The album projects all of these actions and emotions, but it’s the stark yet intricate music that does it best. The songs tell no cohesive story arc, lyrically, though there’s plenty of bitterness, sadness, confusion, betrayal, and the like. It’s a confessional concept album, but one where the mood communicates the concept even better than the lyrics. Across the album, it’s as if he has a compulsion to sing about heartbreak, as if he couldn’t get himself to stop writing one more song about how cold his ex was towards him and how cold he feels now.

“I can’t stop having these visions,” a line goes on the second song, “Welcome to Heartbreak”.

It’s mostly the latter that these songs cover, though the former no doubt influenced the sad demeanor of the album. The move seems instinctive, from the gut and based on the specific circumstances of his life: his mother passed away and his relationship with his girlfriend dissolved. Kanye West’s first three albums, all with education-themed titles, have been cemented as a true trilogy, not just a nominal one, by the release of his fourth album, 808s and Heartbreak, which moves in a different direction.

808s and heartbreak