808s & Heartbreak

[Robo]

better than Chinese Democracy and Death Magnetic, but not by much.

[Phoenix Dark]

I was going to make another thread.

I'll download it and give my review. Everything I've heard has been bad (Robocop, Heartless, Love Lockdown) or ok (Nightmare)

[TakingBackSunday]

Buy A Colbert Christmas Album instead

[Robo]

I like Love Lockdown.  The auto-tune is a bit grating, but I can't help but love when the percussion really kicks in.  He should've got Brian Chippendale to do some of the drumming.

[Phoenix Dark]

From a production level everything sounds pedestrian. I like Kanye but at the end of the day he can't sing, play any instruments, or write consistently melodic songs. He's not Dr. Dre or RZA for instance, both of whom can write their own music and don't have to rely on sampling.

Kanye is best when he surrounds himself with talented people, be it A-Track on his first album or Jon Brion on the second. Everything I've heard and read suggests this is Kanye's St. Anger, a personal therapeutic scrap album that should have never left his iPod   

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

2 Mics

[Himu]

From a production level everything sounds pedestrian. I like Kanye but at the end of the day he can't sing, play any instruments, or write consistently melodic songs. He's not Dr. Dre or RZA for instance, both of whom can write their own music and don't have to rely on sampling.

Kanye is best when he surrounds himself with talented people, be it A-Track on his first album or Jon Brion on the second. Everything I've heard and read suggests this is Kanye's St. Anger, a personal therapeutic scrap album that should have never left his iPod   

Kanye lost

[ch1nchilla]

He should've released a real, actually good album and then put this out between releases for free/$5 online or something.

[Robo]

I'm digging some stuff on here.  The opener is an inoffensive minimalist ballad that works better within the confines of the 808 and keyboards better than practically anything else on the album.  Love Lockdown, like I said, is kind of a guilty pleasure -- it's extremely bare and a bit corny, but it has a good melody and some fun percussion that would've been improved with live drumming.  Coldest Winter is becoming one of my favorite Kanye songs; it's a shame it's over so quickly.

On the other hand, Amazing, RoboCop, and Nightmare are fucking awful.

And everything else is middling at best.