808s & Heartbreak is painful, but the good kind of painful. I never expected to like Kanye West so much. He went through so much pain when he was writing and producing this record. There was the sudden death of his mother, breaking up with his fianceé, and dealing with his newfound popularity and celebrity-status. And then you have to consider everything else that happened in his life that E News never got ahold of. It's no wonder that some of the lyrics are just so painful.
I think there's beauty in the pain, though. Perhaps more beauty in the pain than beauty in the "happy," in the okay, in the easy. "There's more beauty in the truth," Lee quotes in Steinbeck's East of Eden, "even if it is a dreadful beauty. The storytellers at the city gate twist life so it looks sweet to the lazy and the stupid and the weak and this only strengthens their infirmities and teaches nothing, cures nothing, nor does it let the heart soar."
And so 808s & Heartbreak is painful, but it is beautiful. There are parts that are hard to listen to because they resonate so deeply. But it is freeing, it lets the heart soar, it is beautiful.
No comments:
Post a Comment