Let me make this very clear: I hate, hate, HATE the auto-tune technology that has overtaken today's R&B/Rap world. What once was that gimmicky technology that made Cher's "Believe" a worldwide phenomenon has been incorporated by no talent hacks like T-Pain and the like to make no talent hack hit records. The fact that T-Pain said in a recent Spin interview that he's "Never even heard that Cher song" just goes to show you what a joke this whole MTV reality world we live in has become. What does any of this have to do with groundbreaking superstar producer/rapper Kanye West? Shockingly enough West's new, rushed for the holidays release 808s and Heartbreak is nothing but West crooning (read: NOT rapping anywhere here AT ALL) through an auto-tune program throughout and surely alienating everyone that still liked him in the process. Or does he?

I'll admit, the first time I heard this album I thought it was utter trash. But dig a little deeper and there is substance behind the style. Most of these songs do deal with heartbreak; the heartbreak of losing your mother to a surgery mishap and the breakup of an engagement to a fiancé to be exact. The emotion that West sings these songs with comes through loud and clear and the beats are just as good as anything he's come up with to this point in his career. I just wish West would have had the guts to actually sing these songs himself and be completely vulnerable instead of hiding behind that damn piece of crap auto-tune. Taking chances is always what I liked about West's past work, but falling into this gimmicky trap for an album's worth of songs makes this album a minor failure for me, even if it is an interesting failure.