Kanyeeeezy

Like a lot of people, i'm finding Kanye West's new sound hard to swallow. I've heard a big chunk of the album, '808s and Heartbreaks' and here are my thoughts thus far...

Love Lockdown - I was an instant fan, the drums, the lyrics, the sentiment, maybe even the vocoder. Perfect. But, unlike virtually all of Kanye's back catalogue, I now can hardly bare to let it invade my ears. If it pops up on my iPod I skip it. 'Jesus Walks' this ain't. Bad Kanye

Coldest Winter - This track chugs along like a steam train which really shouldn't be in service. It is boring, repetitive, whiny, and sounds a bit like a slowed down version of Love Lockdown mixed with a song from a budget west end musical. Badest Kanye.

Heartless - Vocoder turned up to 11! This is better, Kanye actually does some rapping on this track but the backing is shocking. It sounds like someone with no musical talent is playing an organ best suited to the fairground which conjures up images of Dougal, his friends and a magic roundabout. Bad Kanye

Anyway - This track is full of computery sci fi swooshing sound effects and blippy 80's noises which are always good. The vocoder is turned down to 1 and it has a lot more depth to it than the rest of the tracks. It's actually interesting to listen to and when turned up loud sounds pretty damn good. It's Crying out for a Soulwax remix too. Better Kanye

Robocop - Carrying on the 80's theme perhaps, but swapping the sci-fi computery moments for machine and robot-esq sound effects, clever. The chorus is terrible and consists of the repetition of the word 'ok' over and over and over. The track is also oddly full of Stephen King references and the inspired lyrics 'I don't want a Robocop, you're moving like a Robocop', whatever that is meant to mean... Horrific Kanye

So there you go. Verdict - Bad Kanye. I'm all for musical experimentation but please, leave the vocoder to T-Pain and learn how to rap again. A new Mr West album is usually an exciting time musically...fingers crossed I've heard the worst tracks.