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I've been meaning to lay some thoughts down about 808s & Heartbreak.
You know how the album is almost universally viewed as a "cold" and almost "clinical" album that sounds like detachment and alienation and fear? (That's the lore anyway, propagated by pitchfork and the like)
Well, I have to say... honestly, to me the album is perhaps the warmest sounding thing Kanye's ever done. Yeah, I get the alienation part, but I don't think it's as cold as all that. Not at all. In fact, for a "minimalist" album made with so many synths and digital doohickeys, it sounds a hell of a lot like a big fluffy microfiber blanket to me.
There are a couple of moments that really do sound haunted, like "See You in My Nightmares" ... but pretty much everything else on the album makes me really happy. I'd say it's his warmest album next to Late Registration.
Even though "Paranoid" and "Robocop" (man I Fucking love Robocop, for real) deal with unpleasant subject matter, they're delivered in an utterly joyful way. Robocop is like Ye'a "Strawberry Fields" or some shit. Does anyone think that's a sad song? Even "Street Lights" is totally lovely, and it's perhaps the saddest Singh on the album.
Just throwin that out there. In the grand scheme of things, 808s is infinitely happier than anything that came after it.
Also, I think it's still misunderstood. People call it low key, but the grooves are bumpin throughout. After "Say You Will" which is admittedly pretty cold and clinical sounding.
[/waxing Kanyesophical]
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