donda West.
Personally I can't wait for Kanye to go on tour again, I'll be in line for tickets. Song's on this album really make you wonder how it'll appear on stage, it sounds so visual.
Thumbs up Kanye, good stuff!
No comments:
Post a Comment