Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak

This is one of the best albums of the 2000's. Kanye's use of autotune, sparse production and emotionally crushing melodies makes this a melancholic masterpiece unlike any other. The lone wrinkled heart on the cover tells it all: this is Kanye's most depressing album to date, and the influence it had cannot be denied.

it's a little uneven compared to Late Registration or Graduation, but this album has plenty of gems; RoboCop and Paranoid are the two that i find myself listening to over and over again, but the radio single Love Lockdown and Heartless are fine tunes also. and as far as autotune goes, it's better than his actual singing voice, so what's the deal?

The worst album ever made.

I'll try to keep this fairly short:
Haters gonna hate, but this IS Kanye's finest moment. One of the best albums (of any genre) of the 2000s. And history will prove that.
It's his most honest performance and his most honest writing.
There's no filler on this entire album. Every song is great, and they all fit perfectly together.
And sonically, it's unlike the rest of his albums (which are fine, but really are a lot more regular hiphop with more epic production).

Autotune is used almost as another instrument and blends with the music perfectly. It enhances rather than distracts.
In a way it reminds me of how Herbie Hancock used vocoder in "Trust Me", very mellow and sad in a way.
Limiting himself gear-wise really worked. It forced him to write really memorable lyrics & melodies.
This album sounds really natural. Nothing forced.

Hiphop listeners loooove to hate on this album because they really don't know what to do with it, where to file it. It's too odd for them. It's NOT the standard recycled bullshit over and over again. This album is DIFFERENT. Different lyrics, different music, different artwork, different mood.
But it's still really catchy and fun (Paranoid, RoboCop) ....as well as super-depressing (Street Lights, Bad News, Coldest Winter, Say You Will).

This album also sort of started the recent wave of sad hiphop we've been getting (Kid Cudi is a good example).

If you enjoy POP music, then this is the album for you. If you are looking for hip-hop reminiscent of Roc-A-Fella's glory days you will be highly disappointed. It's a prime example of the overuse of auto-tune and rappers pretending to sing when they can't. A pop success does not equal a critical success (unless you're the recipient of payola)