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clicks drops and all things aural

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eight o eights

For an artist with a globally-recognized ego issue, it is perhaps a positive thing that one of his albums is almost always underappreciated.

After ending his previous effort, Graduation, by proclaiming his "stadium status", Kanye West strikes a more private tone by “taking off his cool” in his oft-forgotten fourth release, 808s and Heartbreak - often portrayed as more of a musical hiccup than a laudable LP.

Sure, coming from a samplesmith and production prodigy, 808s doesn't fit in too well - even after My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which in many ways was a more polished hybrid of this experiment and his more traditional tendencies. On 808s, samples and rhymes are swapped for synths and simplicity to produce a minimal and earnest record with a voice far-removed from his opening college-themed trilogy.

Say what you will about Kanye's underwhelming voice and overuse of auto-tune, this marks the growth of a rapper/producer into a successful song-writer. The tracks carry their weight and, as with "Welcome to Heartbreak", are more poignantly self-critical than their predecessors. With the sizable synths, deep tribal drums, and warm pulsing bass, songs like "See You In My Nightmares", "Coldest Winter" and "Amazing" seem to swell as if he is still in recovery mode. "Paranoid", "Heartless" and "Love Lockdown" are the catchier yang to the album and round off a complete record (to which his uncharacteristically small number of collaborators add very successfully).

808s is a daring departure from his chart-topping repertoire. The black sheep of his work, it is not to be overlooked simply because it doesn't fit in. Nor should it be belittled as a means to a more worthy end (Twisted Fantasy). Imperfection and rawness make this album special - a sort of hip-hop half-brother to John Frusciante's "To Record Only Water for Ten Days" with its similarly solemn and solitary synth-sound. Coming from an artist as boastful as West, this isn't to be taken lightly.

Personality aside, 808s is undoubtedly his bravest musical effort - and quite possibly one of his most successful.

[written for dipped in dollars. view the original here.]

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