In Kanye West's 808's and Heartbreaks at the climax of 2008, he offered us what I believe to be his best work. The album's style an experiment in itself, and the subject matters more in line with what Mr Hudson and his highly talented Library played to on their first album, he(Kanye) developed what he believed to be a 'new genre' of music, and he deemed it 'Pop Art'. Mr Hudson's album is highly influenced by his time with Kanye, whether or not this has to do with Hudson's musical style actually changing, or whether or not it outlines his versatility in being able to write for both American and British audiences is debatable. I would lean towards the latter and I find myself quite impressed with this offering.
The first(notable) single, Supernova, opens up the album with a powerful, chaotic chorus and lyrics. What's interesting here is Hudson's new found liking to the use of the Auto-tune device, whether this is a move to keep Kanye happy I'm not sure, because Mr Hudson's voice certainly does not need this assistance, a fact you would know if you ever had the pleasure of listening to the first album he was involved with, A Tale of Two Cities. He uses the device for the most part of the album, and whilst sometimes you find yourself feigning enjoyment because of his singing talent without it, other times you would rather he discarded it.
Mr Hudson's ability for penning noticeably English lyrics is charming, "Anyone but him/ I'd rather hear you had the whole football team...With schoolboy fists we can take this outside/ But knowing my luck that fuck would win." - And it gives the album a character that Kanye almost sucks out of the album with his horribly out of place verse on the quoted song above, Anyone but Him. Having said that, that would be the only thing Kanye does wrong in this record, his influence cannot be avoided on every song, highlight moments of Knew We Were Trouble, Straight No Chaser, Central Park(which could easily be a Mr Hudson & the Library track, Joy Joseph's input is beautifully done) and Everything is Broken combine the two artists' differences and similarities to a point of alternative-folkish-quasi-hip-hop-electro which is original enough to separate itself from 808s and close enough to gain it comparisons which should garner more listeners.
Whether or not this album will do the job of endearing American audiences to his English accent, which seems to be his unique selling point to many, is hard to say. His intelligent wordplay and consistently clean production make this an extremely enjoyable listen if you can live with the auto-tune's omnipresence(for the most part). If he is just, "Another imposter on a major label roster," then it's fair to say he's as good an actor as we're going to get this year. An honest and thoroughly well done album.
RATING: 8.2/10
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