808s & Heartbreak
| Kanye West
808s & Heartbreak
808s & Heartbreak is the fourth studio album by American hip hop producer and vocalist Kanye West. It was released on November 24, 2008, by Roc-A-Fella Records. West recorded the album during September and October 2008 at Glenwood Studios in Burbank, California and Avex Recording Studio in Honolulu, Hawaii, with the help of producers No I.D., Jeff Bhasker and others. The album features guest appearances from Kid Cudi, Young Jeezy, Mr Hudson, and Lil Wayne -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
808s and Heartbreak, which as the title hints is an introspective, minimal electro-pop record steeped in regret, pain, and even more self-examination than a typical Kanye West album.
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Rolling Stone
This noble failure of an album might easily have been a noble success if he had tweaked the Fun-o-Meter just a bit. A slight pitch correction could have done the trick.
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Consequence of Sound
808s has more than its share of awkward moments – both musically and lyrically
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Genius
It was innovative. Innovative is good. If I want to hear something different instead of the same old hip hop all the time, I can listen to this.
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DJ Booth
This is not just an album, but the heartbeat and heartbreak of one of the most prolific artists of the 21st century
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NME
The resounding verdict is that it’s a surprising, but bold and brave progression from last year’s confused ‘Graduation’. As for the lack of raps, in truth, the less we have to put up with all that small-man prep-school-canteen bragging, the better.
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The A.V. Club
Here, West makes plain the lies of what he’s saying by how he says it—using a tool that has covered up a million little vocal mistakes, and, on this record at least, exposed a man’s tenuous grasp on his own humanity.
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Spin
The full album is a dislocating listen, which was clearly West’s intention; he’s asserted loudly that he expects extra kudos for pushing creative boundaries.
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Sputnik
808s is a vulnerable and honest look into a man normally with a face of stone, and it's a truly relatable one.
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BBC
Recorded in Hawaii, 808s & Heartbreak was originally pencilled in as having the wonderful title of A Good A** Job. Thankfully it's emerged as something that does exactly what it says on the tin.
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Billboard
Kanye West released the most influential album in hiphop. 808s & Heartbreak. This album helped pave the way for many artists and many sounds that remain today. A true game changer.
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The Guardian
It might seem harsh but let's hope he doesn't find too much happiness in the meantime. Loneliness is proving quite the muse.
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Slant
Whether the album represents the beginnings of a permanent artistic devolution or a momentary bump in the road to glory, only time will tell.
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Focus Hip Hop
That was dope. It’s definitely his worst album so far, but it’s dope. I’m not really sure why people hate this album so much
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Entertainment Weekly
the Chicago rapper hangs a dramatic left on 808s & Heartbreak, an album whose frosty, minimal sound backs lyrics of surprisingly raw emotion.
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Pop Matters
Across the album, it’s as if he has a compulsion to sing about heartbreak, as if he couldn’t get himself to stop writing one more song about how cold his ex was towards him and how cold he feels now.
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Beats Per Minute
It’s hard to contextualize a record like 808s & Heartbreak with the rest of West’s canon, as it essentially represents a clean break from his past. The lack of vocal hooks makes it hard to view his foray into singing as a pop move, and the lack of overt bangers will probably alienate some hip-hop purists.
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No Ripcord
This album has largely been inspired by recent events in West’s life, namely the passing of his mother and split with fiancée. It only seems fitting that such a context has resulted in West exploring radically different sonic and vocal terrain. 8/10
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Paste
West—now an introspective 31 years old—has created 808s & Heartbreak, a hot mess of an album that’s simultaneously the most indulgent and most disciplined record he’s ever made.
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Music OMH
For the most part 808s & Heartbreak showcases the awkward dichotomy of emotion and mechanised sterility lurking gift-wrapped under a deceptively polished sheen.
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Hip Hop DX
For many, auto-tune is only tolerable in small doses, if at all. Through little more than sheer talent Kanye still managed to make an album that begs repeated listens; even if it is only for 75% of it.
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XXL
How he felt on that album, he couldn't rap about what he did on College Dropout. It's different. [He was] grabbing another audience.
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Now
he disc has few radio-friendly singles, and much of it is undeniably weird. Many will hate it, but those willing to give it a chance will be impressed by the naked humanity West reveals. He's gone way out on limb, and for that alone it deserves open ears.
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All Music
It was indeed a wreck, if a kind of fascinating one, which helped make the material -- voiced by someone who could not really sing, whose substantial shortcomings were not made less obvious by a polarizing studio device -- seem a little less difficult on the ears.
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Uncut
Otherwise, the lo-fi production makes everything sound like an unfinished demo, the songs are largely forgettable and the AutoTune’d vocals become a little tedious. From a lesser talent like, say, Usher or Akon, “808s & Heartbreak” might be a forgiveable oddity; from Kanye it’s a major disappointment.
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The Skinny
Kanye West's fourth album is a radical stylistic departure from everything he's done before, but the one thing he has retained from his previous life is his infuriating inconsistency.
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Spectrum Culture
The synths, keyboards and heavy drums keep the sullen mood present on this valid offshoot from the norm. Though, sometimes it might be best to stick to what you know.
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Time Out London
But the bitter, breathtaking ‘Heartless’, with panpipes that sound like they’ve been touched by Dr Dre, and ‘Pinocchio Story’, an eerily heartfelt live freestyle, signal a creative renaissance.
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Coog Life
This album is a mastery of minimalism. The stoic, bleak and bare minimum that the album has is something that death and departure warrants.
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Common Sense Media
Mostly tame tales of woe from rapper turned singer.
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Huffington Post
As for the songs themselves, putting aside tragic and Autotuned context, some work and some don’t.
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The Independent
It won't be pumping out of any car stereos, but will soundtrack many a long dark night of the soul.
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Slate
And there are flashes of his old charms, too: "How could you be so Dr. Evil?" he asks his lover after some unnamed betrayal. It's one of the few moments when he lets a breeze blow. Then it's back to the torture chamber.
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The Telegraph
Unfortunately, while it's easy to marvel at West's fertile creative vision as he hits a 'Hamlet' moment in life, the jagged edge of despair may make this one of his hardest albums to embrace.
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Soul In Stereo
Lots of great albums have been born from pain. This ain’t one of them.
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Plugged In
Even his musical style is a departure on the melancholy 808s & Heartbreak, reportedly because West's mom just passed away, and he was hurt when an engagement dissolved. As painful as those experiences must have been, soul-searching agrees with him.
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Hot New Hip Hop
Most critics and fans wrote off the album as an emotional low-point between two better albums (Graduation and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy), but nearly six years after its release, 808s & Heartbreak's greatest triumph has been its reverberations around the hip-hop and R&B landscape.
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Ca Va Cool
Kanye doesn’t find his way on this album, but he’s on his way and in the process has put out one of the most fascinating concept albums of the past few years.
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Dummy Magazine
His fourth studio album, 808s & Heartbreak, is the best musical and lyrical manifestation of Kanye’s need to say everything all at once.
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The Stranger
808s & Heartbreaks could conceivably cost West a host of fans, assuming people still look to him for hiphop records rather than fashion and interior-design tips, but on the balance, it makes for an entertaining experiment.
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Pin Point Music
Despite my issues with Auto Tune, the numbers don’t lie – “808’s & Heartbreak” peaked at #1 on the Billboard charts and has spent 11 weeks on the list. And once again, it appears no critic can phase King Kanye’s Midas touch.
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