Kanye has hard a really tough year: he was arrested on multiple occasions, there was the dissolution of his relationship, and worse yet, the death of his mother, his biggest champion. The man wears his heart on his sleeve and the most logical place for all of this anguish was in his music. 808s and Heartbreak is an album full of emotional hand wringing and wallowing. It's no where near the sly wordplay of his previous albums and it's gotten slammed for being too sad. Given the kind of year Kanye has had, 808s and Heartbreak seems hard earned.
Kanye West is probably the most prolific celebrity blogger in the world, so it makes sense that he would post a working version of "Love Lockdown" on his blog. On September 8th, he posted a fresh from the studio version of the song with the entry reading: "LOVE LOCKDOWN.... wrote a week and a half ago, it's my favorite song 2 date!!." After getting feedback from fans and a few tweaks later, the song was available on iTunes within days.
Wildly different from everything West has done to date, "Love Lockdown" features no rapping and a fondness for Auto-Tune. One of West's most emotionally rich songs to date [that's a lot for a guy with a song called "Jesus Walks"], the song serves up raw anguish. Yet the song's strength lies not in the lyrics but the music itself. Robotic yet expressive vocals, thundering drums and soulful pianos; "Love Lockdown" is spare yet rich and Kanye hits it right on the money.
Love Lockdown from Kidd Izzo on Vimeo.
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