This album is admirable for much more than just its creator's chutzpah. Taut string arrangements, doomy bass and looped piano motifs add to the claustrophobia captivating as it is, the isolated moments of levity (the disco bounce of Paranoid Young Jeezy's guest spot on Amazing, on which he rhymes "podium" with "sodium") are a relief. In his hands, Autotune is a weapon, not a gimmick: ironically for a device used to dehumanise the singer, it makes him sound more vulnerable, as though playing smoke and mirrors with his own emotions. Released in 2008, 808's and Heartbreak was the first musical release from Kanye West after the passing of his mother. That he ultimately pulls it off is testament to his talent: it is the stylised, minimal music that lends the album its power, and which helps West convince as a man beset by demons and femmes fatales. Can't blame him, you're not a human if you dont have the same reaction(also who remembers the time Ye sang Street Lights in the Jesus Is King movie. 808s & Heartbreak shouldn't work: West's takes on the solitude of the superstar are solipsistic and clumsy ("How could you be so Dr Evil?" he asks on Heartless). E ven by Kanye West's standards, delivering an album of meditations on loneliness and paranoia, entirely sung through Autotune, is an audacious statement.
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