808s & Heartbreak is certainly indulgent and the fans and critics are going to tear Kanye West to pieces for it, but the music itself is sound: a collection of emotionally aching tunes built on top of chilly, minimalist beats and mechanical effects, a brave, interesting, and refreshingly focused departure in a music industry where ‘change’ and ‘experimentation’ are four-letter words.

808s and Auto-Tune: Half of the album’s title comes from the Roland TR-808 drum machine which was introduced to Kanye West by composer Jon Brion and was apparently used to generate less typical, hip-hop sounding beats for the album. Also used extensively is Auto-Tune, a vocal processor made obnoxiously famous by T-Pain in recent years. Yes, it’s overused, and yes, Kanye isn’t that great of a singer in the first place.

Unwelcome guests: 808s & Heartbreak features several guest appearances, including the likes of Young Jeezy and Lil Wayne. What’s funny, considering the furor over West’s choice to rap so little on the album, is that the guest spots fall flat, conflicting with the otherwise uniform tone and becoming ultimately forgettable.

Grade: 4.2 / 5

Roc-A-Fella/Island Def Jam
November 24, 2008