808s & Heartbreak

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Average Customer Rating:	3.5
Release Date:	2008-11-24
Publisher:	Roc-A-Fella Records
Artist:	Kanye West
Track 1:	Say You Will
Track 2:	Welcome To Heartbreak featuring Kid Cudi
Track 3:	Heartless
Track 4:	Amazing featuring Young Jeezy
Track 5:	Love Lockdown
Track 6:	Paranoid featuring Mr. Hudson
Track 7:	RoboCop
Track 8:	Street Lights
Track 9:	Bad News
Track 10:	See You In My Nightmares featuring Lil Wayne
Track 11:	Coldest Winter
Track 12:	Pinocchio Story
Weight:	0.21 pounds

Product Categories

Pop Rap; Black History Month; CD Album; Main Albums; All product; Music; Music

Product description

The ten-time Grammy Award® winning musical phenomenon, rapper, producer, and now singer embarks on a new musical journey taking his audience to new heights. Kanye West returns with his fourth album 808s & HEARTBREAK. His highly anticipated new album set for release on November 25th, featuring the heart pounding first single LOVE LOCKDOWN which premiered live for the first time on the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. LOVE LOCKDOWN quickly exploded at radio with the video premiering nationwide on the Ellen Degeneres show. "Heartless," the second single, is next up to hit the airwaves further amplifying the story behind the musical direction for 808s & HEARTBREAK.

Customer reviews

« THIS ALBUM SHOWS HOW WOMEN ARE THE EPITOME OF ALL EVIL »

I'll keep this short. This is a dark but different album by Kanye West after the devastation he was going through with the loss of his mom and his whore ex girlfriend. I love this album and every single track! I like all his albums and this is my favorite by him along with his first album. All the negative 1 and 2 star reviews are Kanye West haters and are narrow-minded buffoons

Rating: (5 out of 5) @ 2010-08-01

« Classic Masterpiece... »

Easily one of the most beautifully produced albums ever released. Kanye needs to come back into the game.

And BTW, its kinda lame to give this masterpiece one star cause Kanye acts like a jerk at times. As if all the musical legends in years past were all saints.

Ignore the crying babies and enjoy this masterpiece.

Rating: (5 out of 5) @ 2010-06-06

« Ebizdynamix.com reviews 808s and heartbreak - Kanye West »

It's rare for rappers to be introspective but when they are (occasionally), it's often a revelation in more ways than one.

Kanye West's "808s and Heartbreak" is a case in point. It's an album which lives up to its name (it sounds like a machine but its heart is human) and explores the suggestions of its title in different ways.

It's an example of how hip hop can have something to say and a passion to say it with, albeit to deliver a personal message. Far from being insular however, the honesty and vulnerability that's expressed here only lends the album a greater significance in the context of our fast moving, vacuous times by providing a counterpoint to society's obsessions (fame, celebrity, money, power etc) which comes from one individuals view but is effective all the same.

Given West's recent personal experiences of losing his mother and going through the break up of a long term relationship, it was inevitable that the material of this record would be so personal it hurt. But where others might have been self indulgent, the approach he takes with this project feels right.

This is a genuine reflection on love, life, celebrity and issues that are relevant to all of us.

The opening track, Say you will is an elegy to emotional emptiness. The simple, monotonous electronic heartbeat pulsing throughout its bleak vision of loveless sex and jaded passion perfectly suits the tone of desultory lyrics expressing mechanical `feelings' in someone who no longer cares and is quite simply going through the motions both literally and figuratively.

Welcome to heartbreak is the tale of a life lost, a reflection on things that matter and the realisation that when you've lost the ones you love, all the material success in the world can't make up for their absence and the truth that what is seen as a perfect existence is actually a lie.

In the simple but profound observation of it's lyrics, the narrator compares the material `riches' of his own life with the real riches of those around him, including a friend who's daughter gets a good report at school and a sister who is getting married, when all he has to define himself are the soulless artefacts of self made wealth.

"Heartless" is a bitter assessment of the aftermath of a relationship, recalling recriminations, accusations and resentments while "Amazing" is almost a response to this by being an attempt at regaining some kind of self respect. It recounts accomplishment and achievement throughout harsh circumstances and is a welcome and deserved self congratulation.

"Love lockdown" continues the albums recurrent theme of romantic melancholy and is a candid admittance of someone still in love with a person they are no longer with while "Robocop" (the story of a dysfunctional, possessive girlfriend), "See you in my nightmares" (another memory of love lost, angry this time, marking the beginning of a nightmarish life to come) and "Coldest winter" (the regretful residue left by the last track) are all studies of the same subject matter from subtly different angles.

The tracks which truly make "808s and Heartbreak" exceptional however are "Bad news" which almost certainly refers to the tragic moment Kanye discovered his mothers fate and "Street Lights" with it's analogy of a cab journey as a metaphor for life with all its colour, beauty and transience.

"Bad news" tells how one momentous and terrible event can change a life forever but is cleverly contrasted with the irony of how our obsession with the media actually trivialises serious and important experiences. Its ominous and ponderous percussion along with Kanye's choked voice captures the sobbing, angry and broken mood the singer was no doubt feeling at the time.

"Street Lights" seems to be the subsequent questioning and soul searching felt afterwards, following such loss, while the singer aimlessly wanders an urban landscape, knowing his destination but not himself.

"Pinocchio story", a bonus track distils everything which came before it into something truly heart rending. The emotion of it is raw and here Kanye truly bares his soul.

To conclude, simply stating this fourth album by Kanye West was too downbeat and depressing would be missing the point. "808s and Heartbreak" was never meant to be a poppy upbeat dance record. It does however represent the maturing of an artist at a crucial stage in his professional and personal life that was always waiting in the wings given his innovative output.

One would hope the next release from him is more cheerful but more for his state of mind and a reconciliation with his place in the world rather than the appeasement of his younger fans, who may have been disappointed with this one. That in itself would be a milestone. It would declare in one bold statement the testimony of a man who has bravely faced his demons and come out triumphant.

Rating: (4 out of 5) @ 2010-03-13

« Kanye's Newest Masterpiece »

Kanye may be known for his crazy public antics, but when it comes to him producing music, he never fails to impress. His ability as a producer and as a mainstream rapper come together with something he has not used in his past albums: auto-tuner. In his Graduation album, the style was strong and straightforward, saying what he wanted to say. 808's is the same way but with a lighter side to it, and outstanding produced beats. The songs "Robocop" and "Welcome to Heartbreak" show different sides of him, "Robocop" expressing his need to be free and not to be tied down by a woman; how he she needs to relax and let him do his own thing. In "Welcome to Heartbreak" he expresses his success at being famous as he is, but not having the true things that make people happy in his life. As his "friend showed...pictures of his kids," he could only "show him pictures of...cribs." (houses). A certain verse stands out as he says, "Chased the good life my whole life long, look back on my life and my life gone...where did I go wrong?" I always love listening to his music just because he talks of what he wants and isn't afraid to tell it how he feels it is. It may get him in trouble with the public with his outbursts, but no one can argue that his music is outstanding and lyrically wonderful. If you like Kanye's style, the next album you should buy is one by Drake, Kid Cudi, or Wale. (Wall-ay)

Rating: (5 out of 5) @ 2010-03-03

« Good Music! »

Another good gift idea for the music lover in your family =). I didn't know Heartless was a remake though .. wow.

Rating: (5 out of 5) @ 2010-02-13

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