You hear the influence of the early electronic band Kraftwerk and Neil Young’s 1982 album, “Trans.”Īt the Bowl, the music was a little ragged (West apologized late for the show, describing the night as a dress (or possibly “well-dressed”) rehearsal, but still effective.
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It’s set to chilly electronic beats (courtesy of the Roland TR-808 – an early drum machine - of the title), synthesized horns and strings, and West’s voice, distorted and metallic, heavily processed by auto-tune, but nakedly emotional. West – who made her regal entrance to the Bowl like she was attending a prize fight – thinks when she hears that line). It’s filled with piteous pleading (“Heartless”), humblebrags on the chilliness of fame (“Welcome to Heartbreak,” which includes the couplet “My friend showed me pictures of his kids / And all I could show him was pictures of my cribs”), straight-up bragging (“Amazing”), paranoia, sleepless nights, nightmares out of Stephen King, ending with a declaration that he’ll never love again (and you have to wonder what the current Mrs. The album – arguably West’s best, but definitely his most vulnerable – is his pre-Kardashian version of a break-up album.
#KANYE 808S AND HEARTBREAK HOLLYWOOD BOWL MOVIE#
It’s gorgeous ballyhoo: part fashion show, part modern opera (an expensively printed booklet containing the album’s lyrics, placed on every seat, is expressly marked “libretto”), part art-house movie it’s Kanye West’s Xanadu, an edifice built to one man’s specifications, and probably only understood by that man. In addition to the cast, there’s an orchestra, a chorus, and musician behind a bank of keyboards. Like much of what followed, the visual effect was stunning, but the meaning was hard to glean.
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While on the stage, the troupe of dancers stood, all in pure white Arab dish dash and hijabs (with one figure that looked like a female “Star Wars” droid or the resurrection of the malfunctioning sex doll from his Glow In The Dark tour).Īrrayed in architectural groupings, facing in different directions, it looks like a cross between an ’80s Calvin Klein perfume ad and Donald Trump’s worst nightmare. It took, perhaps, 45 seconds for the fireworks to begin at Kanye West’s delirious, beautiful, insane, over-the-top, maddening and, ultimately, empty performance of 2008’s “808s and Heartbreak” at the Hollywood Bowl on Friday night.Īs he reached the chorus of the show’s (and album’s) opening number, “Say You Will,” Roman candles and sparklers erupted from the top of the Bowl.