Kanye West Survivor: 808s & Heartbreak Round

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Vote for your THREE favorites


  • Total voters
    10
  • Poll closed .

LemonMelon

More 5G Than Man
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Thank God, we finally had a tiebreaker-free round. From Graduation, we received four finalists, all singles. The Hive is not strong with our voters. Which is OK, but don't start attracting Nick or anything. I'll abandon this shit, Bowie survivor-style.

1. Stronger (10)
2. Can't Tell Me Nothing (9)
3. Flashing Lights (8)
4. Good Life (7)


Now we're on to everyone's favorite Yeezy joint, 808s & Heartbreak. It received three slots for the final, so please vote for your three favorite tracks. I know it's tough to only vote for three, but try to contain yourselves.
 
1. Paranoid (buoyant pop, a welcome respite on an otherwise real bummer of an album)
2. Street Lights (I've taken so many long, depressing walks to this song)
3. Love Lockdown (the outro is the single most cathartic moment of the album)

4. Coldest Winter (masterful Tears for Fears cover, just missed the cut)
5. Welcome to Heartbreak (the "godsister getting married by the lake" section is incredibly haunting)
6. Say You Will (cut a couple minutes off of this one and it perhaps would have received my vote)
7. Heartless (a little bored with it, but the hook is great)
8. Amazing (doesn't fit the album particularly well, but it's catchy and Young Jeezy delivers a nice verse)
9. RoboCop (fantastic beat, but loses its bearings in the outro; the lyrics are a mixed bag)
10. Bad News (covers the same ground as everything else here, but more drably)
11. Pinocchio Story (aimless)
12. See You in My Nightmares (usually Lil Wayne ruins everything on his own, but that hideous synthesizer tone carries the load too)

With See You In My Nightmares and Pinocchio Story left on the scrapheap where they belong, I would have gladly voted for 808s over Graduation. It's just a more unified and resonant album overall. Unfortunately, those two songs are disastrous and add an unnecessary 10 minutes onto the album. At a sleek 10 tracks and 42 minutes, I could truly love this album. Really a fantastic gamble from Kanye though despite its shortcomings.
 
Paranoid is probably in my top 5 overall Kanye West songs. Love that one. Also chose Love Lockdown and Heartless.
 
Paranoid, Heartless and Amazing because I had to vote a third.

I thought Flashing Lights would smash the Graduation round, and nearly win the comp.
 
Without re-listening to it, I feel like "Street Lights" is the only song I like on this album. We'll see what happens after my re-listen.
 
9. RoboCop (fantastic beat, but loses its bearings in the outro; the lyrics are a mixed bag)
Wow, really? I love the "L.A. Girl" part, particularly the strings, sounds fantastic.

My rankings

1. Amazing
2. Robocop
3. Say You Will
4. Love Lockdown
5. Paranoid
6. Welcome To Heartbreak
7. Street Lights
8. Coldest Winter
9. Heartless
10. See You In My Nightmares
11. Bad News
12. Pinocchio Story

Amazing may take top honors solely for Young Jeezy rapping "Standing on my podium/I'm tryin' watch my sodium" Always cracks me up. Totally underappreciated in Kanye's discography, it's probably his most consistent artistic statement. In 20 years people will be talking about it the same way they do Nebraska, ya feel?
 
This album starts off pretty well, but man, it gets so dull. Still, an interesting turn, glad he did it.
 
This album starts off pretty well, but man, it gets so dull. Still, an interesting turn, glad he did it.

The pacing falls off after Street Lights and it lacks a cathartic closing track to really cap the thing off. Coldest Winter is an amazing farewell, one of the album's highlights but the tempo is so similar for the last five tracks that you subconsciously tune out. It also doesn't help that three of the album's worst tracks are near the end. Again, cut out SYIMN and Pinocchio Story and you do 808s a huge favor.

Sucks that we have a massive tie going, but at least Street Lights is back in the mix.
 
Actually, I was surprised to say how much I liked Pinocchio Story. Coldest Winter bugged me for being a Puff Daddy song (iow, it was basically just the Tears for Fears song with new lyrics), but I love that Tears for Fears song so...
 
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