Kanye West-808's & heartbreak

Kanye West is an act well known for his producing and rapping, which he has had great critical and public success with over the years. Well known for his arrogant persona, and clashes with 50 cent as well as huge album sales, its unusual that Mr. West as I'm sure he'd like to be called, has decided to go for a purely vocal outing disguised by vocoder voice effects, much akin to those artists kanye wouldn't normally associate with. The question is however, can he branch far enough away from this crowd for this trial to be deemed a success.
Opening track Say you will is a track with an atmospheric end of the world backdrop, with optomistic blips and beeps, underneath kanye singing "Hey hey hey heydon't say that you will unless you will" a song about the pains of lusting after someone who doesn't give you what you ask, ending with kanye saying "I admit i still fantasize about you", it is a song that holds a lot of promise, but doesn't really live up to it as the lyrics begin to grate and kanye's vocals not up to scratch as they're drowned out by a vocoder.
Next track Welcome to heartbreak has good pounding and building asmospherics as the backdrop, however although slightly shorter and therefore less irritating, some of the problems with the previous track begin to grate for example kanye's voice, with the backdrop being the only saving grace.
Heartless is the first example of this style fusing with kanye's great production values, a bopping heavy pan pipe beat sets the tone for a slicker faster style of singing from kanye, with No I.D. providing complimentary vocals. The pace holds strong throughout with a cliche'd but suitable storyline about a heartless girl lamenting "Somewhere far along this road, he lost his soul to a woman so heartless", a good club track.
Amazing carries on in the same vain, however a bit slower paced with Kanye providing most of the vocals, and Young Jeezy adding a stereotypical hip hop deep voice, to compliment Mr. West's laments "she's amazing, so amazing" could prove to be one of the singles in future.
Love lockdown is the first single from this album, the song which should have said this is my new style, and this is it at its best, however it failed to do that, and mostly dissapoints as the first half of the song has no distinctive features. Half way through the pace picks up slightly, but not enough to stear this into the territory it should be.
"Extrava-gangster radiooooooooo" starts the track Paranoid with Kid Cudi providing the opening vocals, bringing kanye in with a flowing beat in the background, and kanye singing at a higher pace almost breaking into his well known rapping style, singing "girl you worry about the wrong things". It is occasionally and successfully chopped into with a swooping noise or the short sharp opening phrase extrava-gangster radioooo. A very promising song and definite possible for a single, which would appeal to people in a similar way to Stronger with a good chorus and style that most could appreciate.
Robocop is the next song, and in my opinion personifies what is the main annoyance with this album kanye falling into all the cliche's of hip hop, with obvious unoriginal lyrics; "Cuz i don't want no robocop, You moving like a robocop (yea)" and oversynthesizing of his voice to the point were there is nothing to notice.
Kanye next breaks into a slow burning song, Streetlights which seems to be about aiming for something, but just waiting to get there, which makes normal life seem mundane until that time, "See I know my, destination But I'm just not there....All the street lights, glowing,Happen to be just like moments, Passing, in front of me" a pleasant song that doesn't break the boundaries but is strong none-the-less.
One of the main reasons Kanye has written this album as a response to his wife cheating on him and leaving him, as is the subject of next song Bad news. As kanye is in the media spotlight he tells of the story being broke to him via the media themselves, and acting as though he knew "People will talk, Like its old news, I played it off and act like i already knew" a personal song, that although again strong is nothing particularly inspiring.
Lil wayne features on next track Tell everybody that you knew is a bitter song continuing on from the last, with raw emotion telling of his lack of love for his ex now she's left him; "see you in my nightmare, oh how did you get there cause we were once a fairytale" With lil Wayne helping out spitting the words "BABY GIRL I'M FINISHED! I THOUGHT WE WERE COMMITTED" a strong and raw song, one of the highlights of the album.
Coldest winter brings kanye back to his lamenting self "memories made in the coldest winter, i will never love again" another strong track about the more emotional side to the breakup with the insessant drum and bigger range from kanye's singing voice being the highlights.
Pinocchio story is a live track that ends the album, musically though it is not as strong as some of the other tracks, however the lyrics are stronger than many of kanye's songs. From a man with such confidence it is refreshing to see his emotions are as raw as anyone's "I got everything figured out But for some reason I can never find what real love is about" and again even though he has a media persona, with an obcession for fashion and all the trimmings of fame, it must provide inspiring that he chooses the lyrics "There is no Gucci I can buy There is no Louis Vuitton to put on There is no YSL that they could sell To get my heart out of this hell"
In summary, this album is very hard to pin down, Kanye manages fleeting moments of the great production values we've come to expect of him, however this is possibly a genre it was best he left alone, as it has become fraught with cliche's which Mr. West unfortunately falls for. The times that he manages to avoid the cliche's and provide those great beats and pace that we come to expect from a Kanye West song, prove that he has the capability of making a strong album in this genre. 6.5/10