2008 has easily been one of the most arresting and difficult years on the public landscape in quite some time. We've had referendums on the ineptitude of politics which caused this malaise, we've had the malaise spread across every permeable facet of our society, but, we have had yet to have a response to our national condition. Sure, we've had everybody write something, or everybody draw something, but we've yet to hear from anyone truly iconic this year about our issues, and not with some sort of hamhanded solution to provide that person instant relevance, but rather, some words to make the pain resonate, and either go away, or become peaceably engrained in us all. Kanye West, in all of his troubador glory, has hit the scene with his senior effort, 808s and Heartbreak, and, post his collegiate trifecta of albums, clearly has attaind his "Graduation," and shows the lyrical and artistic maturity and intellect to handle these issues with a truly masterful turn, and provide the answers we all so desperately needed.
Foremost, the most gripping concept regarding this album is that it is not intended to be listened to as a group of tracks individually linked by being featured on the same album. This effort is operatic, a whole instead of pieces, a realization which comes to the author from West's insistence to sing nearly every word he speaks on the album, this opera a song of woe, alarm, depression and of love lost, never to be found again. Love of life, love of love, and, if you need to listen to it as such, extrapolated to love of country, love of self, love of feeling whole. The use of the controversial vocoder? Totally okay. From a creative standpoint, it echoes the stress and strain of Kanye's past eighteen months of living.
But, as always with Kanye, what matters most here IS Kanye, who, at his so self-centered but so fantastic best here has written twelve songs of sorrow of his own existence, as, he tragically lost his mother, and soon thereafter he split from his fiance of a year and a half, model Alexis Phifer, and now deals with having to face the world without either of his most important buffers from the universe, those who allowed him to grow as an artist enamored with the concept of shock and awe, as, no matter how outlandish, being able to be backed by love, more than anything, assuages even the worst buffets and blows of our cannibalistic celebrity culture. Now, naked and alone, West faces the universe and delivers his most emotionally difficult album to date.
My initial comparison of this album is to Marvin Gaye's "Here My Dear," his 1978 piece he released in 1978, ultimately as a way to pay royalties as divorce payment to his ex-wife, Anna Gordy, daughter of his record label's head honcho, Berry Gordy of Motown. Both albums are fantastic in their stark honesty, and both are filled with a soul gripping pain usually not conveyed through mellow R & B hooks and sonically lush instrumentation. But, in my mind, Marvin Gaye certainly was not, by 1978, the artist Kanye West is in 2008, so, Kanye has easily created one of the most important, yet morose albums of the recorded era.
However, this IS an album review, so, we must talk about tracks, and, from open to close, with certain exceptions, he's created a winner. Much like I can sing most of Jesus Christ Superstar from beginning to end, I have a feeling that an entire new generation of music consumer will know tracks 1-6 of Love Lockdown. "Say You Will" is possibly one of Kanye's best tracks ever, production or recording wise. It's iconic as it opens this clarion call of an album appropriately, as he attempts frantically to choke, and hold and grab, and latch onto something lifeless, and clearly so fleeting in its existence that he ends up having nothing, holding nothing, and after placing so much hope in what he physically knows is an apparition, it's mentally where he needs the assistance.
"Welcome to Heartbreak" and "Paranoid" are really excellent tracks as well, which feature Kid Cudi and Mr. Hudson, taking the place now of Lupe Fiasco and Consequence as artists that Kanye has decided to sprinkle the magic fairy dust of mainstream exposure upon, creating instantaneous artists of note and taste. Kid Cudi, I have no problem with. He created the best club banger of the year, "Day N Nite," and, if that's any inkling of what he's got, then, yeah. It's the Mr. Hudson thing I find most intriguing. It's possibly the first time I've seen an artist so audacious as to assume an INTERNATIONAL sphere of influence in that he's marketing himself with great specificness to other countries as an artist of note. In no way do I see Mr. Hudson and the Library being enormous American pop stars. But, I do see them doing big things in the European markets, and, Kanye cosigning him is pretty amazing. They're both now GOOD music artists, so, GOOD is becoming quite the international powerhouse.
The albums closers, "See You In My Nightmares" and "Coldest Winter" are both out of control as the punctuation to the denouement of the West saga. "Coldest Winter" is possibly someone else's best song ever. It isn't even the best song on this album. Regarding "See You in My Nightmares," anytime Weezy and Yeezy get on the same track together it is electric. In their battles of one upmanship, Kanye eviscerated a clearly unfocused Wayne on the "Lollipop" remix this year, whereas on "Nighmares," Lil Wayne is more on point, seemingly as a nod to the sheer importance of Kanye's task at hand in this album's creation. Kanye handed Wayne his AMA last night? Totally understandable. Wayne and Kanye are the two most important hip hop artists of the present era, both commercially and creatively. Just saying...
808s and Heartbreak is an absolute masterpiece. Kanye pulls the best out of everything on the album, whether it's first time collaborator Young Jeezy, a vocoder, or his orchestra, or himself. I fear for an attempt at duplication of his efforts. this album MUST stand alone as a creation of, by, for and related to Kanye West. It's his intense attention to personal detail that makes Kanye, Kanye. T-Pain's vocoder has been used by everyone, to the point of retirement. 808s and Heartbreak is not the harbinger of an emo pop revolution. Instead, it's the White Album, it's Blonde on Blonde. It's a great piece of music by a great artist and unique man in musical history. A bravura performance.
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