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Bad breakups are no excuse for AutoTune abuse. Surely, Kanye felt he could make more skilled use of this currently-in-vogue production technique than his contemporaries. But ‘Ye drenches every track in the vocal correction software, using the cold sound as a metaphor for his own emotional distance in dealing with his mom’s death and a bitter breakup with his fiance. Unfortunately for listeners, the overall effect is the audio equivalent of bad poetry. Lyrically, he half-expects us to feel bad for him when he relates, “My friend showed me pictures of his kids/And all I could show him was pictures of my cribs.” And maybe he knows fans will sing along as he mercilessly rails against his anonymous ex, chanting, “You spoiled little L.A. girl/You just an L.A. girl.” But really, those sentiments only make him look like an even bigger dick than many people assumed he was. Though relationships turning sour have given birth to amazing creative output (see Amy Winehouse and Bloc Party for recent examples), 808s & Heartbreak is not in that same league, as West ends up sounding more like a fallen-off follower than the pop-culture leader we heard in previous albums.