Robocop Pop

I spent a lot of time last week digesting Pitchfork’s top 100 songs of the 2000′s. The list is solid; there are some classic tracks in the right spots and the overall selection makes the expected P4k pretension bearable.

I also spent a lot of this last weekend discussing the list with Matt Hurst, who was in town. We were happy to see LCD Soundsystem make a few appearances on the list. Matt got me into Soundsystem a few years ago and it’s been some of my favorite music of the current decade. (Much of which was spent not loving music.)

The LCD Soundystem discussion led into a discussion of pop electronic music. I say pop electronic because I can’t keep up with hardcore electro-rawk. (I just made up that term, so start using it) I eventually brought up a theory I’ve been working on about Kanye West’s 808s and Heartbreaks, which I think is the best pop album of the last few years. I don’t say this because it’s especially mind-blowing, or because it’s Kanye’s best record. I say this because I think it’s the most emotionally honest statement in pop music since Dylan converted and made a record about it.

There have been raw and emotional and honest records in the past, but the sentiments don’t quite compare. Other pop stars might use loud instrumentals, screams, whispers, wry humor, avant-garde instrumentation or alter-egos to express themselves, but on 808′s, Kanye does all that and goes one step further–-he becomes a cyborg.

That sounds ridiculous. It is ridiculous. It’s also true. Like Robocop (who is the namesake of one of the album’s standout tracks), Kanye uses machines to get better at what he wants to do. The auto-tune may be overused, but in the hands of a depressed, arrogant rapper it becomes an escape. Kanye’s voice on the album isn’t really Kayne’s voice, so he says things (at times extremely unpoetic and at other times totally awesome) he wouldn’t necessarily put on his other records. His newfound emo ways are boosted by the machine the same way his newfound addiction to singing is.

I thought my theory was air-tight, but then, like a hipster ED-209, Matt shot down my argument with this statement:

“What if Kanye just smoked some dope after his breakup and re-discovered Kraftwerk?”

I lose.