#244 Kanye West, '808s & Heartbreak' (2008)

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This record surprised me majorly. I’ve mentioned previously the “complicated relationship” that I have with Kanye. This record complicated it even further; I actually quite enjoyed it. This album, marked by two major events in West’s life, saw his music take a complete change in direction. Following the death of his mother and the breakup with his fiancée, Alexis Phifer, West released this, an album distinctly lacking in raps. Instead, West sang through an Auto-Tune processor over sparse beats. As a general rule, I hate Auto-Tune but for some reason it just works on this record.

The track I was most familiar with on this album was ‘Love Lockdown,’ the first single released. I found the track ‘Amazing’ amusing; “I'm amazing (I'm amazing), yeah I'm all that (All that),” classic Kanye again. The album deals with themes of loss, heartache and death. West said of the record, "this album was therapeutic – it's lonely at the top." His heavy use of Auto-Tuned vocals would go on to inspire artists like Drake to pick this up and run with it. This album shows the raw, vulnerable side of Kanye.

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